ICT Empowering Employees (Essay Sample)

ICT Empowering Employees
Overview of empowerment
Information and communication technologies enable the development of employee empowerment in the workplace. The empowerment of employees is relatively a complex concept that often eludes the comprehension of many managers. Emerson (2012) argues that few managers comprehend the concept of empowerment of employees at the work place. Most managers believe that the empowerment of the employees imply that they have to relinquish their roles and responsibilities to control and lead the organization. He asserts that empowerment of the employees is the culmination of both the tents and ideas that lead to the satisfaction of the workers. Kamel (2010) describes the empowerment of workers as the processes that gives the employees the leverage to think act, react, behave, and have control while discharging their services in a manner perceived to be autonomous. The inculcation of the empowerment is fostered through communication and trust on the employees. Goldblatt (2010) supports by illuminating the communication are the ideal sign of empowerment in an institution/organization. It encompasses the willingness of the management to disseminate through communication all the aspects of the business to the workers openly and honestly, as well. Moreover, the elements to be communicated may entail key performance indicators, strategic plan, financial performance, and decision making in daily basis concerning the business and the organization.
Effective implementation of the empowerment process results into employees’ satisfaction, and other facets of the organization such as retention and member service. Kamel (2010) points out that empowerment of the workers promotes not only the development of entrepreneurial skills but also prompts them to take actions, make informed decision, and enhance their conviction on their abilities to take control of their destinies. Goldblatt (2010) supports by asserting that their belief enhances self motivation, as well as, sense of self independence translate into the employees putting additional effort and being loyal to their organizations.
The advancement of technology and communication is transforming the business arena. It has improved how services are provided to the clients and the ease and speed of performance of tasks. The most vital component of this aspect is the benefits of individual employees derive from the access to the right technology and extracting the most from it (Goldblatt, 2010).
The labor process theory
It is one of the Marxist theories that are concerned about the organization of work within the context of capitalism. Meiksins, Steiger & Wardell (1999) illuminate that the theory criticizes Taylor Fredrick’s work which revolves around scientific management. In the contemporary capitalism, the theory has been employed to illuminate the bargaining power of workers. Thompson & Smith (2010) vindicate that the development of the theory encompasses sets of texts and intervention that criticizes the strategies of management perceived to be exploitative. On the other hand, Zarembka (2011) extrapolates that labor process theory examines how individuals work, the individuals that tend to control the workers, the skills employed in the work, and the remuneration for the work done. Braverman under capitalism claims the management of organizations steals skills from employees and makes the pleasurable nature of tasks or work at organizations miserable. Moreover, the ability of employees to control their work is minimizes as much as possible. Worse of the management reduces the employees’ wages more so the unskilled ones while optimizing extortion from the very workers. In fact, the issue of caste through class is highlighted in the examination of the theory to explain the brutality of capitalism and management. However, Braverman’s assertion of the theory has also met equal criticism for not being universally applicable. Therefore, the analysis of the labor process theory reveals how the systems of control and management and the examination of the system is employed to minimize the power of the working class with the skills that the unskilled labor or machine power cannot produce. However, the advancement of technology and communication has altered the modality with which the theory can be examined.
The labor process theory is used to stipulate that the comprehension of the development of technology in reference to production (capitalism) in social relations. Long (2012) argues that technology is perceived as an arsenal of capital that is employed to oppress the provision of labor. The implication though is that the use of technology to accomplish managerial tasks cannot be questioned. The contemporary shape of technology in organizations is perceived in the form of crystallization of outcomes in this era of battle with capitalist development. Labor process helps in elaborating the dynamics of societal and organizational changes. It further illustrates ways through which social relations influence the direction of changes in technology.
The historical relation between capitalist economic system and technology can be demonstrated through the dimensions of changes in technology. These dimensions changes are changes related to the transformation of work, control of work, and transfer of work. The change related to the transformation of work is associated with activities designed to not only alter the shape but also the material constitution. On the other hand, the change related to transfer is associated with the conveyance of products holistically and constituent parts to the market place and to each other as well. It entails activities such as carrying, shipping, and even hauling. As for changes related to control, it involves the administration of the various constituents’ activities into meaning which in turn results into production of products that can be sold at prices which are profitable. Zarembka (2011) elaborates that due to the continued availability of new sources of power sources, as well as the transformation of the improvement of transformational technologies, the inadequacies related to the organization of work continue to surface as well. The efforts towards innovation are focused on the process of production that is perceived to have limitations. The inadequacies that stem up in the organizational processes prompt innovation and technology inclusive of communication has been significant in this aspect. Long (2012) illustrates this phenomenon by using the historical changes in the UK textile industry. Thompson & Smith (2010) point out that the production of textile entails spinning and weaving. Initially, the production capacity during weaving of textile was relatively low. The advancement of technology elevated or rather led to the increase of the capacity thus illustrating that innovation prompted that development in the textile industry.
The implementation of groupware at the workplace
The adoption of groupware is considered in the form of performance dashboards for a multidivisional organization. It is in line with the centralized coordination of operational costs in the divisions. Moreover, its impact has been considered from the duality theory of information technology when deployed as a technology of management in the workplace. The results are that besides providing opportunities for process control such as automation, groupware facilitates the creation of an informated environment. In the informated environment, the outcomes become far reaching than may be intentionally perceived/envisaged. The transparency of information places the human actors in constant surveillance. It, in turn, affects the behavior of the actors. From the perspective of exerting control over subjects, this behavior presents opportunities as the subjects develop not only self-discipline but also poses threats as the availability of information empowers the subjects to collaborate and exert some degree of autonomy.
According to Wood (2002), organizations implement groupware technologies with the intention of creating collaborative environments while collectively working towards shared goals. Vandenbosch & Ginzberg (1997), while studying the implementation of Lotus Notes, contends that groupware technologies offer more opportunities for collaboration in comparison to the traditional computing systems. Orlikowski (1992) suggests that the premises for organizations implementing groupware technologies include collaboration and the realization of shared effort. Groupware includes a wide range of technologies hence company intranets certainly fit in this particular facet. Clark & Preece (2005) remark that the technology related to intranet is a form of groupware. It is from this perspective of implementing information technology to aid collaboration that the adoption of Performance Dashboards on the company intranet has been justified as a valid case for analysis.
The duality of IT
The work of Zuboff (1988, 2001) on the duality of information technology continues to influence research. Rajao (2007) elaborates on the effects of implementing information technology in organizational settings. The premise of the duality of information technology is that besides providing tools for organizing work, organizations are provided with a microscope through which the work processes can be scrutinized. Zuboff (1998) coins this duality by pointing out that information technology offers opportunities to automate and informate, as well. In the historical development of technology, automation is a well-known phenomenon with the contribution of Fredrick Taylor and Henry Fold being notable. Through automation, human intervention is increasingly replaced by predetermined machine motion in repetitive sequences in order to achieve standardized outputs with sustained a...