رابطه بین پذیرش فن آوری اطلاعات و ارتباطات و مدیریت

This paper examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption on management praxis. The study, building on the theoretical framework developed by Scott Morton and his colleagues, attempts to identify the dynamic relationships between ICT adoption and management efforts towards modernization and reorganization. Using data from leading Greek firms, we report evidence as to how changes in strategy, organizational structure, management systems, and human skills link with the current and prospective level of use of various types of advanced ICT. Findings generally appear to suggest that Greek firms are in a process of recognizing the potential of ICT to enable and support changes that are necessary for successfully competing in a hyper-competitive environment. In particular, ICT adoption is shown to affect strategy by supporting long-term strategic objectives and the quest for profitability. Indirectly, it also links to strategic planning systems. ICT is found to be related to an internal environment characterized by open organization and flexibility. Finally, the results show that the sample firms recognize the need for multi-skilled personnel to exploit the advantages stemming from ICT adoption.

It is now widely accepted that globalization, deregulation, and innovation, propelled by information and communication technologies (ICT) are the key forces shaping the economic landscape. ICT has come to constitute the basis of economic development both at the macro and micro levels, and hence those actors that fail to participate in such developments risk increasing marginalization. It is, therefore, no surprise that the impact of ICT adoption and use on the management of the firm has received considerable attention from researchers and practitioners alike. For the greatest part, empirical research on the subject has been conducted in the US and other large economies (e.g. UK, Canada, and Australia). It could be argued, however, that even as ICT in business organizations around the world converge, the impact of their use may well depend on national culture [27] and in the specific idiosyncrasies of the economic environment in which they are embedded. It thus remains unclear if, and to what extent, relevant findings are applicable to other countries, and especially those that can be called “advancing” or “emerging”, such as Greece. Generalizations about the outcomes related to ICT adoption cannot be made until research accumulates evidence of similar effects across different economic environments. After having made remarkable progress in terms of macroeconomic convergence, Greece has recently joined the Economic Monetary Union. Greek firms now face the challenge of continuously advancing their competitiveness in order to survive within the context of an increasingly hostile environment. On this account, they need to reorganize their structures, modernize their managerial practices and adopt new strategies for growth. These challenges are also indicative of the efforts needing to be undertaken by firms in other countries preparing to join the European Union, such as those of Eastern Europe (i.e. Hungary and Poland). The role of ICT in the success of these efforts may be decisive. Unfortunately, there is a relative lack of empirical research regarding the impact of advanced ICT on Greek management. This lack of attention is surprising, since it is often argued that ICT fundamentally challenges the traditional ways by which firms operate, as it enables, and in many cases drives dramatic changes in the structure and operation of organizations. On the other hand, to be able to respond to today’s ever changing competitive dynamics requires firms to adopt new ways of addressing market needs (e.g. innovation) as well as transforming the internal organization (i.e. reducing managerial layers, increasing flexibility, using team-based work, etc.); such changes may also affect the extent of ICT adoption. Hence, the relationship between ICT adoption and management praxis is one of mutual influence and impact. This study, building on the analytical framework developed by Scott Morton and his colleagues at MIT, attempts to identify the dynamic relationships involved between ICT adoption and management efforts. Using data from leading Greek firms we report evidence of recent changes in strategy, organizational structure, management systems, and human skills and their link to the current and prospective level of use of various types of advanced ICT.

