Analysis of "Strategic Organizational Communication in a Global Economy" (part 7)

Understanding Technology: A Radical Force for Change
by
Charles Lamson

Peter Drucker, an astute observer of society and organizations, wrote in 1994:

No century in recorded history has experienced so many social transformations and such radical ones as the twentieth century. . . . In the developed free-market countries - which contain less than a fifth of the earth's population - but are the model for the rest. Work and work force, society and polity are all in the last decade of this century. They are qualitatively and quantitatively different not only from what they were in the first years of this century, but also from what has existed at any other time in history: in their configurations, in their processes, in their problems and in their structures.

Perhaps the most far-reaching change has been the transformation of the United States and most of the developed world into a knowledge society. For most of this century and the previous one, the economy focused largely on production, on the laborious work in farm and factory that resulted in tangible products. Before World War I, farmers were the largest single group of workers in most countries. From 1920 to 1950, the farm population declined, although the production of food increased. In the 1950s, blue-collar workers accounted for 40 percent of the American workforce, representing the emphasis of that period on factory production through manual labor. However, by 1990, blue-collar workers accounted for less than twenty percent of american workers and farmers for less than five percent. The largest classes of workers in 1990 were those employed in what Drucker terms "knowledge work" and what has also been called "information work."

Knowledge work involves creating and applying knowledge. Examples range from the work done by research, scientists, engineers, attorneys and financial analysts on the high end of the scale to that of teachers and X-ray technicians on the low end. Several things differentiate knowledge work from production work. People who do knowledge work perform abstract operations, and the product - knowledge - is intangible. The only tangible outcome of  much knowledge work is a document. However, despite its intangible nature, knowledge is the critical factor in the development of new products and the delivery of services such as legal and financial advice. Knowledge work adds value to materials and to information, making them more useful or desirable or effective. An engineer's designs turn sand, copper and aluminum into computer chips; an attorney's interpretive and negotiation skills create business partnerships from indecipherable (to any ordinary person) legal tomes and discussions among the parties involved. Knowledge-based work requires format, education (as opposed to apprenticeships or trade school), and ability to acquire and apply abstract theoretical and analytical knowledge. It also requires a commitment to continuous learning.

Information work supports knowledge work. It involves gathering, entering, formatting and processing information. Examples of information workers include those doing clerical jobs, data entry and telemarketing. These jobs are generally lower paying than the lowest rungs of knowledge work. They have been called "pink-collar" work, because they are often office positions staffed largely by women.

Some scholars argue that information and communication and communication technology (ICT) does not really change organizations. They regard it as simply another variable that influences organizational communication by increasing the speed accuracy and efficiency of information exchange. However, the experience of the past five years indicates that this position vastly underestimates the potential of ICT to transform organizations and communication. A great many organizations could not operate effectively without ICT. For example, Wal-Mart could not deliver such low costs without its computerized supply chain management systems. And many organizations could not even exist without ICT. Amazon.com and Ebay are examples of organizations that exist only on the internet. Take away ICT and these organizations would disappear. In most large businesses and a growing portion of small ones. ICT has become so much a part of everyday operations that it is difficult to imagine how the work would get done without it. The countless examples include farmers who rely on ICT to sell their crops, law firms that do their research through online services and local government agencies that collect bills and taxes through online payments. 

We use  the abbreviated term ICT to refer to computerized systems and advanced telecommunication systems. Relevant computerized systems include those used to manage databases containing budget, order or inventory information; to provide information through electronic mail and conferencing; and to coordinate work processes. Advanced telecommunication systems include voicemail systems, fax technology, proprietary telephone systems, teleconferencing, video conferencing and wireless communications. All these systems enable organizations to operate much more rapidly and to adapt more quickly than they could if human communicators and traditional modes of communication (memos, letters, phone calls) made up the entire communication system. ICT gathers and transmits information so quickly, thoroughly and reliably that it enables human links in the communication system to focus more on quality thinking reasoning and service - the tasks for which they are best suited.

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