Integrated communications and work efficiency: impacts on organizational structure and power*

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wigand, Rolf T.^{; **}

Affiliations: Professor of Public Administration and Communication, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA

Note: [*] A paper presented to the session on “Adoption, diffusion, implementation of communication technologies”, Information Systems Division, International Communication Association Annual Convention, Honolulu, Hawaii, 23–27 May 1985.

Note: [**] The author gratefully acknowledges the comments received from Dr. Dieter von Sanden, Member, Board of Directors, and Director, Corporate Communication Technology Research, Siemens AG, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany.

Abstract: It is fairly recent that organizations have begun to view office automation efforts in a comprehensive context instead of in terms of individual devices. Organizations have hardly tapped five percent of the possibilities utilizing integrated communication technologies in office settings. Consequently, the integrated automated office is fast becoming a reality. At stake for organizations is an opportunity to speed up communications, reduce paper flow and achieve productivity gains throughout the entire organization. It is quite obvious that only by integrating various office automation devices into one coordinated system—an ‘orchestrated’ system—will the office of today be truly efficient and effective. A well planned, integrated office automation system demonstrates five particular characteristics—as specified in the introduction to this paper. Within just the last two years, a number of products have become available on the market that in toto seem to make the integrated office come true: local-area networks, personal computers, digitized PBXs, voice mail systems, sophisticated word processors, digitized facsimile, computers that communicate—as well as the emergence of private and public networks. Currently, it seems that the growing sophistication of networks is the most important element that will make the integrated office a reality. Such networks have become the necessary enabler without which few of the real benefits of the integrated office can be achieved. The needed technology exists today, although refinements are necessary in such areas as voice recognition and in developing strategies to tie the individual elements of the system together. An integrated office system, however, is more than just the sum of its parts. Specifically, it is the applications that matter most, not the devices. In this sense then an integrated office system is defined not by its hardware, but by its software. This software, in turn, allows dissimilar devices to communicate among each other and makes the entire system easy to use. There appears to be a growing recognition that the management of information and effective communication are as important, if not more so, to organizational success as are products and services. In this contribution, the author reviews the work environments surrounding integrated office systems. He synthesizes the known effects of automated office technologies and reviews their known impact on work efficiency in office environments. These effects are explored with regard to their impact on networks, work flow/processes, as well as organizational structure and power. Particular emphasis is given to structural changes due to the introduction of newer information technologies in organizations, i.e. during the last few years it could be observed that the function of middle management has changed and the technology is rapidly reorganizing the work people do. The new information technologies have restructured the average organization's middle ranks and, as a consequence, they have shrunk drastically. Organizational pyramids have flattened with fewer levels since executives have realized that they can get ahold of the needed information via the new technologies quicker and directly and do not have to rely on middle-level managers. The author stresses the point that power shifts are typically accompanied with these technologies resulting in the generation of a new form of organizational power. These effects and trends can be seen as an evolutionary step toward more flexible, decentralized and less defined organizational structures, resulting in a fluid organizational structure whose design is based on the changing needs of the organization.

DOI: 10.3233/ISU-1985-5501

Journal: Information Services & Use, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 241-258, 1985