FREE online courses on Information Technology - Chapter 1 INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY - THE T-FORM ORGANIZATION
How is technology changing organizations? One impact of IT,
is the use of information technology design variables to develop new
organizational structures. The organization that is most likely to result from
the use of these variables is the T-Form or Technology-Form organization, an
organization that uses IT to become highly efficient and effective. The below
presents the characteristics of the T-Form organization.
The firm has a flat structure made possible by using e-mail
and groupware (programs that help coordinate people with a common task to
perform) to increase the span of control and reduce managerial hierarchy.
Employees coordinate their work with the help of electronic communications and
linkages. Supervisions of employees is based on trust because there are fewer
face-to-face encounters with subordinates and colleagues than in today's
organization. Managers delegate tasks and decision making to lower levels of
management where it is needed to make decisions. Some members of the
organization primarily work remotely with out having a permanent office
assigned.
The T-Form company's technological infrastructure features
networks of computers. Individuals client workstations connect over a network to
larger computers that act as servers. The networks has gateways to national and
international networks so members of the firm can connect with customers,
suppliers, and other with whom they need to interact.
In the office, companies will convert assembly line
operations for processing documents to a series of tasks that one individual or
a small group can performs from a workstation. The firm will also adopt and use
electronic agents, a kind of software robot, to perform a variety of tasks over
networks.
Most T-Form organizations will use communications technology
to form temporary task forces focused on a specific project. Technology like
e-mail and groupware facilitate the work of these task forces. These temporary
workgroups may include employees of customers, suppliers and/or partner
corporations. The T-Form organization is likely extensively with customers and
suppliers. There are numerous electronic customers / supplier relationships.
These linkages increase responsiveness, improve accuracy, reduce cycle times,
and reduce the amount of overhead when firms do business with each other.
Suppliers access customers computers directly to learn of their needs for
materials, then deliver raw materials and assemblies to the proper location just
as they are needed. Customers pay many suppliers as the customer consumes
materials, dispensing with invoices and other documents associated with a
purchase transaction.
The close electronic linking of companies doing business
together creates virtual components where traditional parts of the organization
appear to exist, but in reality exist in a novel or unusual manner. For example,
the traditional inventory of raw materials and subassemblies is likely not to be
owned or stored by the T-Form manufacturing firm. This virtual inventory
actually exists at suppliers' locations. Possibly the subassemblies with not
exist at all; suppliers will build them just in time to provide them to the
customer. Form the customer's standpoint, however, it appears that all needed
components are in inventory because suppliers are reliable partners in the
production process.
This model of a T-Form firms shows the extent to which
manager can apply IT to transforming the organization. The firms that succeed in
the turbulent environment of the twenty-first century will take advantage of
information technology to create innovative organizational structures. They will
use IT to develop highly competitive products and services and will be connected
in a network with their customers and suppliers. The purpose of this book is to
prepare you to manage in this technologically sophisticated environment of the
twenty-first century.
