Organisation Value Strategies and How These Are Supported by Modern Technology - Dissertation Example

? Investigation and evaluation of Organisation Value Strategies and how these are supported by modern Technology Declaration I hereby declare that the research proposal titled ‘Investigation and evaluation of Organisation Value Strategies and how these are supported by modern Technology’ is my original work and has been carried out by me. References to any work done by other persons and that has been used in my work has been duly acknowledged and cited. I certify that this paper have not been submitted by any other person or elsewhere. I understand that misrepresentation of material may lead to revocation of academic awards. Any other person who uses this work should acknowledge it accordingly. Student's Signature: Date: Contents Introduction The success of an organization is highly dependent on its values and strategies used to attain those values. For an organization to be competitive, it must have a well- established business strategy that will be pivotal in helping it achieve its values. Values are the ones that guide the activities of organizations. Values can be defined as the good or worthwhile traits and qualities within the organization. They are indicators of the highest priorities of the organization. They are the ones that drive the organization towards achieving its objectives. Within an organization, value statements dictate the manner with which individuals will behave. It is worth noting that the behaviour of individuals has an impact on the performance of the organization. In addition, the way individuals behave with each other could be a motivating factor for employees. Organizational suggests the value that the organization has put on customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. Some of the most common values that can be embraced in an organization are; individuality, equality, responsibility, accountability, loyalty, credibility and honesty among others. The list of values that organizations can adopt is endless (Stein & Christiansen, 2010). Strategies can be defined as the approaches that the organization uses to achieve its values, goals and objectives. Developing strategies is very critical for any organization since this will draw the path through which the organization will attain its future success. Managers should invest enough time in defining the strategies that the organization will use to accomplish its values. For instance, value accomplishment can be facilitated by empowering employees. Employees have the ability to give the organization a competitive advantage. They are the once who facilitate the achievement of organizational goals and therefore they should be empowered. In the wake of the 20th century, technology has been advancing at a higher rate as compared to any other time in the past. Modern technology has the ability to support organizational value strategies. It offers a number of options that can be used as strategies to achieve its values. For instance, consumer value can be attained through innovation (Stein & Christiansen, 2010). In addition, accountability and loyalty can also be attained through innovation. Innovation is the lifeblood of today’s organizations. Organizations need to be highly innovative for them to survive in the economic environment. It is very difficult for any business to make it today without being innovative. Each of the businesses wants to have a large share of the market to maximize its revenue and therefore has to be creative in order to attract customers. Technology has led to emergence of businesses being conducted online which help in supporting the organizational value strategies. Modern technology is essential in supporting the organizational value strategies since it enables an organization to improve its innovation capability and hence gain a competitive advantage (Matheson & Matheson, 1998). Over the last couple of decades, academicians have focused their attention to modern technology. They evaluate how the technology can be used to help the organization attain a competitive advantage. However, not much research has been directed towards the benefits that organizational value strategies can reap from the modern technology. It is worth noting that each organization has its own strategies. The differences in strategies depend on the values of that organization and the form of business that it engages in. Whereas the approaches may be different, each of them can be supported by technology. In fact, technology will add value on the organizational values and will consequently give it a competitive advantage (Stein & Christiansen, 2010). Planning of organizational values should be centered on technology. Therefore, the strategies in a way focus on technology and how technology can support the business. Technology can also result to a roadblock towards achieving business strategies when various proponents of Information Strategy perceive values differently. Therefore, all stakeholders should be in agreement on the values the organization wishes to attain and how it is going to attain them. This calls for effective communication. The major objective of this research is to investigation and evaluation of Organisation Value Strategies and how these are supported by modern technology. In conducting the research, I will evaluate the various strategies that are used by organizations at Swansea. I will compare the various strategies applied by Swansea organizations and conduct an evaluation of how the strategies can be supported by modern technology. I will visit various organizations in Swansea, interview the relevant authorities to establish the strategies applied in the organizations, then record them and analyse them to come up with a conclusion on how modern technology can support organization strategic values. Another aim will be to identify the benefits that an organization can get from modern technology. Modern technology is said to have many benefits to the organization. This research will identify those benefits. Also, it will be aiming to come