Islamic Online University

Course: Introduction to computing.

Module 30:
Computer Technology and the society.
 Objectives
• Describe some of the major impacts of information technology on individuals,
organizations, and society.

• Understand the changes that take place in the workplace and the lives of individuals
when information technology eliminates geographical and spatial barriers.
 Content.
1. Computer and community.

2. Impact of IT to society
 Computer and community.
• The Problems
• There is a worry that computers have a negative impact on us, our children, and
our society

• Hurts local community vibrancy

• Causes isolation from neighbors

• Erodes family life

• On-line commerce affects real stores and community-based professionals

• Face-to-face gathering

• Emphasis on individual rather than community

• May lead to underdeveloped social skills

• May lead to internet addiction
 Computer and community.
• The Positives

• Allows for new ways of doing old tasks

• Teleworking
• Automation
• E-Commerce
• Research
• Greater range of communication

• Online convenience = Real World Freedom

• Greater depth in communication

 Impact of IT to Society.
• IT Is Eliminating the Barriers of Time, Space, and Distance.

• One of the most noticeable developments precipitated by information technology

is the elimination of numerous barriers that traditionally separated individuals,
organizations, and societies at different geographic locations.

• In essence, information technology is redefining the entire concept of time,

space, and distance. Proliferation of high-speed data communication networks
that span the globe enables companies to integrate geographically distant
manufacturing and research facilities, link international financial markets, and
even provide customer service from halfway around the world.

• Offshore outsourcing is one of the manifestations of the trend toward

globalization— blurring of geographic barriers—that is accelerated by
information technology.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Well-educated English-speaking employees residing in countries like India and
the Philippines can perform services demanded by firms based in the United
States, Great Britain, or any other country.

• In fact, outsourcing of white-collar services has already become mainstream,

with software development and call-center operations being among the most
prevalent.

• Furthermore, the outsourcing trends are naturally expanding into such activities
as processing of insurance claims, transcription of medical records, engineering
and design work, financial analysis, market research, and many others.

• From a macroeconomic perspective, the effects of offshore outsourcing are quite

positive: It facilitates a more efficient allocation of human resources by removing
the imperfections introduced by geographical boundaries. On a microeconomic
level, numerous companies will benefit from lower costs of outsourced activities.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts of Working from Home or Virtual Office.
• All forms of telecommuting working from home (WFH) or a virtual office give
employees greater flexibility in their working locations and hours.

• Working in a virtual office is one way an employee can telecommute by

completing job duties virtually anywhere—a car, hotel room, airport, or any
hotspot

• Potential Benefits of Telecommuting or Virtual Work to Individuals.

• Reduces or eliminates travel related time and expenses.
• Improves health by reducing stress related to compromises made between family
and work responsibilities.
• Allows closer proximity to and involvement with family.
• Allows closer bonds with the family and the community.
• Decreases involvement in office politics
• Increases productivity despite distractions.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Potential Benefits of Telecommuting or Virtual Work to Organizations.

• Reduces office space needed.

• Increases labor pool and competitive advantage in recruitment.
• Decreases employee turnover, absenteeism, and sick leave usage.
• Improves job satisfaction and productivity

• Potential Benefits of Telecommuting or Virtual Work to Organizations.

• Conserves energy and lessens dependence on foreign oil.
• Preserves the environment by reducing traffic-related pollution and congestion.
• Reduces traffic accidents and resulting injuries or deaths.
• Reduces the incidence of disrupted families when people do not have to quit their
jobs if they need to move because of a spouse’s new job or family obligations.
• Increased employment opportunities for the homebound.
• Allows the movement of job opportunities to areas of high unemployment
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts of IT on Structure, Authority, Power, and Job Content.

• Flat organizational hierarchies.

• IT increases span of control (more employees per supervisor), increases
productivity, and reduces the need for technical experts (due to expert systems).
• Fewer managerial levels will result, with fewer staff and line managers.
• Reduction in the total number of employees, reengineering of business processes,
and the ability of lower-level employees to perform higher-level jobs may result
in flatter organizational hierarchies.

• Change in blue-to-white-collar staff ratio.

• The ratio of white- to blue-collar workers increases as computers replace clerical
jobs, and as the need for information systems specialists increases. However, the
number of professionals and specialists could decline in relation to the total
number of employees in some organizations as intelligent and knowledge-based
systems grow.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts of IT on Structure, Authority, Power, and Job Content.

• Growth in number of special units

• IT makes possible technology centers, e-commerce centers, decision support
systems departments, and/or intelligent systems departments. Such units may
have a major impact on organizational structure, especially when they are
supported by or report directly to top management.

• Centralization of authority
• Centralization may become more popular because of the trend toward smaller
and flatter organizations and the use of expert systems.
• On the other hand, the Web permits greater empowerment, allowing for more
decentralization. Whether use of IT results in more centralization or in
decentralization may depend on top management’s philosophy.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts of IT on Structure, Authority, Power, and Job Content.

• Change in power and status

• Knowledge is power, and those who control information and knowledge are
likely to gain power.
• The struggle over who controls the information resources has become a conflict
in many organizations. In some countries, the fight may be between corporations
that seek to use information for competitive advantage and the government (e.g.,
Microsoft vs. the Justice Dept.).
• Elsewhere, governments may seek to hold onto the reins of power by not letting
private citizens access some information (e.g., China’s restriction of Internet
usage).
• Change in Job Content.
• Job content is interrelated with employee satisfaction, compensation, status, and
productivity. Resistance to changes in job skills is common, and can lead to
unpleasant confrontations between employees and management.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts of IT on personnel issues.

