1. Introduction
Technology constitutes the other independent variable that powerfully influences organizational characteristics (dependent variables). In addition to the environmental impact, there is the technological impact on organizations. All organizations use some form of technology to run their operations and accomplish their tasks. The technology adopted may be crude and rudimentary (such as cleaning and cleaning through the brush or broom), as it may also be sophisticated (such as data processing through the computer).
All organizations depend on one type of technology or a matrix of technologies to function and achieve their goals.
From a purely administrative point of view, technology is considered as something that is developed predominantly in organizations, in general, and in companies, in particular, through accumulated and developed knowledge about the meaning and execution of tasks –know how - and for its consequent physical manifestations –machines, equipment, facilities- that constitute an enormous complex of techniques used in the transformation of the inputs received by the company into results, that is, in products or services.
The technology may or may not be incorporated into physical assets. Incorporated technology is contained in capital goods, basic raw materials, intermediate raw materials or components, etc. In that sense, technology corresponds to the concept of hardware. Unincorporated technology is found in people - such as technicians, experts, specialists, engineers, etc. under forms of intellectual or operational knowledge, mental or manual facility to execute the operations, or in documents that register and observe it in order to ensure its conservation and transmission - such as maps, plants, designs, projects, etc. It corresponds to the concept of software.
2. Technology. Definition
It is a socially organized, planned activity that pursues consciously chosen objectives with essentially practical characteristics.
Technology not only invades all industrial activity, but also deeply participates in any type of human activity, in all fields of activity. The modern man uses an immense avalanche of contributions of technology in his daily behavior and almost without perceiving it: the automobile, the watch, the telephone, communications, etc. Despite the fact that there is knowledge that cannot be considered technological knowledge, technology is a certain type of knowledge that, despite its origin, is used in the sense of transforming material elements - raw materials, components, etc. –Or symbolic –data, information, etc.- in goods or services, modifying their nature or characteristics.
Technology can be considered, at the same time, from two different angles: as an environmental and external variable and as an organizational and internal variable.
- Technology as an Environmental Variable. Technology is a component of the environment, to the extent that companies acquire, incorporate and absorb the technology created and developed by other companies from their task environment in their systems. Technology as an Organizational Variable. Technology is an organizational component insofar as it is part of the internal system of the organization, already incorporated into it, influencing it powerfully, and with this, also influencing its task environment.
Technology focused within formalization
Hage and Aiken investigated the relationship between technology and the facets of organizational structure. They divide organizations into two categories, "routine" and "non-routine." Although they carried out studies in sixteen social agencies, there is a marked difference in the degree of routinization.
The relationship between routinization and formalization is in the expected direction. "Organizations with routine work are more likely to have greater formalization in organizational roles" (Hage and Aiken 1969, p. 37)
Hage and Aiken's research is based on data from a limited number of organizations with fairly similar characteristics.
Hickson, Pugh and Pheysey (1969) subdivide the concept of technology into three components: "Operations Technology," which are nothing more than techniques used in workflow activities, ranging from automated equipment to pens and pencils, This includes the idea of the degree of automation of the equipment, the rigidity of the sequence of operations and the specificity of the evaluation of operations. The second component is "Materials Technology" which refers to the materials processed in the workflow. Perrow speaks to us about the importance of uniformity and perceived stability in materials and Rushing (1968) shows that the hardness of materials constitutes an important difference in the division of labor in organizations. The third component,it is «Knowledge Technology», which refers to the characteristics of the knowledge used in the workflow.
Organizations are primarily interested in the behavior of their members in the workplace. But they will also control other areas of life.
Factors such as staff turnover are also related, at a more collective level, with formalization. Price (1977) concludes that where there is high staff turnover, organizations tend to seek higher levels of training.
Technology focused on centralization
The tasks are delegated maintaining control at the top of the organization by means of rules. There are other types of jobs that are delegated to specialists who make their own decisions at lower levels in organizations. Work that is delegated with control is routine in terms of its technology.
Dornbusch and Scott (1975) contributed to the analysis of technology and centralization, highlighting that organizations have a wide variety of tasks that vary in clarity, predictability, and effectiveness. They point out that the variety of tasks that are carried out within an organization, means that they have multiple technologies, therefore, they must be structured differently according to the work to be done.