up with a strategy that can be used by the organization in order to successfully implement modern technology. In addition, the research will aim to identify the barriers that prevent organizations from implementing technology. Finally, it will come up with ways in which these barriers can be overcome. Literature Review According to Smith, Mckeen and Singh 2007, the role the information technology plays in organizations is evolving. Information technology issues are now being debated in the boardrooms and I. T. is expected to play a very significant role in the development of top line values of businesses as well as business transformation. I. T professionals are currently assuming risk management roles. Information technology is associated with a number of risks and as a result, managers should be well armed to manage the risks so as to prevent the projects from failing. They are faced with the prospect of solving technical and business problems associated with technology with pressures coming from inside and outside the organizations. Organizations need to align their strategic values with the I. T values. For this reason, I. T. professionals are assuming the responsibility of change leadership in organizations. In the past, business strategies have been the once driving IT strategy. However, this has changed and different approaches re now required to facilitate development of desirable strategies. Modern technology has the ability to shape the strategic path of an organization. I. T. has made it possible for organizations to develop new business strategies. Despite the ways in which I. T. is developed, managers and I. T. professionals should ensure that the I. T. strategies are closely linked with the business values. This means that the Information Technology Strategies and the Business strategies should complement each other so as to support the development of organizational strategic values. Therefore, strategic development within business organizations is supposed to be a two way process (i. e.) the I. T. strategies and the business values. Information technology has become vital in the development as well as delivery of business strategies (Smith, Mckeen and Singh, 2007). It will be integral in the development of the organizational value strategies. These strategies will in turn give the organization a competitive advantage. According to Lin & Huang 2009, modern technology is an item that every business organization should have. It has the ability to give organizations a competitive advantage since flow of information will be enhanced as well as the quality and efficiency of services. Those organizations that have already embraced modern technology are flourishing in their business activities. They have been able to develop viable organizational values that are giving them a competitive advantage via the support of modern technology. As mentioned by Zhu et al. 2004, the size of an organization is inversely proportional to the value they derive from modern technology adoption. Swansea city has many small business enterprises that drive its economy. These enterprises are likely to benefit from modern technology if they embrace it. The benefit they get is actually bigger than the benefits large organizations are likely to get. Each organization has its own objectives and will always work towards achieving those goals. For an organization to facilitate its goal achievement, modern technology would be very helpful especially in the current economic environment. However, the organization needs to choose the best technologies that will fit its business objectives (MacGregor & Vrazalic, 2007). Therefore, it has to first learn the objectives of each technology and then relate them to its objectives. Most organizations especially organizations have failed to successfully evaluate modern technology since they have not been able to choose the correct technologies for their business. The general objectives of modern technology include; enhancing innovation, creating awareness that the business can be able to create awareness about its products through the internet, improve communication and sharing of information as well as improve the efficiency. There are more objectives most of which are specific for each business. The organizations should also carry out thorough pre- project justification before implementing the information system project so as to ensure that it does not fail in the process. Organizations should conduct an evaluation of the value IT investment. This evaluation is usually a complex one in terms of finance, technical and social threads and for this reason, many organizations tend to ignore it or they deal with it ineffectively. As a result of this poor evaluation, most IT projects have ended up in failure and do not deliver what they were expected to at the time they are implemented. Organizations are said to implement IT technologies without putting in place the necessary tools that can be used to track or measure the projects. It is imperative to note that the pay- offs for implementing Information Technology projects in the organization are difficult to control and they invariably rely on other organizational business functions. The benefits that the organizations get from modern technology are usually qualitative and they cannot be calculated in monetary terms. Therefore, organizations have to accurately and effectively link the organizational objectives with those of technology to avoid setbacks (Mirtidis and Serafeimidis, 1994). Research has indicated that Information technology is very beneficial to business enterprises. However, most organizations especially the small business enterprises have not yet adopted the Information Technology. Most of the organizations that have not adopted I.T. are in the developing countries. There are efforts to support information technology among small business organizations in the developed countries (Iddris, 2012). In the United Kingdom, Wales has been in the front line to support information technology among organizations. There are factors which are perceived to cause barriers or make