Decision:

It is true that many decisions we make subconsciously arise out of our physical and biological needs and derive from the pressure to survive physically. We also make decisions in developing skills like swimming, riding. What we learn to do continiously with frequent repetiton becomes habit and we do it without thinking about it. An automatic decision is a decision that made intuitively and subconsciously. It is automatic when it is repeated as habit either mentally or physically as a result of learning. It is known through it is difficult to draw a sharp distinction between the two. When we fall short in our physical habit.
Continue...............

Development of DC framework:

Hutchins (1991, 1995) is the main architect of the DC framework when he was studying complex ship navigation of U.S. Navy vessels. Hutchins (1995) was interested to know about how people go about knowing what they know and of the contribution of the environments in which knowing is skilled. These questions became the main source of foundation of the DC framework. He published a paper, "How a cockpit remembers its speed" (1995), in which he explained about the classical cognitive science approach. Classical cognitive could be applied to a unit of analysis that is larger than a person. In contrast, a classical cognitive science approach efforts to assume what was inside an individual's mind since these information processing phenomena can not be directly observed.
Distributed cognition is not some "new" kind of cognition, rather a recognition of the perspective that all of cognition can be fruitfully viewed as occurring in a distributed manner. Rogers and Ellis (1994) encouraged Hutchin's DC framework and also argued that it attempt to overcome the limitations of existing single-discipline frameworks for studying combined working purpose. The main point in the paper is that any sufficient of work activities requires crossing conventional disciplinary boundaries such that there can be analysis and synthesis of information from traditionally separate sources. Rogers and Ellis presented Hutchin's DC framework as one that crosses the conventional disciplinary boundaries (e.g, cognitive, social, organisational).
Nardi (1996) discussed critically about DC and argued that the DC framework uses an unreasonable conception that artifacts are cognizing entities. Nardi also discussed that an artifact cannot know except materials and resources in the system that can be used in a deliberate and conscious way by humans. An artifact serves as a medium of knowledge for a human. As a result, DC places people and machines/artifacts on equal cognitive footing in his critics. Wright et al. (2000) argued against Nardi’s criticism by clarifying the 'misunderstanding'. He stated that DC views technological artifacts as objects of cognition. Wright et al. (2000) argue that artifacts can be used in a deliberate and conscious way by humans and thus humans have a different epistemic status to technological artifacts, although both are modeled as representational systems in DC.
Wright et al., (2000) developed a 'distributed information resources model to HCI model based on DC concepts. This model has two components: information structures and information strategies. Information structures allow for the description of the information form and content and how information is distributed between people and artifacts. Information strategies describe different ways in which resources can be used to make decisions about action. The strategy a user adopts is shaped in part by the resources available. This model would help to relate HCI and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) issues more closely. The resources model by Wright et al. (2000) is one of the very few direct attempts to use the ideas of DC to account for HCI.
Presently, Hollan et al. (2000) are presenting DC as a "new foundation for human computer interaction research". They are working on an integrated framework for research that includes their DC framework while combining ethnographic observation with controlled experimentation.

Changing the role of manufacturing systems engineer

There have been done many studies in human performance and their behaviours in the past. In the early time on 1920s, Henry Ford was influenced by the work of Fredrick Taylor to improve the efficiency of the line workers. Fredrick Taylor had stated his view that "Hardly a worker can be found who does not devote his time to studying just how slowly he can work". This statement made Henry Ford to devote his time to speed up the workers’ performance. He developed new idea at Ford’s Detroit factory where he divided car production into simple repetitive tasks so that there was not to be need for skilled labour and men could learn to do any job quickly, as each job was broken into smaller operations. It was being done by many different men at many different machines.
Since 1927 to 1932, Roethlisberger and Dickson researched on work situations that affect the morale and productive efficiency of shop-workers. They unexpectedly observed that people’s performance reflects the way they are measured. This study is known as the Hawthorne Effect nowadays.
In the mid of 1930, Kurt Lewin developed a dynamic theory of personality. This was based on empirical observation to predict psychological behaviour in which researcher has to consider the whole situation: the momentary structure and the state of the person and the psychological environment. This observation leads to a new way of thinking. Lewin established that the behaviour of the people could be described in terms of the person and environment. This definition can be expressed as follows:
B = f (P, E)
where, B stands for behaviour, E stands for Environment and P stands for the Psychological profile of a person.
In 1930s, Tolman and Lewin formulated the general "expectancy-theory" model of human motivations that provides one way to analysing and predicting which courses of action an individual will follow when he has the opportunity to make personal choices about his/her behaviour. The motivational "force" to engage in behaviour is a multiplicative function of (a) the expectancies the person holds about what outcomes are likely to result from that behaviour and (b) the valence of these outcomes. Recently it has been usefully applied to behaviour in organisational setting (Vroom, 1964; Porter & Lawler, 1968) which can be expressed in symbols as follows:
MF = E x V
where, MF stands for motivational force, E stands for expectancy and V stands for valence.
There has been done other research about people at work which includes of behavioural research and applied psychology. Bonnes and Secchiaroli analysed the literate in environment psychology in which they found that physical factors such a light, noise and temperature can affect performance of an individual. Some of the recent studies also include factors such as air quality and colours.
Lewinian research helps to conceptualise the relationship between people, their environment and their behaviour. The main focus of previous work has been on understanding the interactions between physical, social and economic environment and behaviour.
Newell and Simon argued that an environment cannot be defined independently from the tasks an agent sets out to do. However in their models, tasks typically do not require sensitivity to background social and cultural constraints. Real work environments are a complex in social, cultural, cognitive, and physical constraints. Newell and Simon chose to study do not involve dense common interactions typical of the way we deal with complex machinery such as airplanes, automobiles (car), etc.
Coordination is that we engage in a real world activity or task, our effective environment is a shifting coalition of resources and constraints, some physical, some social, some cultural, some computational (involving both internal and external computational resources). When this shifting coalition of resources and constraints is appropriately coordinated, the tasks we set out to achieve are accomplished. Lack of coordination leads to lack of success.
Today, the dominant assumption in psychology is that the point of activity is to change the environment in a manner that leads, or ought to lead, to goal satisfaction. This view restated in the language of problem solving is that actions should advance an agent to states in the task environment that lie closer to the goal state. In particular, people undertake actions to save attention, memory and computation; they recruit external elements to reduce their own cognitive effort by distributing computational load. This makes sense only if they are closely coupled to the world. If this observation is accepted it has important outcome for design. Not only we must design environments to make it easier to take the next step toward goal accomplishment; we need to design them to make it easier for us to perform our other actions that are easier to perform epistemic, complementary, coordinative actions.
The need for human factors research in a future manufacturing design environment is great especially considering the changing role of the engineer for manufacturing system. In the current manufacturing system design, a single engineer is a ‘manual controller’s such that he/she controls the manufacturing design and makes the decisions.
In the organisational environment, for example, manufacturing system design is virtually eliminated. An engineer/ system design is responsible for the system control function and the system design itself will be able to ‘self-separate’ from other system in the surrounding area. Distributed cognition is needed to assist the engineer’s changing role from a manual controller to a supervisory controller. This change in the engineer’s role will occur with small repeat over many years. Research for this dissertation examined the current organisational environment and may provide a baseline for future research involving the transition of the current organisational environment to human factors.

