Changes In Technology

Despite the way in which changes in technology are affecting all of our lives, it is easy to forget the speed at which change is taking place. As Table 1.1 indicates, technological changes, which in the past spanned generations, now take place within much shorter timeframes.

Table 1.1: Time to market – how the world of technology is speeding up

Technology	Time to reach 10 million customers (years)
Pager	41
Telephone	38
Cable TV	25
Fax machine	22
VCR	9
Cellular telephone	9
Personal computer	7
CD-ROM drive	6
Netscape Internet browser	0.5 (i.e. six months)

Over the past couple of decades we have seen significant and rapid changes in Information and Communications Technologies. Two important technologies evolved during the 1980s and 1990s. One was a change in telecommunications technologies providing a hundred-fold increase in the amount of data that can be transmitted over computer networks. Another was the growth in the number of networked computers enabling more open communications systems and new ways of working.

These technological changes have enabled new organisational forms to develop, for example networked organisations, virtual organisations and e-businesses – all of which are based on a different set of assumptions about the way business should be organised and managed. In these new business environments, hierarchical structures have been found to be less effective as they get in the way of providing a differentiated and responsive service to customers. In addition, they are based on a different set of assumptions about the way business should be organised and managed.

These combined technological changes have also led to a number of observable changes in the way that work is structured and organised. First, information that in the past would have been restricted to individuals in certain job roles, can now be made more accessible both vertically and horizontally, within and across organisations; such a change can affect how and where business decisions are made. Second, these new technologies have enabled work to be location-independent thus transcending traditional geographical boundaries. With the relevant technologies, work, as pointed out above, can be distributed around the world in order to minimize production costs. Finally, these new technologies have opened up the possibilities for individuals to work from home thus bringing about a return to a way of living and working that existed in the pre-industrial era, in which work, family and community life were closely intertwined (Baruch and Nicholson, 1997).

Castells argues that in the knowledge economy individuals who are unable to acquire the relevant skills, or who do not invest in continuous learning, may find themselves excluded from the labour force. Continuous learning throughout all strata of the workforce is critical to survival in today’s ever-changing business world (Coolahan, 1998).

Knowledge-based businesses apart, more and more jobs now involve the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). ICT skills are seen as being essential in the modern workplace (Labour Market & Skills Trends, 2000). However, as more and more organisations opt to have their IT systems developed and serviced by third party suppliers, this will have implications for the skills mix within organisations. What will be required is IT literate employees who understand the business, but IT literacy will come to mean knowing how to use computers more so than knowing how to manage them (Evans, 2000).

What are the implications of these continuous changes in technology for HR? First, HR professionals will need to become more IT literate themselves, sufficient enough to be able to enter into meaningful discussions with their IT counterparts. Second, they will need to consider the implications for the organisations’ future resources, skills and capabilities. Third, they will need to help prepare employees for new roles and opportunities that are likely to emerge from emerging technologies.