RELATIONSHIP OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS
The speed at which international business and trade are growing has given new dimension to the multi-functional roles managers are forced to play.
In spite of the multiple constituencies a manager must please (subordinates, superiors, fellow managers, stockholders and other financial stakeholders, and the local and global community) there is a common thread linking these constituency obligations รป that of managing the information created by and used by these diverse constituencies. This paper argues that the ability to manage information has become as important as the ability to manage the people who manage the information.
An additional argument the paper makes is that the common rhetoric about technology falls into two extreme categories:
uncritical acceptance or blanket rejection. Such extreme positions leave poor choices for action and critical thinking about what managers and companies really want--and need-- from technology.
This paper also challenges the myth that whatever technological changes come along must be accepted out of hand. Instead, the paper seeks a "middle ground" where managers, technologists and all stakeholders might build a better awareness of the complex, "organic" nature of both technology and information resources.
Much concern is also given to the fact that management "language" has yet to catch up to modern technology, noting the tendency to gravitate towards physical metaphors to describe digital artifacts, such as "electronic library."
There is general agreement in both the academic literature and the general press that the quantum growth in globalization is challenging managers to assume multiple management burdens connected with the management of information technology (Schell & Marmer-Solomon, 1997). The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, details these challenges in his book Business at the Speed of Though...