Distributed cognition:

Distributed Cognition is the concept that cognition is socially distributed among a group of people, the resources and materials (technological artifacts) in the work environment (a small sociotechnical system). Basically, a cognitive process is not necessarily limited to the brain as traditional cognitive science assumes. Hutchins (1995) argues that cognitive science raised these boundaries primarily for analytic convenience but these boundaries are not realistic as human cognition exists in its natural habitat. Therefore, DC assumes that a cognitive process involves the interactions among many brains and technological artifacts (Hollan et al., 2000). Artifacts are the materials and resources in the system that can be used in a purposeful and conscious way by humans.
The argument [for DC theory] is as follows. Cognitive processes involve trajectories of information (transmission and transformation), so the patterns of these information trajectories, if stable, reflect some underlying cognitive architecture. Since social organization - plus the structure added by the context of activity - largely determines the way information flows through a group, social organization may itself may be viewed as a form of cognitive architecture (Hollan et al., 2000, p. 177).
Hollans’s argument helps us to examine cognitive activities of people in their mutual working environments than the working of the individual mind. "Distributed cognition is not some "new" kind of cognition, rather a recognition of the perspective that all of cognition can be fruitfully viewed as occurring in a distributed manner" (Halverson, 2002, p. 248).
DC does not only refer to distributed information. It also refers to the architecture through which information is transmitted and represented. Additionally, DC does not claim that artifacts are cognizing entities. The theory simply models both humans and their artifacts as representational systems. Therefore, DC is concerned with representations of inside and outside the human head and the transformation these structures undergo (Nardi, 1996). The focus is on the representations both internal to the individual and those created and displayed by artifacts. With this viewpoint, DC can help answer of the question, "What information is required to carry out some task and where should it be located, as an interface object [hardware or software] or as something that is mentally represented by the user?" (Wright, Fields, and Harrison, 2000, p. 12).
The main goal in DC is to account for how the distributed structures that comprise the sociotechnical system and are coordinated. This is skilled by analysing various contributions of the environment in which the work activity takes place. These contributions come from the representational media (e.g., instruments, displays, manuals, navigation charts, etc), the interactions of individuals with each other, and their interactions with artifacts in the environment (Rogers and Ellis, 1994).

Distributed Cognition Case Studies:

There have been several case studies conducted in DC approach to analyse various work systems. Hutchins (1995) was the first who actually began to develop his DC framework while studying navigation as it is performed by a team on the bridge of a naval vessel. He assumed that a new framework was needed to understand the complex cultural nature of cognition, and how cognition can occur in real life. Hutchins (1995) used DC to understand a memory task in the cockpit of a commercial airliner. It was a good example to show that how DC is used to analyse a small sociotechnical system as a unit of analysis rather than a single individual mind.
Hutchins and Klausen (1996) later used DC to describe the communication between the airplane pilots and air traffic controllers for changing the plane's cruising altitude. This is an example of the sociotechnical system which is being analysed that sometimes can be distributed (i.e., physically and socially) that air traffic controllers are on the ground and not in the cockpit.
Ackerman and Halverson (1998) used DC to study a telephone hotline group that focus in answering human resource questions for company employees. The group uses a set of informal routines that can solve a large range of problems. The DC analysis for this case showed a number of interesting aspects to the organisation's memory. Organisation’s memory describes a supra individual memory that uses several people and many artifacts (Ackerman and Halverson, 1998). The authors described how a simple phone call process involved several different memory states, and how a human agent translated among representational states or reconstructed memory states by using the DC framework. The authors also showed that the memories involved in this example were often complexly distributed, interwoven, and occasionally overlaid. The necessary information to answer or solve a customer's question or problem is recovered from the "organisational memories" of the telephone hotline group.
Rogers and Ellis (1994) used DC to describe the functional role of shared representations in the coordination of activities in a hospital department and computer-mediated work in an engineering company. David Chris (1999) compared and contrast with the coordination and environment design in an organisation. Decortis, Noirfalise, and Saudelli (2000) compared and contrasted DC with activity theory and cognitive ergonomics as applied to a transport company.
These case studies show that DC can be used to analyse work systems in a variety of domains. In every case study, the unit of analysis was a small sociotechnical system. Further, a systems-level cognitive viewpoint was used to document the information flow of the system. For each case study, the authors explained about the structures of the system were coordinated to produce the system’s behaviour.

Distributed Cognition in Mnaufacturing Systems:

Manufacturing System is one of the challenging and complex operation composed of large area of interactions between people, materials, machines, information and environment in the process of wide variety of products. Manufacturing system design and redesign is the continuous process which depends on the necessity to respond of rapidly changing of consumers’ needs, desires, and tastes. Organisations are currently meeting unexpectedly to compete in this continuously changing demand by enabling their flexibility to respond rapidly to meet new demands. These rapidly changing of customers demand always pressurised the organisation to change in their manufacturing facilities, technologies, methods, people and the products that they produce for the market. The managers and engineers who can learn from observations of successful organisation and can find guidance in recognised principles of good manufacturing system design. They can relate this knowledge to their own organisation by using structured analysis and design methods.
The performance of people which is generally based on environment within which they work, however this research purpose is to make the results adaptable to focus on distributed cognition of the readers or users choices.
The principles of distributed cognition which cognitive engineers need to design better work environments are principles which explain interactivity and distributed cognition. Human agents interact with themselves and others, their work spaces, and the resources and constraints that populate those spaces. In the process of developing these principles is to clarify the fundamental concepts of environment, coordination, and behavioural function.

The Next Knowledge Superpower:

Few years ago, Stories and News began to appear in the international media suggesting that China and India were "stealing" jobs from wealthy nations- not only industrial jobs even white collar jobs of well educated people, like those that had migrated to south-east Asia and China.Today we know that the trickle of jobs turned into a flood. China and India are now back office of many banks, a magnet for labour intensive, tedious programming, and the customer services voice of everything from British Airways to Microsoft.

In real life,the changes in India and China have been more profound than this suggests.Over the past few years alone, more than 100 IT and science based firms have located R&D labs in India. These are not drudge jobs: high-tech companies are coming to India to find innovators whose ideas will take the world by storm. Their recruits are young graduates, straight from India's universities and elite technology institutes, or expats who are streaming back because they see India as the place to be- better than Europe and the US. This knowlodge revoluation has begun.

This is the great opportunity for Nepal being situated between two future Superpower countries. Nepal's foreign policy is also good between both countries. There is more influence of India than China because of open border, culture, climate and so on. Today,In India high-tech is not the sole perserve of the rich. Autorickshaw drivers began using mobile phone so that customers can call for a ride. Technology companies are extending internet connections to the remostest locations. Small,renewable electricity generators are appearing in villages, and the government is using home- grown space technology to improve literatecy skills and education in far flung areas.

