Chapter 14

Information Technology:

Emerging and Future Issues

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2002. All rights reserved. Irwin/McGraw-Hill

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Chapter Objectives

• To appreciate how information technology is enabling some companies to move to a “sense-and-respond” philosophy for setting organizational strategy.

• To understand some of the ethical concerns, including privacy, that are being raised by the use of information technology.

• To appreciate some of the vulnerabilities that are being exposed for individuals, organizations, and society through security lapses with information systems.

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Introduction

• Throughout history there has been a relationship between technological innovation and societal changes.

• “Hard determinism” – Technology drives social change

• “Soft determinism” – Groups select and organize technologies within a

matrix of social conditions and cultural practices.

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Organizational Management

• Four themes presented in the book– Organization responsiveness– Competitive advantage– Ethical Issues– Global perspective

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Organizational Management

• Sense-and-respond business strategy– Firms continually watch for opportunities in the

market place and respond quickly with superior products, services, or distribution channels.

– Businesses are created and destroyed.– Philosophy builds on organizational

responsiveness.

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Organizational Management

• Implications of sense-and-respond business strategy– Movement away from viewing firms as part in

a value chain to viewing firms as comprising nodes of a value web.

– Businesses are able to share more detailed information.

– Businesses are able to establish and maintain richer relationships.

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Organizational Management

• Implications of sense-and-respond business strategy– Large complex enterprise systems may prove to

be only marginally useful.• These systems tend to be rigid and inflexible which

constrains a business from changing their strategy quickly.

– Organizations will create and break strategic alliances as opportunities arise.

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Organizational Management

• CIO needs to be more of a business strategist and less of a technician.

• Organizations that move to a “best of breed” philosophy for major applications will have to manage relationships with several vendors.

• Web based, externally focused I/S will continue to increase in importance.

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Ways That A Business Strategy can Evolve

1. Enhance an existing product.

2. Extend an existing business model or move into new businesses.

3. Expand by adding new products or services.

4. Exit from a current product, service, or business.

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Employment and I/T

• Early applications of I/T focused on replacing manual laborers.

• Trend is now for applications to perform report writing and analysis, tasks previously assigned to lower-level management.

• I/T is drastically impacting many industries– Meter readers– Loan officers– Milk industry

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Entrepreneurship and I/T

• Historically job loss from technological advancement has been offset by job gains.

• Larger percent of the workforce has become more entrepreneurial.– I/T costs have dropped.– Relatively inexpensive to set up home office.– Technology has opened the possibility of

virtual offices.

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Three I Economy

• Economy where value is created from – Ideas – Intelligence– Information

• Population must stay technologically literate to stay employed.

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Ethical Issues

• I/T can be used in ways to raise many ethical issues.– George Orwell’s book 1984

• Many of the examples are now technically possible.

• Electronic “Big Brother” that controls the lives of citizens.

• Identity theft

• Right to privacy

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Cyber-Surveillance Bill

• The Cyber-Surveillance Bill would allow law-enforcement officials to monitor– your visits to every site on the Internet.– the words you enter into a search engine

textbox.– who you correspond with via email.

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Cyberterrorism

• Computer security experts argue that we are vulnerable to attacks, or cyberterrorism.

• Many people already fear the disclosure of personal information.

• Potential problems still exist in securing personal information.– Ziff-Davis posted personal information for 12,500

subscribers, including credit card numbers.

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Semantic Hacking

• Semantic hacking is when a hacker alters the content of a web site.– Hackers defaced the Nike web site and directed visitors

to another site.

– Hackers changed a news story on Yahoo to read that a programmer was having their life threatened by the US government.

– Not all semantic hacking is harmless, releasing false stock information has cost companies millions of dollars.

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International Relations

• I/T facilitates communications between individuals from all nations. – Helps to reduce misconceptions and

miscommunications.

• Due to advances in I/T, governments can no longer control, misinterpret, or hide events they do not want to publicize.– Telecommunications media– Email– Fax machines

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Nationalism

• Two global forces are fracturing countries.– The Internet

• Nationalism is easier to express and share.

– The global economy• Open trade allows countries to break away and

support themselves.

• European Union

• Globe trotting multi-nationalists

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Services to Replace Napster

• Napster was shut down by the courts in 2001.• Record labels launched online music services.

– MusicNet– PressPlay

• Two views on Napster’s popularity.– Consumers want to steal music.– Consumers want to browse for all their favorite songs without

having to purchase a CD with tracks they don’t want*.

• Both services use streaming and charge a subscription fee.

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Concluding Thoughts

• I/T is at our service not the other way around.

• I/T brings tremendous benefits to society.• I/T has not replaced the need for people to

belong, chat, and gossip. – Virtual Reality– Virtual Organizations– Virtual Friendships