it difficult for organizations to adopt information technology. Among these factors include; lack of senior management support, the initial cost involved in implementing I. T., resistance by some members of the organization, organization cultures as well as I. T. security. Small business enterprises need to be assisted to overcome these barriers so that they can also reap the benefits of technology. As it has been mentioned earlier in this article, modern technology is very significant in facilitating organizational development and attainment of strategic values. If business organizations fail to get the benefits of modern technology, they are likely to have a poor run of results in the future since the world is trending towards technology and there is a high possibility that most of the transactions in future will be completed online. Communication is also enhanced highly by technology as well as innovation (Iddris, 2012). It is important to note that innovation is the lifeblood of organizations today. An organization has to be creative in order to attract more customers and gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. These barriers provide an insight to the concerned parties to assist organizations in the implementation of modern technology. The parties which can be of help to organizations include; the government agencies and policy makers who should make the legal system easier for business organizations to adopt modern technology (Iddris, 2012). This could be by removing some of the taxes involved so as to reduce the initial costs of implementation. Supply chain experts and I. T. experts should also play their role in helping organizations that are willing to adopt the new technology. It is important to give every support to businesses to help them grow since they are vital for the growth of the economy. Small business organizations will help in diversifying the economies across the world. They have the potential to create more job opportunities since they still have the capacity to grow. In fact, small enterprises are said to account for about 60% - 70% of jobs both in the developing and the developed nations. This highlights the importance of supporting them and ICT will be significant in their development (Iddris, 2012). According to April and Pather 2008, investment in world-wide web technologies has been on the increase over the last ten years. In fact, this has become a very important venture for business organizations since it aids their development and growth. Business users mostly those in the small business enterprise sector relying on outsourcing most of their services to Information System service providers. The IS providers offer high quality services to small organizations which have impacted the IS effectiveness of those business organizations. According to the past research and literature regarding Information systems, technology has the ability to change organizations from conducting business the traditional way to adopt modern ways of doing business which are more effective. There are several approaches that have been developed on how to evaluate the effectiveness of Information Systems in small business organizations. Among the approaches include; IS usage, cost- benefit analysis, the quality of decisions made through the help of IS as well as user information satisfaction. Organizations will always tend to focus on the outcome of any of these approaches so as to evaluate the effectiveness of information systems. The most common outcome is that IS improves the effectiveness of any business services and therefore it is worth investing in it. Much of the research involving modern technology in business organizations has mostly been focused on the quality of services that the customers get from the technology. Customers are always willing to get the best services for business enterprises and it is for this reason that organizations opt to outsource Information Systems to IS experts to ensure maximum benefits. While this could be an advantage to the organizations, it might have a disadvantage in that the external experts do not have a clear picture of the organizational goals and therefore their services may not be in line with the objectives of the organization. This will lead to failure of information systems in the organizations (April and Pather, 2008). In addition, outsourcing IS services will be expensive in the long run. Therefore, the best solution for them would be to get their own experts and implement their own IS. This would be more beneficial and would boost the evaluation of e- commerce. Research has also indicated that the use of technology in small organizations is different from that of large organizations. However, the principles of I. T. are similar and they do not change depending on the size of the organization. The differences arise due to the methods used to manage IS in both large and small organizations. If small organizations manage IS properly, they will get as much benefit as larger organizations do. In fact, they are likely to even benefit more. A substantial amount of money is being spent in most regions of the world in order to stimulate the development of information technology in organizations. In the United Kingdom, the process has been on- going for quite some time. One of the regions where investments are being made in I. T. is in Wales where SMEs are being supported with all means to help them adopt new and modern ways of doing business which could help them in achieving their organizational values. The major reason that the government in the United Kingdom has invested heavily in the SMEs is the fact that they play a significant role in the UK economy. They are said to account for about 99.8% of all the business enterprises in the United Kingdom. In Wales, they account for approximately 99.9% of the total enterprises. The government recognizes the importance of small business organizations in the economy in a big way. They are the backbone of economic growth, they form the largest source of employment, and they are also significant in social cohesion and also in the