These all efforts are often piecemeal and progress is slow in Nepal.Today, Illiteracy is reducing only at the rate of 1.3 percent per annuam.At this rate, Nepal will need another 25 years to attain a literacy rate of 95 percent. Hopefully,Development in India and China's technologies can speed up in this progress in Nepal. Science too has its role to play. We cannot be industrially andeconomically advanced and we cannot be technologically advanced unless we are scientifically advanced. One of the critical issues facing Nepal is the gulf between the academic world and industry. The notion that scientific ideas lead to technology and from there to wealth is not widespread.Nepal needs economic liberalisation and competation between Nepalese comapnies which is being tamed, so they are under no pressure to come up with new ideas, nor did academics promote their ideas to industry.

Nepal's attitude to patents are a product of that mindset.The country has no tradition of patenting, and only recently have institutes and academics started spinning off companies and failing for patents in earnest. Most applications filed in Nepal still come from foreign companies. Until now, the country did not recognise international patent rules, a failure that hampered interactions with foreign compaines.The suspecion remains that Nepalese comapanies are out to steal ideas. Nepalese companies and people are not not yet able to wipe away that image. While Nepal has adopted those international rules on paper, there is still concerns about strictly they will be enforced.

Bringing research round to a more commercial way of thinking is not the only issue that academia must face uo to.Another cultural problem, according to some scientist and researchers, is that too often instituations have an ethos of playing safe. Researchers who devise and test daring theories are criticised if they fail, discouraging the kind of ground breaking research that Nepal needs.

In recent years, IT and outsourcing has improved the economy and quality of life of people but negative effect on science in Nepal even in India as well. IT and Management are increasing numbers because that's where money is to be made. Nepal and India should encourage to grow science based companies which can help to demand for fresh blood increases, salaries will rise and more students will opt for science.

While process of development in Nepal and current situation about Moist war. Now we Nepalese has good choice whether we want democracy or communist government? We can take example from our neighbour countries India and China. India is democratic country where government spends only $6 billion a year on research and it still has fewer scientists per head of population than China and South Korea. While IT and services are helping India log 6 percent year on year increases in GDP, China's vast manufacturing base is raising its GDP by around 9 percent a year. Even in India's strong suit of knowledge based industries, China could steal the march on it, not least because its Communist government can command change, while in the democratic government can only guide national development.

By 2050, China is going to be the second largest economy in the world and India is going to be third largest economy in the world after USA.We Nepalese have suitable time to utilise this time with our future Superpower neighbours.This communist war will black age (time) in our Nepali history and will be blamed by future generation.

Modelling in Manufacturing System Design:

The history of modern industry today normally associated with modern day production philosophies like Just In Time and Lean Production were under development or available in the mid 19th century (Cammarano, 1997). Manufacturing System is one of the challenging and complex operation composed of large area of interactions between people, materials, machines, information and environment in the process of wide variety of products. It represents the way an individual use technology at work in planning, designing, implementing, and controlling the systems. Manufacturing system design is broad and are characterised by an obligation to combine into a whole both the physical and decision making competent of humans together with all other feature of the system design. Most of the manufacturing systems are complex, so that major design or redesign is a demanding task for today’s market. The engineers and managers who are faced with this task can find guidance in recognised principles of good manufacturing system design (Suresh and Kay 1998), they can learn from observations of successful organisations (Womack et al. 1990), and they can tailor this knowledge to their own organisations using structured analysis and design methods (Mills et al. 1996). These design methods all have some form of evaluation, usually based on a combination of analysis, judgement and bargaining between the practitioners involved (Mintzberg et al. 1976).
Model never completely reflect reality, reality is always more abundant. The only models that will inspire some confidence, sometimes, are large, detailed optimisation and simulation models (Meal, 1984). An analytical tool that is a valuable aid to manufacturing system design is simulation modelling. Simulation is mostly used to undertake a comparative analysis of system designs. Now, Simulation is an important part of a design or redesign process, especially in the manufacturing system. Since researchers specialise in determining individual capabilities and limitations, they can identify changes that may improve overall system performance and implement and test these proposed changes in a simulator (Arbak, Derenski and Walrath, 1993). Simulation is a coarse replication of the dynamic behaviour of the proposed system; it produces numerical performance indicators, and enables the practitioner to make informed judgements about the proposed system (Baines, Ladbrook, 2002). In other word, modelling is also known as applying a technique such as Discrete Event Simulation (DES) (Carrie 1988, Robinson, 1994). In manufacturing system design, computer based animation is widely used to build.
DES is most frequently used to use the elements of a manufacturing system that are highly deterministic in their behaviour, usually mechanical equipment such as machines, conveyors and robotics. DES model define an individual/people as a resource which is needed by activities such as machining and assembly to take place. In Some cases, modelling aids regard human issues as ergonomics. Health and Safety Executive have also issued some general guidelines on work place of manufacturing system. There is other modelling techniques also exist in manufacturing system analysis. Baines et al. (1998) examines schematic representations (e.g. IDEF0), mathematical modelling (e.g. Queuing Theory), and other simulation techniques such as System Dynamics (SD). Among those modelling, SD is a powerful, if occasionally overlooked, technique for manufacturing system modelling (Baines and Harrison 1999). Baines and Ladbrook (2002) also recognise that there is an important need to expand the capability of modelling to include the relationships between people, their working environment, and their subsequent performance in terms of productive routines. This will be a valuable aid to engineers and managers involved with manufacturing system design or redesign.

Please, Make me:

Make me cloud so I can change my shape;
Give me capacity so I can die alive;

How do I go on my own cementry;
How do I listen my own sorrow;

Make me cheap so I can sell myself in market;
Give me capacity so I can die alive;

Shoot me again, don't leave me wounded;
leave me burning on my dead bed,don't burn me in sorrow;

Make me water so I can chage my colour;
Give me capacity so I can die alive;

Final Report:

Executive Summary
This report highlights the key methods and concepts that need to be considered by our consulting company when dealing with a client that is making technological and organisational change. Additionally these methods and concepts will be used to advise clients that are planning and implementing changes in their organisation.
In addition to the expanded sociotechnical framework introduced in report 2, further models on how to approach and implement changes in an organisation are illustrated. No single method, approach or perspective effectively captures the reality of a technological or organisational change. By adopting a sociotechnical approach our clients can increase their awareness of both the social and technological aspects of technological and organisational change.
We have made recommendations to Royal Mail based on their strengths and weaknesses of implementing a LAN in the Newcastle district. In order for Royal Mail to be successful in implementing such change in the future, they need to continue:
o Horizontal communication between members of staff,
o Workforce and process monitoring to aid management.
o To handle job losses efficiently through natural wastage and changing job roles.
o To employ new technologically skilled staff and allowing existing staff to adapt to new technology through improved training.
o To trust and respect the members of staff, and in turn, earn the trust and respect of the workforce.
In order to be successful in implementing future changes Royal Mail needs to improve:
o The identification of future strategy for project implementation and change.
o The amount and quality of training on how to use the new technology.
o The variety of communication within the organisation.
o Their awareness of how technology is affecting all parts of the organisation.
Most of the findings in this report are not radical or new, indeed they are consistent with other theories and models.