In another aspect of technology, we can find participatory administration, which implies that subordinates are consulted about the decisions that affect them, which was analyzed by Taylor (1971), who found that there was a greater chance that it would be successful in situations involving advanced technology. When we refer to advanced technology, it is one that is concentrated at the workflow level; then, participatory administration is much more effective in more automated situations. Participatory management can arise in situations that would be different, highly centralized, and the final authority would be in the hands of a superior.
Participation in decision-making is related to the absence of rules, thus suggesting that centralization by rules and centralization by non-participatory decision-making tend to work together.
3. Technology features
In addition to the recent evolution of new forms of organization, technology is adding another powerful force to the work environment. Technology has certain general characteristics, such as: specialization, integration, discontinuity, and change.
As technology increases specialization tends to increase. Integration is much more difficult in a high-tech society than in a lower-tech one, because the former tends to make a system and its more interdependent parts more complex.
The flow of technology is not a direct current, but rather a series of discoveries of new advances. The technological revolution perhaps produces, with some delay, a parallel social revolution, since they have changes so rapid that they create social problems long before society is able to find solutions. A number of changes in organizational forms, supervisory styles, reward structures and many others are required in the workplace. For an adjustment to technology, what is required is more economic and social, occupational and geographic, administrative and employee mobility.
Technology and occupations.
As jobs change, technology also changes. Technology tends to require more professionals, scientists, and other clerks to keep the system operating. Routine jobs tend to be automated systems, which can get the job done better and in less time.
As workers are led into office jobs, technology generally raises the requirements for skill and intelligence. The daytime employee becomes a crane operator, the office worker becomes a computer programmer, and the lab technician becomes an electronic engineer.
Technology tends to require a higher level of skill in both production work and support services.
Robots are the product of technological change and the computer revolution is robots, or the design and use of programmable mechanical instruments to move parts and perform a series of jobs. Robots, compared to humans, can work longer hours, more shifts, survive in more hostile environments, and apply great force.
Technology and education.
More education and training is necessary to avoid an underdeveloped over-staff.
The need for an educated workforce with higher level training has increased the demand for multiprofessional employees. They are those people educated in one or more professions or intellectual disciplines, such as engineering and law or accounting and science.
Because these staff are competent in more than one discipline, they can perform some of the comprehensive work required by modern work systems.
The advancement of technology leads to the development of a knowledge society. It is that in the use of knowledge and information dominates work and employs the largest proportion of the workforce. The distinctive feature of a knowledge society is that it places more emphasis on intellectual work than manual work; in the mind more than in the hands.
Intellectual work requires a different quality of motivation than manual work. Normally, a person can be persuaded through the use of authority to dig a well. The threat of punishment is generally sufficient to achieve results. However, more advanced motivation is required for a person to do research, or to write texts, etc. Intellectual work requires internal motivation and a more positive motivational environment.
Technology and work.
In the 18th century in England, a group of workers known as Luddites questioned and attacked the industrial revolution by touring the country, destroying machinery and burning factories along the way. They believed that machinery threatened jobs. Employees in the 20th century have faced technology more maturely. Some workers, such as Luddites, view technology with technophobia, that is, an emotional fear of all technology regardless of its consequences.
With technology advancing so quickly, few jobs will remain static. Technology does not destroy jobs forever, but creates different jobs.
Management needs to handle the application of technology very carefully.
New technology could force a company to layoffs, but there is a social alternative, which is to create retraining programs, where employees are offered opportunities to learn new trades.
4. Impact of technology
The influence of technology on the organization and its participants is very great, but in summary we could say:
- Technology has the property of determining the nature of the organizational structure and organizational behavior of companies. Technological imperative is referred to when it refers to the fact that it is technology that determines (and does not simply influence) the organization's structure and behavior. Despite the exaggeration of this statement, there is no doubt that there is a strong impact of technology on the life, nature and functioning of organizations. Technology, that is, technical rationality, became synonymous with efficiency. Efficiency turned to the normative criterion by which managers and organizations are often evaluated. Technology, in the name of progress, creates incentives in all types of companies,to lead managers to improve their efficiency more and more, but always within the limits of the normative criteria of producing efficiency.
Organizational design is profoundly affected by the technology used by the organization: Successful mass production firms tended to be organized along classic lines, with clearly defined duties and responsibilities, unity of command, clear distinction between line and staff, and narrow breadth. control (five to six subordinates for each chief executive). In mass production technology the bureaucratic form of organization is associated with success.
