Implications of new technologies on organization.

The world has become a global village. The rate at which information flows from one region of the world to the other at the speed of light or at the click of the mouse, have eroded the barriers of time, geographical location and the bureaucracy of hierarchical organization in the way trade is conducted. In other words the impact and implications of new technologies on organization is phenomenal.   “We have modified our environment so radically that we must modify ourselves in order to exist in this environment.” ( Wiener .1957 cited in Kenaroglu. N.A)

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Although the effect of technology will be felt in some areas more than others, yet the whole of trade and organization will one way or the other be affected.  As should be expected, Organizations that are largely depended on communication will have more benefits than others. As observed by Child (2005, pg33) ‘The potential impact of the internet lies in the way it dramatically lowers the cost of communication. It is now easy to communicate both in the market place and within the same organizations among different offices and sectors separated geographically. As a matter of fact, with the development of chat rooms, video and teleconferencing, there now exists no barriers at all. Moreover the internet and ICT are facilitating the development of interdependence between organizations.  Many organizations are now releasing themselves from secondary activities and networking with other firms to take care of these activities while they concentrate on their core area of specialization. Subsequent upon all these, many organizations are now reducing the level s of management and going for the horizontal structure. Many have internationalized their operations and managing them well from a distance. (Child,2005.Pg 34)

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The impact of these technologies can be seen in the medical world where I work. As is well known, the field of medicine is constantly improving with new discoveries as well as review of treatment regiments and procedures. In the past, the rate at which hospitals like ours get these breakthroughs can best be described as agonizingly slow. Being a teaching hospital, scholastic work, and papers are supposed to be coming out regularly from there, but such was not the case because most things were years behind by the time they get across to reputable journals for publication. Getting update lectures from authorities in the different fields was almost non-existent.

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All these have now changed. In the first instant, because of the power of the internet, we are now abreast of the rest of the world in the latest happenings and breakthrough in our respective fields. Although yet to gain widespread usage, the issue of telemedicine is gradually gaining grounds.

In the area of access to reputable journals, the internet has given us the opportunity of getting quality journals, like the Cochrane project and Hinari online journal project. As a result of this we are now well positioned to get papers published more. This has great implication for the academic improvement of the hospital. Moreover, there is now access to lecture series online like the videos journal of Psychiatry project. Overall the training and research department of the hospital is now stronger. There is better access to reputable scholars and authorities from different parts of the world.  With this advantage, the hospital now organizes regular training and refresher courses for members of the medical staff.

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Another area of interest is in the health information system management. The data of patient is now fed into a central information system for easy retrieval. I must however say that the hospital still need a little time to get things right in this area . However the fact remains that the hospital now out-sources this area to an ICT firm thereby increasing the interdependence of the hospital on other firms for their core competence.

The finance department of the hospital as also benefitted from the effect of new technologies. Unlike the past where remunerations and allowance were done by the staff manually leading to a lot errors to the chagrin of a lot of staff members, the whole process have been computerized and payment is now through an e-payment system that allows for better accountability.

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References

Child J. (2005) Organization: Contemporary Principles and Practice. Malden M.A: Blackwell Publishing

Kenaroðlu, B (N.A)Implications of Information Technology in Developing Countries and Its Impact in Organizational Change  .Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI)(Online) Available from http://www.stps.metu.edu.tr/stpswp/series03/0302.pdf. (Accessed 11th July, 2009)

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