1. Introduction
This report highlights key methods and concepts that need to be considered by our consulting company when dealing with a client that is making technological or organisational change. The same methods can be used to advise clients that are planning and implementing changes in their organisation. Recommendations will be made to Royal Mail on how they should proceed in the future, especially when considering nationwide LAN implementation. These recommendations will be based on the strengths and weaknesses of their current approach and the frameworks that we have employed.
2. Recommendations for the Consulting Company and Clients
2.1. Proposed Method for Technology Implementation and Change
Further to the expanded sociotechnical framework introduced in report 2, additional models on the approach and implementation of change within an organisation are illustrated in figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1. A strategic approach to the implementation of new technology within an organisation.

Figure 2. Areas to consider when implementing change within an organisation.
Figure 1 depicts an approach to implementation new technology within an organisation. The key aspects that need to be defined as a consulting company include: Technology Requirement, Company Leaders, Company Objectives and User Requirements. These aspects all need to be considered by the consultant and client when identifying the need for technology implementation. The strategy developed is constantly reviewed over time to meet the needs of the changing organisation.
Figure 2 identifies areas that need to be considered by our consulting company and the client when implementing technological and organisational change. Important aspects include:
The commitment, guidance and direction of leaders right from the start of the project.
The communication of all relevant aspects of the project, both horizontally from leadership (strategic) and management (tactical) levels, but also vertically between these levels and the workforce (operational) level.
Understanding the technological requirements of the project, this links to ideas in figure 1.
By defining these areas, implementation change will be far more successful, which, as illustrated by figure 2, will have an impact on culture, working processes, social interaction and individuals.
2.2. Proposed Advice for Clients
When considering technological change, a client company must consider the organisational changes that inevitably occur. Conversely, when a company considers organisational changes, it should consider the role technology will play in its new organisation.
An organisation is composed of many elements, including: structure, working processes, individuals, culture and knowledge. But of high importance to a profit making company is the customer. The organisation must meet the customer’s requirement, deliver its service or product and ultimately make a profit. However, the company must also be flexible as customer requirements will change, economic markets will vary and technology will advance. The company must adapt and compete amongst all this change.
In order to adapt and change the company needs to be able to identify its current situation and future goals. Figure 1 identifies a strategy that uses the driving force of the companies’ leaders and managers, based on the companies’ expertise and objectives. The strategy needs to identify how current or new technology will fit the organisational requirements, taking into account the user requirements which are often omitted.
Figure 2 indicates that strong leadership, good communication (including training) and knowledge of the new technology’s requirements should be present in order to successfully implement change. However, the change will only succeed if the organisations’ culture is stable enough to accept the change and dynamic enough to adapt. Likewise the working processes need to be structured, efficient and flexible. Owners and customers need to have been identified so that the requirements and needs of the processes will continue to be met.
Individuals need to trust and support the whole organisation, and feel trusted and supported. Job security is a big issue when implementing new technology; good communication from leaders and management is a necessity in stopping an ‘issue’ becoming a fear, thus avoid resistance. Training can help individuals adapt to change within the organisation. A group of individuals who have trust, support and good communication with each other will form a cohesive team who are more approachable, adaptable and content.
No single method, approach or perspective effectively captures the reality of technological or organisational change. By adopting a sociotechnical approach our clients can increase their awareness of the social and technological aspects of technological and organisational change.
3. Recommendations for Royal Mail
We have identified both strengths and weaknesses in Royal Mail’s approach to implementing a LAN in the Newcastle district. In order for Royal Mail to be successful in implementing such change in the future, they need to continue:
o Horizontal (same level) communication between members of staff. The members of staff need to become more approachable and united in their teams and departments.
o Workforce and process monitoring to aid management. However consideration is needed to ensure the workforce is not intimidating by a panoptical environment. (Zuboff, 1988).
o To handle job losses efficiently through natural wastage and changing job roles. By replacing older, less flexible staff with younger more flexible staff, will aid Royal Mail in changing their culture to a more customer focused, forward thinking, and adaptable company. However, if Royal Mail loses too many experienced members of staff, deskilling can occur within the workforce (Zuboff, 1988).
o To employ new technologically skilled staff and allow existing staff to adapt to new technology through improved training. In order to achieve this, the training and communication needs to be improved in the organisation (see below).
o To trust and respect staff, and in turn, earn the trust and respect of the workforce.
Key areas in which Royal Mail needs to improve in order to be successful in implementing future changes include:
o The identification of a future strategy for project implementation and change. The nationwide project is currently on hold; if there is a strategy in place it needs to be communicated vertically within the organisation (from the strategic level down to the tactical and operational levels), to get the commitment from the entire organisation.
o An increase in the amount and quality of training on how to use the technology, so that the systems can be used to their full potential, instead of just as a communication tool.
o Maintaining a variety of communication within the organisation. Royal Mail needs to be careful that people don’t be come isolated at their computers in a textualised environment (Zuboff, 1988).
o An increased awareness of how technology is affecting all parts of the organisation. Royal Mail needs to use the models and methods our consulting company have identified to increase their awareness of these areas.
A lot of these areas for improvement can be initiated by management, but the whole organisation needs to be involved to ensure their success.
4. Conclusion
Most of the findings in this report are not radical or new, indeed they are consistent with other theories and models. This report provides guidance on what we think our consulting company should do when working with a similar client to Royal Mail. It also details the key concepts we believe similar clients should be aware of when implementing technological and organisational change. Finally we have made recommendations to Royal Mail based on their strengths and weaknesses of implementing a LAN in the Newcastle district.
References:
Zuboff, S. (1988) ‘In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power’ Basic Books. p 321

Week:2 Report

Executive Summary
The Royal Mail case study was chosen for further investigation in this report; studying Royal Mail is a good opportunity for our company to reinforce our fundamental practices and processes. An expanded version of Scarbrough and Corbett’s sociotechnical model has been used in this report. The framework illustrates the organisation both as a whole and a composition of interconnecting aspects.
Royal Mail has a traditional culture, which is currently undergoing major changes due to the threat of privatisation and the fear of job losses. Technology has had an effect on the culture, yet many in Royal Mail see this as inevitable. In order to change the culture of the organisation the people have adapted, and in some cases been replaced. This might have resulted in the ‘deskilling’ and experience of the workforce (Zuboff, 1988).
Changes in job function have also occurred and are still occurring in many areas. Many managers can see that the new technology is playing a major role within the organisation. The main reason for implementing the Local Area Network (LAN) was to enable people to get accurate up to date information and to standardise the information in one central database. The LAN also gives instantaneous daily contact with other offices through its messaging system and provides statistical monitoring of the workforce to aid improvement of quality control within the company, increasing the panoptic effect (Zuboff, 1988).
Because of the LAN messaging system there is a feeling of improved communication and teamwork; people appear to be more approachable. However, it is important that any change occurring in an organisation needs to be communicated to the workforce. It is apparent from the case study material that there was a lack of communication to the workforce concerning the implementation of the LAN and there was also a lack of training on how to use the technology. Because of this, the approach of the staff to both the technology and the organisational changes was not as positive as it could have been.
The framework and the evidence from the case study indicate that it is not just the technology that shapes Royal Mail, but a mixture of technology, social interaction, culture, structure, working processes and individual people. The impact of these changes is constantly evolving over time and can’t be fully captured and evaluated in a single case study.

