Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
world. A management team, for example, can include executives from Australia and England.
A programming team can consist of people in the United States and India. Collaborative
work can also include all aspects of the supply chain and customer relationship management.
An automotive design team, for example, can include critical parts suppliers, engineers from
the company, and important customers.
A virtual organizational structure
allows collaborative work, in which
managers and employees can
effectively work in groups, even
those composed of members from
around the world.
(Source: © Jon Feingersh/Getty
Images.)
Organizational Culture and Change
Culture is a set of major understandings and assumptions shared by a group, such as within
an ethnic group or a country. Organizational culture consists of the major understandings
and assumptions for a business, corporation, or other organization. The understandings,
which can include common beliefs, values, and approaches to decision making, are often not
stated or documented as goals or formal policies. For example, Procter & Gamble has an
organizational culture that places an extremely high value on understanding its customers
and their needs. For marketing recommendations to be accepted, they must be based on facts
known about customers. As another example, employees might be expected to be clean-cut,
wear conservative outfits, and be courteous in dealing with all customers. Sometimes orga-
nizational culture is formed over years. In other cases, top-level managers can form it rapidly
by starting a “casual Friday” dress policy. Organizational culture can also have a positive affect
on the successful development of new information systems that support the organization's
culture. 9
Organizational change deals with how for-profit and nonprofit organizations plan for,
implement, and handle change. Change can be caused by internal factors, such as those
initiated by employees at all levels, or external factors, such as activities wrought by com-
petitors, stockholders, federal and state laws, community regulations, natural occurrences
(such as hurricanes), and general economic conditions. Many European countries, for ex-
ample, adopted the euro, a single European currency, which changed how financial compa-
nies do business and use their information systems. Organizational change also occurs when
two or more organizations merge. When organizations merge, however, integrating their
information systems can be critical to future success. 10 Unfortunately, many organizations
only consider the integration of their different information systems late in the merger process.
Change can be sustaining or disruptive. 11 Sustaining change can help an organization
improve the supply of raw materials, the production process, and the products and services
it offers. Developing new manufacturing equipment to make disk drives is an example of a
sustaining change for a computer manufacturer. The new equipment might reduce the costs
of producing the disk drives and improve overall performance. Disruptive change, on the other
hand, often harms an organization's performance or even puts it out of business. In general,
disruptive technologies might not originally have good performance, low cost, or even strong
culture
A set of major understandings and
assumptions shared by a group.
organizational culture
The major understandings and
assumptions for a business, corpo-
ration, or other organization.
organizational change
How for-profit and nonprofit organi-
zations plan for, implement, and
handle change.
 
 
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