local development. In Wales, small enterprises generate about 66% of the total employment. In addition, the SMEs are accountable for about 57% turnover in Wales. This is an indication that the nation is highly dependent on the success of these small businesses. Therefore, the government has to be highly concerned about the development of small business since they have the ability to raise the GDP per head in the country significantly (European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation, Brown and ECITE, 2002). The emergence of globalization as well as the development of technology has brought a new life for business and opened up paths for them to join the foreign markets and new ways of attaining strategic organization values. It has also helped them reduce the operation costs for running their businesses. However, there are some transition costs that have to be incurred as enterprises move from traditional ways of transacting to the modern ways of doing business. In addition, these organizations have to face new competition and bare the risks of adopting e- commerce. The enterprises should weigh between the risks and the benefits. Normally, benefits always out -weigh the risks. In fact, the risks are almost insignificant if the right procedures are followed in implementing information technology and if the organization is able to link its objectives with those of I. T. The government of the United Kingdom has found it vital to encourage and support innovative development in the small business enterprises (European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation, Brown and ECITE, 2002). Large organizations in Wales and from all over the globe have been involved in modern technology for a relatively long period of time. They have benefited from this venture and have been able to gain competitive advantages. The urgency to improve the entire business sector is high since the country has been predominantly an agricultural economy but due to the increased global competition, the demand for its products has decreased significantly. Indigenous business base as well as production with low added value has been the major contributors to the poor economic growth of Wales and hence the need for ICT in business organizations will play a major role in reviving it. In the early 2000s, the usage of technology in Wales was much lower as compared to other nations in the United Kingdom. However, the statistics have changed and more businesses are now adopting modern technology in Wales. According to European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation, Brown and ECITE 2002, the barriers to I. T. adoption by organizations are financial strains, lack of skills, lack of enough information, and fears over legal issues among others. Research Methodology This is a research whose outcomes are expected to have a lot of significance to the business organizations in Swansea. The findings will be considered in improving the business strategies of Swansea organizations. Therefore, the correct methodology has to be chosen so as to ensure comprehensive research outcomes. There is a need for a positive research in the field of modern technology that will be effective in improving the organizations. Business organizations are very important in the world economy since they provide most of the employments and are also very influential in the global economic development. There have been an improvement in the evaluation of modern technology in businesses over the last couple of years but the support the adoption of these organizations seem far from significant. The main objective of the research will focus on the ways in which modern technology can be used to support organizational value strategies. The methodology chosen here should eliminate any form of bias that may interfere with the result and the conclusion of this research. Qualitative research methods have been known for their ability to make complex issues more understandable. Qualitative methods usually follow inductive methods that help in the generation of hypothesis that can be used in the future for studies that might be conducted in the field (Kumar 2010). Therefore, the upcoming researchers will have an opportunity to establish the relationships that exist between the research questions. In addition, qualitative research is known to give the study a wide range of dimensions and hence the study will have more possible outcomes. This helps the researcher to choose the best dimension that will give the best outcome. Another major importance of qualitative research is the facts that it can deal with data collected directly from the field and therefore it will give real time results. The results obtained from qualitative research are applicable in real life since they have been reached through analysing live data. In the case of Swansea organization strategies, this method will help the researcher understand the extent to which modern technology is applied and the reasons that have led to the slow implementation of I. T. Therefore, the results obtained will be helpful in addressing the current problem and how it can be solved. The first step in any research is the definition of the problem. The researcher should first identify the problem which he or she wishes to research about. He should identify whether the problem is critical or not so as to decide on the urgency of the report. Identification of the problem will then guide the researcher in the planning process. He will be able to know the first step all the way to the last step of the research and the time that should be taken at each stage. The research will then be conducted according to the plan. Upon completion of the research a report will be developed and presented to the relevant personnel. For the purpose of this research, the problem is investigation and evaluation of Organisation Value Strategies and how these are supported by modern Technology in Swansea. Modern technology is vital for the development of organizational value strategies which are in turn significant components of the global economy. The planning