1. Introduction
The Royal Mail case study was chosen for further investigation in this report because it is embarking on one of its first major technological changes since the implementation of the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system. The chance to study a company at this stage should allow a more solid understanding of the fundamental concepts regarding the organisation change that occur with technological change.
By looking at the fundamental changes occurring in Royal Mail, which is faced with many decisions and possible paths, our consulting company will be able to use any learning’s to advise companies in the positions of both Royal Mail and British Telecom (BT). Royal Mail has also had a track record of profit, even through difficult times. Because Royal Mail is facing the implementation of new technology and the prospect of emerging competition, analysing how Royal Mail adapts and remains profitable will also be of value to our company.
Studying Royal Mail is a good opportunity for our company to reinforce our fundamental practices and processes. Our investigation could be vital when advising Royal Mail on how to continue the nationwide implementation of Local Area Networks (LANs) in its company.
2. Framework
Scarbrough and Corbett’s sociotechnical model (Scarbrough and Corbett, 1992) was used in report one to identify how technology and organisational change shape and influence each other. They are not entirely determined by each other, so in order to analyse the Royal Mail case study in more detail the original framework will be expanded as shown in figure 1 below.
The expanded sociotechnical framework illustrates the organisation as a whole, which includes five interconnecting aspects; Culture, Technology, Working Processes, Social Interaction and Individualism. These aspects all affect each other, and if any one of them changes then the whole organisation will change. Time is not static and the impact of change develops over time (Kimble and McLoughlin, 1995), this important concept is illustrated as time encircling the whole organisation.
3. Technological Change
Both the organisational and technological changes have affected the working processes, social interaction and individual’s behaviour resulting in an overall change of culture within the company.

3.1. Affects on Culture
“The problem that we are going to face in our business with the greater use of technology is maintaining the human culture that we have had in the past.” (John Howe, p25).
Royal Mail has a traditional culture, which is currently undergoing major change due to the threat of privatisation and fear of job losses. Technology has had an effect on the culture and this is seen as inevitable, “Obviously if we don’t modernise, our monopoly is nearly gone, we face competition all over the place, we’ll be out of business.” (John Howe, p24). If Royal Mail loses the monopoly they will ultimately face stiff competition, as with other companies like BT. The culture within Royal Mail appears to embrace new technology, although as some point out, “A machine has replaced that person.” and “There are benefits for the business in that it is more efficient, more cost effective and quicker”, but “There is a downside, a human cost.” (John Howe, p25).
The implementations of the LAN and the organisational changes that have occurred have caused a shift in Royal Mail’s culture. This has had to happen to remain competitive and to fulfil the company’s objective in becoming more ‘customer focused’. It is difficult to change the culture of an organisation, but sometimes it may be necessary, to ensure its survival. Literature suggests that organisational culture is often overlooked when implementing information technology projects. Through natural wastage Royal Mail appears to have addressed this cultural issue, “Those managers have now gone, we've replaced them with people who've got fresh ideas” (James Jobs, p30). In order to change the culture of the organisation, the people have been changed and in some cases replaced. A downside to this can be the “drop-off in skills levels” (Harry Bainbridge, p10). This can lead to ‘deskilling’ of the workforce, where knowledge is retained within technology as suggested by Zuboff (Zuboff, 1988). The danger is that the technology is incapable of innovation; it is necessary for the staff to retain the skills of the business in order to maintain creativity and innovation.
3.2. Affects on Working Processes
Organisational changes and the loss of jobs have had a direct impact on the working practices of Royal Mail. Changes in job function have occurred and are still occurring in many areas. Due to a more direct reporting system, managers are being moved within the company and they are “looking at different ways of doing work”, this is not just due to organisational changes, but also to do with technology “coming in and replacing people.” (John Howe, p24).
The majority of the managers believe that the new technology is playing a major role within the organisation. The reason for implementing the LAN was to enable people to get accurate up to date information and to standardise the information into one central database so that “every office would have the same information” (Barry Flynn, p17). In addition, the LAN gives instantaneous daily contact with other offices through its messaging system and provides statistical monitoring of the workforce to aid improvement of quality control within the company, increasing the panoptic effect (Zuboff, 1988).
The senior board initiated the implementation of the LAN in the Newcastle district as a pilot for developing working practices. Since then “lots of big major projects had to be halted until business development was implemented” (Christopher Brickell, p13). At the implementation stage there were high expectations from managers for improvements in efficiency, which did not happen immediately. There was no consideration of the ‘importance of technology’, which ‘depends wholly upon the use to which we use it’ (Grint & Woolgar, 1997).
Conflict in working processes has resulted due to the LAN not being fully implemented. Some management are frustrated at having to work a dual system; the old ‘style’ alongside the new technology, “It is a bit limiting to tell the truth to have only a quarter of my offices on the system. It’s got to be all or nothing for me.” (Barry Flynn, p16). This caused a slow shift in working practices and an underlying reluctance to change, “Until we get everything on the LAN it’s going to be a major weakness because there’s always these piles of paper everywhere” (Barry Flynn, p19).
Strategic information technology is a means of eliminating maverick, ad-hoc projects (Galliers and Sutherland, 1991). If new technology proposals are to succeed they must be integrated into a mainstream training procedure similar to other new major projects. Clearly, the advocates of new technology within organisations need to understand how to incorporate their system into mainstream planning. Most of the managers interviewed felt that they “could do with a lot more training on the computer to get full benefits.” (Harry Bainbridge, p8).
3.3. Affects on Social Interaction
The most apparent social change is that the new technology “has freed up time for other aspects of management, like just managing staff.” (Diane Wilkinson, p48). This has resulting in an improvement of working relationships, “Well, I can get back to what I feel I should do… see what the staff are doing rather than sit behind a desk.” (Harry Bainbridge, p5). There is also a feeling of improved communication and teamwork and people appear more approachable, "I'm a little bit more approachable than I would have been if I didn't have the computer.” (Harry Bainbridge, p5). For some this has lead to a sense of ‘belonging’ and a move away from “individual isolation to collective thinking” (Diane Wilkinson, p49).
Others view technology as a hindrance to personal and social interaction as it reduces the one-to-one contact, “You’re not having the face to face contact that you had in the past.’” (Harry Bainbridge, p9). Some suggest that technology as an “impersonal” way of communicating and has to be handled with care (John Howe, p26). There is also the underlying fear outlined of being “cut-off completely” and relying completely on the computer for information (Harry Bainbridge, p9). This indicates the existence of textualisation within Royal Mail. This is where the implementation of technology leads a removal of staff from hands-on roles and all the events are observed through a computer screen (Zuboff, 1988).
3.4. Affects on Individuals
Social systems consist of individuals with their own values, motivations, and priorities, (Reeve and James, 1997). Therefore employees are not always working towards the same objectives, this is evident in the case study where people appear to use the technology in different ways, “Senior management will be very much more receivers of the information…”, whereas the middle mangers are “the creators and the manipulators of the data” (Diane Wilkinson, p50). The majority of the managers use the LAN for general administration purposes, like producing work schedules or for processing data.
However, it appears that the technology’s main use within the organisation is “…nothing more than a glorified message system.” (Christopher Brickell, p14). Others reinforce this claim; “I use it a lot for communication, just sending notes backwards and forwards.” (Diane Wilkinson, p46), “It’s just another communication system.” and even go on to suggest that “it is more of a toy than a management tool…” (Barry Flynn, p19). It has even been noted by some that the technology is not being used by some senior managers who “would prefer not to turn it on.” (Stanley Mann, p35). A common view is that “Senior managers are paid large sums of money, often with may noughts on the end, to turn them into typists.” (John Howe, p23). This outlines another reason why senior managers do not use the system to its full potential.
It is important that any change occurring in an organisation should be made relevant to all the staff that may be affected by the change. This can only happen with effective training and communication. "Managers need to understand that, for change to be meaningful to individuals, that meaning must be apparent in the day-to-day experiences of those individuals in the organisation.’ (Johnson and Scholes, 1993).
4. Main Findings and Key Issues
The findings from the case study indicate that in Royal Mail it is not just the technology that shapes the organisation, but a mixture of technology, social interaction, culture, structure, working processes and individual people, which are constantly evolving over time.
Royal Mail has a traditional culture, which is currently undergoing major changes due to the threat of privatisation and the fear of job losses. Technology has had an effect on the culture, yet many in Royal Mail see this as inevitable. The introduction of the LAN and associated organisational changes has caused a shift in the culture within Royal Mail. In order to change the culture of the organisation the people have adapted, and in some cases been replaced. This might have resulted in the ‘deskilling’ and loss of experience in the workforce (Zuboff, 1988).
The job losses that have occurred have been managed fairly well by Royal Mail. The majority have been through natural wastage and job role changes. On the whole people have adapted to the new jobs, but younger, more flexible staff has replaced some of the more inflexible, older staff. This in itself has lead to a change in culture.
Changes in job function have also occurred and are still occurring in some areas. Many managers can see that the new technology is playing a major role within the organisation. The main reason for implementing the LAN was to enable people to get accurate up to date information and to standardise the information in one central database. The LAN also gives instantaneous daily contact with other offices through its messaging system and provides statistical monitoring of the workforce to aid improvement of quality control within the company, increasing the panoptic effect (Zuboff, 1988). The suspension of the implementation of the LAN has lead to some disruption in the working processes in Royal mail.
Because of the LAN messaging system, there is a feeling of improved communication and teamwork; people appear to be more approachable. Some think that technology as an “impersonal” way of communicating and has to be handled with care (John Howe, p26). There is also the underlying fear of being “cut-off completely” and relying completely on the computer for information (Harry Bainbridge, p9). This indicates the existence of textualisation within Royal Mail (Zuboff, 1988).
It is important that any change occurring in an organisation needs to be communicated to the workforce. It is apparent from the case study material that there was a lack of communication to the workforce concerning the implementation of the LAN and there was also a lack of training on how to use the technology. Because of this, the approach of the staff to both the technology and the organisational changes was not as positive as it could have been. Additionally, because of organisational changes in the company, the strategy for implementing the LANs nationwide has been put on hold, but the workforce have not received sufficient communication about these events.
5. Conclusion
The Royal Mail case study was chosen for further investigation in this report; studying Royal Mail is a good opportunity for our company to reinforce our fundamental practices and processes. An expanded version of Scarbrough and Corbett’s sociotechnical model has been used in this report. The framework illustrates the organisation both as a whole and a composition of interconnecting aspects. The framework and the evidence from the case study indicate that it is not just the technology that shapes Royal Mail, but a mixture of technology, social interaction, culture, structure, working processes and individual people. The impact of these changes is constantly evolving over time and can’t be fully captured and evaluated in a single case study.
References
Galliers, R.D. and Sutherland, A.R. (1991) Information Systems Management and Strategy Formulation: The 'Stages of Growth' Model Revisited. J. Info. Sys. 1(2). pp 89-114
Grint, K. and Woolgar, S. (1997b) The Machine at Work: Technology, Work and Organization. PolityPress.p21.
Kimble, C. and McLoughlin, K. (1995) ‘Computer based Information Systems and Manager’s Work’. New Tech. Work Employ. 10(1). pp 56-67
Reeve, D.E. and James P. (1997) ‘GIS organisations and People: a Sociotechnical Approach’ Taylor and Francis
Scarbrough, H. and Corbett, J, M. (1992) ‘Technology and Organisation – Power, Meaning and Design’. Routledge Series, Edited by David C. Wilson. pp 1-27
Zuboff, S. (1988) ‘In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power’ Basic Books. p 321