Greece’s recent accession to the EMU has generated formidable challenges for Greek firms. Within this context, the primary aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between ICT adoption and Greek firms’ efforts towards modernization and reorganization. The findings indicate that current and prospective use of ICT is significantly associated with some important changes in strategy, organizational structure, management systems and human capital skills. These results, however, should be interpreted against the economic background within which they were obtained. In terms of ICT awareness and penetration, Greece lags behind countries like the US and other advanced economies in the EU [22]. Given this “immaturity” of the Greek environment, our finding of a generally weak direct relationship between strategy and ICT use may not be overtly surprising. Further, ICT may influence competitive strategy indirectly rather than directly. As revealed in many of the personal interviews that complemented survey data, even though ICT use does not influence the content of strategy per se, it does result in increased availability and enhanced quality of information on which strategic decision-making is based. This reflects a particular management perspective on ICT termed “informating up”. According to Schein [48], the diffusion of information supplied by ICT can be used to tighten, consolidate, and perhaps expand the power and scope of strategic control over enterprise activities. This line of reasoning is compatible with the recent resource-based theorizing [4] and [59] and the ‘strategic necessity hypothesis’ [17] and [23]. The major premise is that ICT advantage depends heavily on “fitting the pieces together”, that is, on exploiting relationships among complementary organizational resources. The significant relationship between ICT use and long-term objectives as well as the positive impact on the use of formal planning systems seem to point to this direction as a fruitful venue for future empirical research. With respect to the relationship between ICT and organizational structure, the results reveal a rich set of significant direct associations. Overall, our findings imply that ICT is linked to a structural environment characterized by open organization and flexibility. It appears that Greek firms have begun to recognize the ability of ICT to release information throughout a lean hierarchical structure, while at the same time supporting managers’ decisional capacity. Through informating down, managerial work shows signs of becoming better delineated, less formalized, and more decentralized. These results could also be interpreted as a sign of recognition of the fact that ICT-related benefits may be negated by structural constrictions. It is important to emphasize, however, that the results indicate a noticeable lack of association between certain types of ICT (i.e. PSI and communication technologies) and structural elements, such as formalization and centralization. Moreover, some of the significant associations found concern prospective, but not current use of ICT. This leads us to suspect that the observed transformation of organizational structure represents first-order change (i.e. incremental modification of existing arrangements), which is perhaps inadequate [41]. As Orlikowski and Gash [36] have argued, the exploitation of ICT typically necessitates second-order change, that is, radically different internal frames and processes that replace the existing status quo. In the long run, ICT exploitation may even require the creation of the very capacity to change (i.e. third-order change). Personal interviews with a number of respondents have confirmed that the pattern of observed structural changes is incremental rather than radical in nature. The interviews permit some optimism for the future, since they also confirm an awareness of the need for continuous implementation of structural changes. Turning to the relationship between ICT adoption and the use of management systems, the results show a strong association between ICT and strategic planning; this suggests an indirect rather than a direct relationship with the firms’ strategic behavior. This result is in line with academic and practice-oriented literature that strongly argues the need to integrate ICT with overall strategic planning efforts (e.g. [8] and [19]). Finally, as regards employee skills, the results show that ICT adoption is related to a job enlargement effect [60] of managerial work, a trend that is similar to wisdom worldwide. Admittedly, our results do not and can not indicate how far the sample firms are willing to go in providing employees access to information and autonomy to explore the possibilities offered by ICT. Maybe the management culture in Greece is changing; from the traditional command and control style characterizing until recent times many firms [30], to one embracing a more open philosophy with respect to human capital. These results shed some light on the relationships between ICT adoption and change in the management of leading Greek firms. A limitation concerns the measurement of management practices, which was not exhaustive. Because of the exploratory nature of the research, it was thought best to begin with broad elements within each of the management dimensions examined. Our use of perceptual measures need not be considered a weakness, but does suggests that the respondents’ perceptions as to the magnitude of change might not necessarily coincide exactly with reality. Future research could examine the complementarities between ICT and organizational factors, particularly the firm’s dynamic capabilities [53], which, from a resource-based perspective, constitute the fundamental basis for creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Moreover, it would be useful to see if similar studies, using data from other small economies—perhaps those preparing for joining the EU (e.g. Hungary, Poland, etc.), provide comparable results. Accumulating a body of research with findings extended to contexts other than large economies would hopefully provide a more global view of the relationship between ICT and management.