• Shorter career ladders.

• In the past, many professionals developed their abilities through years of
experience and a series of positions that exposed them to progressively more
complex situations.
• The use of IT, and especially Web-based computer-aided instruction, may short-
cut this learning curve.

• Changes in supervision.
• IT introduces the possibility for greater electronic supervision. In general, the
supervisory process may become more formalized, with greater reliance on
procedures and measurable (i.e., quantitative) outputs and less on interpersonal
processes. This is especially true for knowledge workers and telecommuters.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts of IT on personnel issues.

• Job mobility.
• The Web has the potential to increase job mobility. Sites such as techjourney.com
can tell you how jobs pay in any place in the United States. Sites like
monster.com offer places to post job offerings and résumés. Using
videoconferencing for interviews and intelligent agents to find jobs is likely to
increase employee turnover.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts on Health and Safety.
• Computers and information systems are a part of the environment that may
adversely affect individuals’ health and safety. To illustrate, we will discuss the
effects of job stress and long-term use of the keyboard.
• Job Stress.
• An increase in workload and/or responsibilities can trigger job stress.
Although computerization has benefited organizations by increasing
productivity, it has also created an ever-increasing workload for some
employees.
• Some workers, especially those who are not proficient with computers, but
who must work with them, feel overwhelmed and start feeling anxious about
their jobs and their job performance. These feelings of anxiety can adversely
affect workers’ productivity.
• Management’s responsibility is to help alleviate these feelings by providing
training, redistributing the workload among workers, or by hiring more
individuals.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts on Health and Safety.

• Repetitive Strain (Stress) Injuries.

• Other potential health and safety hazards are repetitive strain injuries such as
backaches and muscle tension in the wrists and fingers. Carpal tunnel syndrome is
a painful form of repetitive strain injury that affects the wrists and hands. It has
been associated with the long-term use of keyboards.
• Lessening the Negative Impact on Health and Safety.
• Designers are aware of the potential problems associated with prolonged use of
computers. Consequently, they have attempted to design a better computing
environment. Research in the area of ergonomics (the science of adapting
machines and work environments to people) provides guidance for these designers.
• For instance, ergonomic techniques focus on creating an environment for the
worker that is safe, well lit, and comfortable. Devices such as antiglare screens
have helped alleviate problems of fatigued or damaged eyesight, and chairs that
contour the human body have helped decrease backaches.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts Social Network.

• A False Sense of Connection

• We see this false sense of connection a lot more within families and relationships.
• One of the biggest enemies in many homes is - time. Complaining that “There’s
never enough time”, has become an increasingly common excuse.
• So we sit at the table or we go out; rationalizing that “we are spending time
together”. However, there is no real connection taking place with each other, when
each person is on their own media device.
• Focusing problems – easily distracted and loss of ability to concentrate.
• Lack of concern about one-on-one relationships – prioritizing social networking
over face to face family and friend relationships.
• Lessening communication skills – talking less, difficulty articulating thoughts into
words, inattentive when others are speaking.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Impacts Social Network.
• Unconcerned about obligations in the “real” world – more interested in checking
status updates and communicating on the internet than participating in activities off of
the computer.
• Withdrawal symptoms (agitation, fidgeting, aggressiveness, etc) when unable to
participate in social networking for a period of time.”
 Impact of IT to Society.
• The digital divide.

• Technologies enabling access to information are not distributed evenly among

various groups of people. For some people, information continues to be a scarce
resource, which puts them at a comparative economic and social disadvantage.

• The gap in computer technology in general, and now in Web technology in

particular, between those who have such technology and those who do not is
referred to as the digital divide.

• This situation has made some people particularly in the third world to be at the
disadvantage.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Machines Are Performing Functions Previously Performed by Humans
• One of the distinguishing traits of humankind is the continuous quest to find tools
and techniques to replace human work and manual labor. Information technology
greatly accelerates this process and allows machines to perform a variety of
complex functions, which, in the past, could be performed only by humans.

• Robotics offers a clear example of information technology eliminating the need for
human labor. Computerized transaction processing systems, automated teller
machines, intelligent scheduling software, and voice recognition systems illustrate
information technology’s capability to replace administrative and clerical work.

• Moreover, artificial intelligence and expert systems are now able to perform the
work of white-collar professionals. As functionality of machines and computer
systems continues to evolve, it will transform societies by influencing such critical
factors as the quality of life, the dynamics of labor markets, and the nature of
human interactions.
 Impact of IT to Society.
• Quality of life

• Refers to measures of how well we achieve a desirable standard of living. For

example, the use of robots in uncomfortable or dangerous environments is one of
the primary ways of improving the quality of life with information technology.
• For decades, robots have been used to replace physically demanding or tedious
activities in manufacturing plants. Robots and other quasi-autonomous devices
have become increasingly common on farm fields, in hospitals, and even in private
homes, improving the quality of life of numerous people.

• Impact on labour market.

• One of the most prominent concerns is the fear that due to technological advances,
machines will replace millions of workers, leading to mass unemployment. Robots
and office automation systems are effectively competing with humans for blue-
collar and clerical jobs. It is important to note that white-collar occupations are not
immune to the impact of information technology either.
 Summary.
• Discussed the various impact of technology on the:

• Individual

• Community

• Organization.