Week:1 Report

Executive Summary
The objective of this report is to compare three case studies and examine the interaction between organisational and technological change. The sociotechnical framework we have chosen to use for this comparison is based on the Scarbrough & Corbett model.
Company Y is an American owned global chemical company that manufactures organic chemicals for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. A Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) II system was implemented in Company Y to improve the management of inventory levels and investments of stock, as well as to improve production planning and to standardise information into one more accurate database.
British Telecom (BT) split from Royal Mail in 1981 and was privatised in 1984. In 1990 BT’s chairman announced Project Sovereign (PS); a plan of organisational change within BT. Senior management believed that in order for the centralisation of the company to succeed under PS, the Customer Service System (CSS) also needed to be centralised and redeveloped.
Royal Mail is a very traditional company whose origins trace back to 1482. The company had already undergone one technological change by the introduction of Optical Character Recognition equipment into the sorting office in 1992. At the same time a Local Area Network (LAN) was introduced in the Newcastle postal districts, which linked the different offices in the district together.
The case studies show changes in the organisations due to new technology. It is very difficult to distinguish between technological and organisational change as they are ‘fluid and interlocking’ processes that overlap and evolve over time (Scarbrough & Corbett, 1992). It seems that BT is shaped by technological change to a lesser degree. BT can adapt and use technology to compliment its organisational changes, but Royal Mail and Company Y appear to be more affected by the technology. According to sociotechnical philosophy, one cannot implement technology in an organisation without considering the people who must work with it (Laudon and Laudon, 2000).

1. Introduction
The objective of this report is to compare three case studies and examine the interaction between organisational and technological change. The sociotechnical framework we have chosen to use for this comparison is based on the Scarbrough & Corbett model, which suggests that technology is ‘shaped by actors within the organisation’ and that technology has a “distinctive impact upon both management structure and the organisation of work’. (Scarbrough & Corbett, 1992), Figure 1 below.

