Organization follows Technology ? LO13354

Mitchell Owen (mowen@amani.ces.ncsu.edu)
Tue, 22 Apr 1997 16:59:29 -0400 (EDT)

Replying to LO13334 --

On Apr 21, 11:33pm, Carold.Whisnant@astd.noli.com wrote:
> I vote that it is people who create technology. I vote that people
> identify a need before new technology is introduced. I vote that the
> driver of any and all technology changes are people.
>
> I know I talk with people and read about people who are changing their
> organizations and business processes to be compliant with leading edge
> technology and other technology that is beneficial to them or their
> business. We must keep in mind that someone, somewhere, somehow, had
> the foresight to recognize a need for that technology.

Butch...

I have been lurking for a while and had some thoughts...

I agree in part, but keep in mind.. G. Bell was not designing the
telephone.. he just wanted to listen to music in the next room... so
while all technology is developed for a particular need.... it often meets
other needs that the creator is not aware of due their own personal
paradym... The printing press was developed for printing bibles and it
created the greatest expansion in free thought in our history...

In the past couple of years.. I have seen the world wake up to the power
of Internet.. and many of the commercial sector are stuggling to see what
it is all about.. working in old paradyms.. but the technology is
creating a new organization... a new way of working... and thus in the
case of technology... it is the organizations who recognize this and
explore what the technology will do for them that will be most
successful.. so its really both.. some technology follows the organizaion
and some technology leads the organization....

> To me, learning organizations is a term we are currently using to
> describe something that has always been there. I would like to pose a
> question. Do organizations learn differently from people? Keep in
> mind an organization is made up of unique people and technology. A
> slight rephrase of the question. Do we really learn any different than
> we did yesterday?

Yes we learn different... we are evolving from an production model of
education to a collaborative and self-directed model... Remember that the
production model did not believe people had much to offer.. it was the
process that added effectiveness and efficiency.... I think the question
is much deeper and falls back to the industrial age... The production
model (and technology) created our structured/control type of
organizations... The information age is contributing to a much less
structured and free flowing organization.. it makes perfect sense if you
believe that the technology is what shapes our paradyms...

Mitch

-- 
Mitchell B. Owen			ESFJ Spoken Here!
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