Influence of the Internet on Technology Careers

The growing power and flexibility of the Internet has been well documented in numerous articles. However, the actual impact of the Internet on the workplace has yet to be examined fully, possibly because the Internet is less than five years old. Without a clear understanding of the implications of the Internet on the workplace, it is difficult to lucidly ascertain the subsequent effect on labor/management relations that the Internet is having, or will have on the entire field of labor/management relations. The Internet, however, is old enough to be greatly responsible for the growth of a new industry, that of information technology, a field that requires both a new kind of worker and, it follows, new ways of managing those workers.

In a challenging article, Roehl (1997) points out that as a field, Information Technology is said to include a wide variety of technicians, all the way from software programmers to MIS executives, all geared to one goal. He argues that "successful companies in the year 2000 will have to fundamentally re-evaluate the ways in which they store and use information. Current data management practices will not suffice. Businesses will have to learn to manage not just data, but information, knowledge, and, finally, wisdom" (Roehl, 1997, 26).

The unique fact about this growing field of "information technology," is that it has created for the first time in history, what cou

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ighway, but a network. It is totally decentralized. No one person sits and accepts messages. Each is actively seeking to learn something. The emphasis is on learning and doing, and not on information retrieval. Because of this, those people who are involved in the management of labor, which has traditionally functioned in a linear construct with end goals, are being challenged with entirely new ways of thinking. Impact of the Internet on Business The technology underlying the Internet "is a powerful example of technology convergence," and one which is said to have the ability to displace much of the traditional thinking about office automation and electronic commerce" (Day, 1997, 110). Although from a business journal, this statement reflects the perception held by most journalists and a few scholars concerning the impact that this technology will have on tomorrow's workplace. Between 1995 and 1998, more than 414,000 businesses around the world, ranging from small operations to mom and pop stores to multi-national corporations established businesses on the Web. The business revolution created by the Internet crosses state, regional, national and international boundaries and the businesses that are most successful with
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Approximate Word count = 1632
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)