TECHNOLOGY<<---------->>ORGANISATIONAL

This report gives a brief summary of each case study and looks at the organisational and technological changes each company has undergone and how this has enhanced or hindered their development.
2.1. Company Y and MRP II
Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) systems focus on the support of the production material flow within a manufacturing organisation. MRP II systems go beyond this and amalgamate the planning and control of resources, materials and machines in one comprehensive computer based system. MRP and MRP II both are “demand-push” systems which can be described as “A management philosophy supported by numerous planning and control techniques” (Blevins, 1984).
2.1. Background Information
Company Y is an American owned global chemical company that manufactures organic chemicals for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. The company is relatively small with four plants on two sites in the North East of England employing approximately 600 people.
2.2. Organisational Changes
The main objective of the senior management within Company Y is to improve productivity and efficiency, which was the main reason for implementing the MRP II system. The culture of the company is traditional and autocratic with senior managers controlling all departments. No apparent organisational changes have occurred within the company. However, since the introduction of MRP II there appears to be a shift in the culture, which has increased political tension.
2.3. Technological Changes
A MRP II system was implemented in company Y to improve the management of inventory levels and investments of stock, as well as to improve production planning and to standardise information into one, more accurate, database. This resulted in a more efficient system with reduced costs, increased productivity and all departments taking equal responsibility.
Company Y was already familiar with computers; they were first used by the finance department to automate their accounts. They had a Plant Inventory Control System in place prior to the launch of MRP II, which was a computer based warehouse system. The decision to implement a new MRP II system began in 1987 when a project team was set up, but due to political conflict with the American parent company a system was not implemented until 1989.
3. BT, Project Sovereign and CSS
3.1. Background Information
British Telecom (BT) split from Royal Mail in 1981 and was privatised in 1984. Organisational changes from the privatisation persisted into the late 1980s. In 1990 BT’s chairman announced Project Sovereign (PS); a plan of organisational change within BT. Even with these changes implemented, BT is still struggling to remain competitive.
3.2. Organisation Changes
PS was driven by senior management, it was hoped that streamlining the company and taking a customer first attitude, would lead to a change in working practices and increased flexibility and efficiency within the company. The management structure was flattened to reduce duplication of work and management conflicts. Performance related pay schemes were introduced in an attempt to bring salaries in line with the rest of the market, but the scheme was not as successful as hoped.
3.3. Technological Changes
Prior to PS, each district had separate individual Customer Service Systems (CSS), which led to data duplication and poor information visibility across districts. The existing CSS allowed effective tracking of work and resource, but information output for management was not well structured.
Senior management believed that in order for the centralisation of the company to succeed under PS, the CSS also needed to be centralised and redeveloped. Some management believe that the senior management showed technocratic tendencies in their decision making.
It was hoped that the new CSS would help distinguish between the different types of BT customer, improve the level of information available to senior management, and increase the access permissions of low level management; giving increased visibility across the functional areas and districts. The consensus is that largely these objectives have been met, but not without their problems. In addition to the planned changes the new CSS also allows increased monitoring of staff and processes, which has increased the feeling of a panoptical environment within the organisation (Zuboff, 1988).
4. Royal Mail and the LAN
4.1.Background Information
Royal Mail is a very traditional company whose origins trace back to 1482. It is still Government owned but managed by a public corporation. The group as a whole has recorded a profit for the last 19 years despite the ongoing instability over privatisation.
4.2. Organisational Changes
From 1992 to 1996 Royal Mail embarked on a new “business development” restructuring process that reduced the 64 geographical postal districts down to 9 divisions, thus streamlining the business. This was in response to the government relaxing the financial restraints allowing for an increase in competition. During this time Royal Mail conducted a series of redundancy exercises across all levels of the business that reduced the management tier structure from 9 to 6 levels.
4.3.Technological Changes
The company had already undergone one technological change by the introduction of Optical Character Recognition equipment into the sorting office in 1992. This was seen as ‘Technology replacing jobs’ by the Independent and resulted in a reduction of staff by a third in the sorting office. At the same time a Local Area Network (LAN) was introduced in the Newcastle postal districts, which linked the different offices in the district together and will subsequently link through a gateway to other LAN networks around the country, eventually creating a national network. Technological decisions appear to be initiated by senior management to improve levels of efficiency, productivity, and to ultimately become more customer focused.
5. Comparisons of Company Y , Royal Mail and BT
5.1. Comparison of Company Profiles
When initially looking at the profile of the three companies, it appears that Royal Mail and BT have more in common with each other than with Company Y. Royal Mail and BT are both service providers, whereas Company Y is a manufacturing company. BT is much more technologically advanced than either Royal Mail or Company Y; this is probably due to the market in which BT operates. Royal Mail, also being a service provider, could learn from the experiences of BT.
5.2. Comparison of Technological Changes
Technological change within all three companies appears to be primarily activated by management with a technocratic view. In BT and Royal Mail there is evidence of some input from the workforce, “…you feel as though they have consulted the user…” (James Moore, BT). But on the whole decisions seem to be made by senior management, “Don’t ask me about the cost justifications because I don’t think that was ever actually explored… I suspect it was more of ‘we will do it’.” (Mike Flex, BT).
The MRP II system appears to have been forced on Company Y by its American parent company, “…it was the perception of the American department that they knew best what we should have on this site that was just completely wrong.” (Ken Smith, Company Y). This led to a feeling of negativity and a fear of job loss within the company. In Company Y technology has shaped the organisation rather than the organisation shaping technology. As a result the company appears divided, with poor communication and a lack of team focus. Some staff even refuse to use the technology, “…older die-hards remember the way the plant was run before MRP and they’ll bloody well still run it that way and never mind what the boss says.” (Bill Jones, Company Y).
The lack of understanding of the system could be due to the lack of training, “We didn’t give enough training (a) on the concept of the system and (b) on the sheer practicalities of how to use it on the shop floor.” (Ken Smith, Company Y). Samuel K. M. Ho outlines the need for training when new concepts are introduced to a company, users need to understand the concept and be behind it. All three case studies identified the need for more training. “I still feel that I could do with a lot more training…” (Harry Bainbridge, Royal Mail). Implementing technology alone will not predetermine the result; it is how the technology is used that creates success.
5.3. Comparison of Organisational Change
MRP II may have resolved some technical issues within company Y, but it seems to have resulted in some organisational issues. The improvement of accurate up to date information due to MRP II has led to departments being more accountable, and there has been a redistribution of power, “Dave’s view was ‘I’m going to take power from those accountants’…” (Mike Trainer, Company Y). The production department is not considered as important as before and they are now more accountable for waste stocks. This has increased animosity between the departments and fears concerning potential job losses. People have had to change the way they work in response to the implementation of MRP II, “…it’s not MRP II that’s going to change the way in which we operate, it’s going to be the way the people handle MRP II.” (Dave Rantor, Company Y). There are even some people who are ‘actually starting to work around it, to use it to they’re own advantage…” (Interviewer, Company Y).
Royal Mail has also been significantly shaped by technology. The implementation of a LAN has greatly increased the communication within the company, “The LAN means I can communicate more effectively than I could ever do in the past” (James Jobs, Royal Mail). However there is a feeling of isolation merging with the reduction of “face to face contact that you had in the past…” (Harry Bainbridge, Royal Mail). This has also occurred in BT where “…communications have improved very quickly…” (Dan Lloyd, BT), with the individual becoming more isolated, “I don’t have to know his telephone number…his address…anything…I can send him a message.” (Mike Flex, BT). Both these cases illustrate that communication now is becoming ‘textualised’ using e-mail via a remote computer screen (Zuboff, 1988).
Job losses have occurred in both BT and Royal Mail. It is very difficult to distinguish if the job losses are attributed to the organisational changes or the new technology. Job loss first occurred in Royal Mail due to the implementation of automated sorting machines, but further job losses could be a result of the organisational changes. Most of the job losses in BT have been attributed to PS, but it is still believed that CSS is contributing to job losses, “As for the job losses CSS had to contribute to it.” (Dan Lloyd, BT). This may be causing anxiety in the workforce, “I can’t say that my job will exist in two or three year’s time.” (James Moore, BT). A reduction of staff can cause a loss of skill and experience within the organisation, “…a little bit of a drop-off in skills levels” (Harry Bainbridge, Royal Mail). This has resulted in a deskilling of staff where the skills are now within the technology and not within the staff (Zuboff, 1988). This is certainly evident within BT where “The deskilling of workers has taken place to a dramatic degree…” (Mike Flex, BT). There is also evidence of job fragmentation or as Zuboff describes it, a demise of ‘action centred skills’ caused by the new technology, “…you chop the jobs up a little bit and you continue to chop them up.” (William Betchel, BT)
5.4. The Impact of Technology on the Organisation
The impact of new technology on an organisation is constantly evolving. Technology has affected all three companies, but BT appears to be shaped by technological to a lesser degree. They have had more time to gain experience and knowledge in implementing technology. Because of this, BT has learnt to adapt and use technology to compliment its organisational changes. The majority of managers in BT believe that PS would not have been as successful without the redevelopment of the CSS, “It was not possible under the old system.” (William Betchel, BT).
Although the MRP II system was fully deployed within Company Y, the organisation was still adapting and changing their working practices at the time of the case study (Kimble and McLoughlin, 1995). Royal Mail only implemented the LAN in the Newcastle area, this acts as a test bed, indicating what the effects of the technology will be when the system is developed nationwide. The full impact of technology cannot be predicted in the short-term because technology and organisations shape each other over time.
6.5. Conclusion
The three case studies have been examined and summarised, then compared using the Scarbrough & Corbett Model. The case studies show changes in the organisations due to new technology. It is very difficult to distinguish between technological and organisational change as they are ‘fluid and interlocking’ processes that overlap and evolve over time (Scarbrough & Corbett, 1992). It seems that BT is shaped by technological change to a lesser degree. BT can adapt and use technology to compliment its organisational changes, but Royal Mail and Company Y appear to be more affected by the technology. According to sociotechnical philosophy, one cannot implement technology in an organisation without considering the people who must work with it (Laudon and Laudon, 2000).
References:
Blevins, P.W. (1984) MRP II in Europe: a status report. Proceedings of Synergy. pp 57 - 60
BT: Case Study 2 based on: Kimble, C. and McLoughlin, K. (1995) ‘Computer based Information Systems and Manager’s Work’. New Tech. Work Employ. 10(1). pp 56-67
Company Y: Case Study 1 based on: Kimble, C. and McLoughlin, K. (1995) ‘Computer based Information Systems and Manager’s Work’. New Tech. Work Employ. 10(1). pp 56-67
Ho. S.K.M. (1999) Operations and Quality Management. International Thomson, London.
Kimble, C. and McLoughlin, K. (1995) ‘Computer based Information Systems and Manager’s Work’. New Tech. Work Employ. 10(1). pp 56-67
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P. (2000). Management information systems: organization and
technology in the networked enterprise (6th edition). Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey.
Scarbrough, H. and Corbett, J. M. (1992) ‘Technology and Organisation – Power, Meaning and Design’. Routledge Series, Edited by David C. Wilson. pp 1-27
Royal Mail: Case Study 3 based on: Kimble, C. and McLoughlin, K. (1995) ‘Computer based Information Systems and Manager’s Work’. New Tech. Work Employ. 10(1). pp 56-67
Zuboff, S. (1988) ‘In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power’ Basic Books. p 321