5. Development of man-machine systems.
While process flow and operation diagrams are used primarily to explore a complete process, or series of operations, the machine-process diagram is used to study, analyze, and improve only one workstation at a time. This diagram indicates the exact relationship in time between the person's duty cycle and the operating cycle of their machine. With these facts clearly exposed, there are possibilities of a full utilization of man and machine times, and a better balance of the work cycle.
Today many machine tools are fully automated, such as the automatic screw lathe, or are only partially automatic, such as the revolver lathe. In the operation of these types of attachments the operator frequently remains inactive for a portion of the cycle. Using this downtime can increase operator pay and improve production efficiency.
The information system.
Everything that the administrator knows about the company and its external environment is known through an information system, which is vital for it because it substitutes the sense organs in their function of gathering the data that is necessary to guide their behavior. The same administrator's orders become fragments of information that the same system is in charge of transmitting and modifying before the action takes effect.
The information system of the company, basically must fulfill the same purpose that the information systems of living beings have: to communicate to the organism internally, giving cohesion to all its component elements and to communicate it with the exterior in order to achieve its adaptation to the environment.
This purpose assumes a state of balance, both internal and external, which is obtained through the action of management and control agencies.
The company's information system can be conceived as a servo-mechanism, which can be highly efficient to the extent that its structure and operation resemble the control devices that operate on living beings and on machines.
Information systems and automatic decisions.
An information system is made up of a very simplified vision for software and hardware, probably in a fairly high quantity and variety of both, depending on the kinds of information that need to be processed and the functions necessary for it.
It comprises the Company's set of decisions on the creation, acquisition, improvement, assimilation and commercialization of the technologies required by it. It deals, therefore, with the company's technological strategy, research and development processes, technology renewal and transfer, new technical changes and standardization and quality control.
The importance of technology in a company varies strongly from one to another, since it will depend on the natural and financial resources that the organization has. This is reflected in the breadth of concern for these matters within the production unit, where it is possible to distinguish three phases:
- First phase. Technology is only a concern of the production area. Second Phase. Three areas of the organization participate in this phase, such as the General Management, which is in charge of defining the technological strategy for the organization. Third Phase. The concern for technology involves all the specialized areas of the company, coordinated by one of them. Technology is seen by the entire company as a necessary and indispensable instrument that allows achieving the stated objectives.
6. Conclusion.
Technology is a powerful economic and social tool that can bring substantial benefits to society. Its effects are variable, but it requires greater worker skill, more office work, and more multiprofessional employees. The result is a knowledge society. Unions generally accept technology as beneficial to society as a whole, but they want clauses and retraining programs to protect individuals.
Another variable that determines organizational structure and behavior is the technology used by the organization. To deal with the environment, the organization uses technologies that will condition its organizational structure and its operation. Starting from the contingency theory, the technology variable assumed an important role in the administrative theory.
Centralization is the distribution of power in an organization, a distribution that it determines in advance. Centralization is related to size, technology, environment, and selections made within the organization.
It is important to mention the paramount importance of the proper design of its information system for any organization. The information system is the basic control mechanism, which maintains the cohesion of all the component elements of the system, which relates it to its external environment, which reduces the variety that every organization imports from its environment and, ultimately, makes that the whole system works as a coherent and integrated whole.
For this reason, the techniques of analysis and design of systems, framed in the general theory developed by Cybernetics and that use the new mathematical and logical instruments, constitute a core aspect of the organization.
7. Bibliography.
- Rotundo, Emiro, «Introduction to the General Theory of Systems», Central University of Venezuela, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Caracas, 1973.Chiavenato, Idalberto, »Introduction to the General Theory of Administration», McGraw Hill, 3 ° Edition. Hall, Richard H, «Organizations: Structure and Process», Prentice-Hall Hispanoamericana, SA, 3º Edition.Keith, David, Newstron John, »Human Behavior at Work: Organizational Behavior», McGraw Hill, Seventh Edition. Niebel, Benjamin, "Industrial Engineering: Methods, Times and Movements", Alpha-Omega, 3rd Edition. Magazine "Information and Companies", by Hewlett Packard. Magazine "Micro Computerworld Venezuela", March, 1991.Villalba, Julián, IESA Guide, «Business Planning». Stoner, James AF, Freedman R, Edward, Gilbert JR, Daniel R., «Administration».