process will involve determining the resources that would be important in the research and ensuring that they are available to ensure timely running of the process. All the steps to be conducted in the process will be drafted to offer guidance to the research. Any limitation that may hinder the smooth progress of the research will be noted and addressed ahead so as to avoid inconveniences. Once the planning process is completed, the actual research will now start. A study on the benefits that modern technology brings to the companies will be conducted. Particularly, the aim will be to study the ways by which modern technology can support organization value strategies for organizations in Swansea. Then, the target companies will be contacted first. Then questionnaires will be sent to them where the managers will be given four weeks to complete the forms. There will be frequent visits to the companies to enable gathering of as much information as possible. In collecting data for this research, questionnaires will be used where managers for various will be required to answer a number of questions. The questionnaires will be sent to the managers through e- mail. They will be given four weeks to fill and send them back. Managers are known to be busy and they may not have much time to fill the questionnaires and it is for this reason that they will be given a fortnight. There will be an additional one week for those managers who might not be able to return the questionnaires within the four weeks. Some of the organizations will be physically visited and a face to face interview will be conducted with the managers. This will be important so as to complement the questionnaires. Face to face interview is likely to give more accurate responses and therefore they will be used to make the questionnaires answers more comprehensive. Once the data is collected, it will be analysed but this will be preceded by a preparation of voluminous information from the companies visited. Coding will be done in order to check the similarities in the data as well as the differences that might exist. The results will then be analysed through the help of SPSS software. Once the results have been achieved from SPSS, tables and charts will then be prepared so as to analyse the patterns of data that have been collected from various managers. Resources and Planning This research will require proper planning and sufficient resources to ensure its smooth completion. The following are the resources that might be required; computer systems for data storage and analysis, application packages (SPSS) that will help with data analysis, questionnaires that will be sent to the managers as well as a programming language. In addition, money will be required for the various trips that will be made to the companies as well as to finance any other requirement that may be found essential for the research. The following is the Gantt chart that describes how the process will be conducted. Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors Resource Names Auto Scheduled Problem identification 7 days Tue 15/10/13 Tue 22/10/13 Auto Scheduled Planning 21 days Fri 01/11/13 Tue 21/11/13 Auto Scheduled Preparation of questionnaires 3 days Wed 06/11/13 Fri 08/11/13 Auto Scheduled Sending the questionnaires to managers 7 days Mon 18/11/13 Mon 25/11/13 Auto Scheduled Visitation to companies/filling of questionnaires 30 days Mon 02/12/13 Wed 01/01/14 Auto Scheduled Collection of the questionnaires 7 days Fri 03/01/14 Fri 10/01/14 Auto Scheduled Coding the data 14 days Fri 31/01/14 Fri 14/02/14 Auto Scheduled Analysis of the data 21 days Thur 20/02/14 Sat 15/03/14 Auto Scheduled Interpretation of the results 14 days Mon 24/03/14 Wed 07/04/14 Auto Scheduled Developing a report 21 days Mon 21/04/14 Mon 12/05/14 Questionnaire 1. What is the name of your organization? 2. What is the main business of your organization? 3. What are the mission and values of your organization? 4. Which strategies do the management use to achieve the organizational objectives? 5. Has the organization been able to achieve its values and objectives? 6. If no what are the perceived reasons for the failure? 7. If yes how did it manage to achieve this? What strategies did it use? 8. Is there information technology system in the organization? 9. If no why has the organization failed to implement Information System? 10. Could the management be willing to implement modern technology in the organisation? Reference List April, G. D. and Pather, S. 2008, Evaluating Service Quality Dimensions within e-Commerce SMEs, The Electronic Journal Information Systems Evaluation, Volume 11 Issue 3, pp. 109 - 124, available online at www.ejise.com European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation, Brown, A., and ECITE 2002, Ninth European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation: Universite? Paris-Dauphine, France, 15 - 16 July 2002. Reading, UK: MCIL. Iddris, F, 2012, Adoption of E-Commerce Solutions in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Ghana; European Journal of Business and Management; Vol 4, No.10 pp. 48-57 Kumar, R, 2010, Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners, London, SAGE MacGregor R, C, & Vrazalic, L, 2007, E-commerce in regional small to medium enterprises, Hershey, PA : IGI Pub Matheson, D., & Matheson, J. E, (1998), The smart organization: Creating value through strategic R & D. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press. Miller, S, A, 2007, Developmental research methods, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Mirtidis, D., and Serafeimidis, V. 1994, Evaluating Information Technology Investments In Greece, Proceedings of the 1st European Conference on IT Investment Evaluation, Henley, September, 167-177. Smith H. A., Mckeen, J. D. & Singh S. (2007), Developing Information Technology Strategy For Business Value; Journal of Information Technology Management; Volume XVIII, Number1 pp. 49-58 Stein, M. A., & Christiansen, L, (2010), Successful onboarding: A strategy to unlock hidden value within your organization. New York: McGraw-Hill. Read More