Individual Report:

A truth about life is our interdependence. Everything we do within a group is based on the efforts of people working together. The first task while doing our case study writing we formed a group and share our thought and opinions of the group assignment. We nominated one group leader and try to understand that we are doing our case study assignment in team work which we have to work on a common goal i.e. finished at estimated time. Proper planning and documentation is important for effective for this process. Once we formed our group we focused on communication information gathering from each of team member and provide to all members and award leader: every group members’ name, email address and Student no. Such type of work would help to the team to keep in touch with each other and make the communication more easier. We created yahoo group and nominated one group leader who will help to coordinate our task and develop on every week. The first week we all group members shared our background and knowledge about our case study based on previous courses and experiences. We decided to write a summary about the each case study to do brain storming, research, idea generation, analysis and synthesis that helped us to prepare detail analysis of Royal Mail. We all decided to meet one day in a week (i.e. Tuesday) and discuss about our weekly research report and summary based on the case study. This task help us to ask and to gather more information from our class (Wednesday). We group members always allocate task and duty to all members which helped to take responsibility, accountability for the work.
The main key points of teamwork that we followed in our group assignment are:
Develop a well thought out plan for every week.
Focus on good Communication to reduce conflict in group.
Give reward everybody through out the report writing based on their contribution (Thank you, well done etc.)
Select the appropriate medium for communication (Email, text message, print out)
As a member of group, my main responsibility was to produce different ideas, information and research summary which we used to get together and produce in team every week. I always contribute the team by giving different type of ideas which helped us in the report writing. The main achievement of such a group work that will give a practical knowledge while in the academic period. This type of team work will help every members to be a competitive and creative for future team work, that will help them to take more responsibility and accountability to finish the task in the right time in the team based. It will also give the knowledge about the communication of individual and team based work. There are more advantage in group based work (team based work) however the main critical matter is Time. In a group work, every individual have different sort of work, some of the team member cannot available in some time so in this case it takes few extra time to inform the development of past work however it will help to inspire the member to be more accountable and hard worker.
The use of case study to study technological change in organisations can be described as follows. It will help to give an insight of impact in the process of change and will inspire to develop the thought and knowledge in the different approaches (Open system approach, Sociotechnical approach etc.), the changing world of work (new economy, new organisation and new employee), understand the changing organisational culture and consulting process. It will also focus on the ways in which technological change is managed, the ways of change in organisational structure and culture introduction, and the ways that changes to the human and social systems are managed using the framework of organisational development. The recommendation and consultancy process will influence to find out different methodological approach and focus on different sector like TQM, management of innovation, knowledge management and the errors made in the transforming organisations which will broaden views. The main disadvantage of such case study is, it needs more time to scrutinize on this basis we can recommend. The most of the recommendations are still based in academic theoretical recommendation however it is different in daily basis practical working life in the organisation.