Information Management and The Impact of Sociotechnical Systems - Coursework Example

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Information management Compare the impact of sociotechnical systems on the emergence of two technologies - one developed before 1920 and one after - using two topics from the course”. Introduction Technology has brought in a new face of interaction between people who exude different behaviors. In many cases, the use of technology has led to multiple and unexpected outcomes. However, it is worthwhile to recognize that technology is entrenched in a multifaceted set of procedures, people, the environment, and other technologies. The interactions of all these facets make up the socio-technical systems. Sociotechnical systems are approaches that relates to organizational work design with complexities that takes cognizance of people and technology at their work places in the context of organizational development. It simply describes the manner in which the infrastructural complexities in the society interact with the human behavior. In this regard, the society and many of its substructures become socio-technical systems with many complexities. Regardless of several socio-technical systems, this paper compares Facebook and telegraph. Facebook and telegraph Telegraph is a system of communication that receives and transmits simple but unmodulated impulses in electric form. In many cases, a wire connects the reception station to a transmission station. Although the major operations in telegraphy started in the 1940s, it was actually introduced at the beginning of 20th century. The beginning of the use of telegraphy can be traced back to 1917 when short congratulatory messages were sent to people celebrating their one-hundredth birthday. The Royal Mail’s Inland Telegraph Service provided the first service in telegraph (Metcalfe, 1992, p. 5). On its part, Facebook was founded in the year 2004 by mark Zuckerberg while still a student at Harvard University. To date, Facebook has since emerged as the leading site with close to 900 million users. Apparently, both Facebook and telegraph are sources of information systems where people and organizations interact and share information. Comparisons between Facebook and telegraph Telegraph requires the operation of a human medium while Facebook is an individual operating system. Apart from the rights administrators, the user without any external intervention can individually operate Facebook. For the efficient use of telegraphy, there must be actual employees stationed at the transmission and reception stations to manage the process of communication. A telegraphy operator can have a direct and personal conversation without knowing the identity of the person. As examples of information systems, both Facebook and telegraph offer socio-technical systems platform where participants develop, organize and manage information and its contents (Grint & Willocks, 1995, p. 54). This makes these two systems fit for organizational management. They both satisfy the information needs of organizations through the production, dissemination and controlling of knowledge. However, while telegraph relies on paper work to convey information, Facebook requires an internet empowered gadget to transmit information. Such gadgets might include computers, mobile technologies, PDAs, net books, laptops, and tablets (Hammer, 1990, p. 1). Using telegraph for the transmission of information can encounter barriers such as distance, weather conditions, and other physical attributes. This is not true about Facebook. Apart from countries where there are strict sanctions on internet use, Facebook transcends all boundaries of the world irrespective of the distance, time, speed, and weather conditions. One of the most significant hurdles concerning the use of Facebook involves the availability of the internet. Apparently, the cost of the internet is still expensive to the majority of people of the world, and this consequently hampers their access to Facebook (Eisenstein, 2002, p. 127). Impacts of telegraph The history of telegraphy dates back to the revolution of the print media. In those ancient times, earlier scholars used the press to advance their monastic life. However, it was late after the beginning of the 20th century, that telegraphy came into being (Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 85). Telegraphy offers text based interactions that are important for offsetting bodily constraints by the user. It is not necessary the user becomes identifiable with what he or she delivers as a communication. They emancipate the mind and allow people to openly communicate without regards to age, race, and gender. Telegraph has had various impacts in the socio-technical systems. In journalism, it helped the aspects of the newsgathering and delivery. It enabled journalism to assume an objective approach instead of the traditional partisan reporting. As an information system tool, telegraphy has ensured that information relay flows in a smooth manner besides being unadorned and lean. Such kind of information is simple and easy to analyze. Additionally, telegraphy has enabled the dissemination of news materials in bulky volumes in an organized, routinely and timely manner. As a result, the newsroom organization turned into factory like (Silva & Fulk, 2012, p. 240). Telegraph has enhanced commerce in business organization, governments, and the military departments. The socio-technical systems of telegraphy also encouraged more critical analysis of the market situations for many business organizations globally. In essence, the prices of goods across the United States became uniform regardless of their geographical position. In many other occasions, telegraphy enhanced the determination of time zones (Coe, 2003, p. 26). Consequently, the frequencies of the use of roads and railways increased exponentially leading to increased business expansions. Consequently, the United States developed diverse zones of time. Therefore, the technological power behind the telegraph contributed immensely to the creation of the time zones. Even though, not everybody was appreciative of the time zones caused by telegraphy, it nevertheless managed to play a pivotal role in enhancing business management (Power M. , 1996, p. 31). Impacts of face book Facebook is a socio-technical system developed in 2004. This implies that it has entrenched new concepts of communication and interaction as compared to the ones used during the 20th century. However, the most significant aspects of Facebook are attributable to the way it has managed to change lives and the ways of doing business. Through face book, the world has been able to return to neighborly communication. This is because the social networking site has enabled the connection and interaction of more than 125 billion people (Power, 2003, p. 383). People have been able to reconnect with lost friends through Facebook and exchange contacts in addition to creating further contacts. Available reports indicate that in this socio-technical system, users upload more than three hundred photos annually. This number keeps on increasing. Through this, users get updated information about processes in their lives through friends and relatives. Photo uploading also enhances memory of the lost friends besides creating visibility of people. The visibility of a friend on Facebook where one can access and communicate with him or her at anytime helps to contribute to good neighborliness (Haggerty, 2001, p. 710). Facebook drives democracies in various territorial boundaries. The most significant cases in point are the infamous uprisings in the Middle East. Incidentally, the uprising began in Tunisia began after a street hawker burned himself, protesting the humiliations suffered in the hands of the police for lack of a business permit. These incidences were captured on cameras and shared through Facebook (Baloun, 2007, p. 90). Upon viewing the scene, the public in Tunisia became agitated and resorted to protests in the streets. They encouraged other Facebook users to come out in large numbers and participate in the strike. The success of the Tunisian revolution encouraged other countries such as Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria to follow suit in the protest. In the countries that managed to overturn their leadership brass, there was a subsequent restoration of democracy. Tunisia and Egypt conducted free and fair democratic elections where the citizens got an opportunity to elect leaders of their choice through a democratic means. This illustrates the contribution of Facebook in the restoration of democracy in otherwise dictatorial states (Introna, 2003, p. 238). Facebook is also a crucial tool in the management and sharing of the contents of the media. There are several sites on Facebook with the ‘like’ button. These sites allow users to access and share contents that they consider important. In this regard, most media outlets ensure that they include the ‘like’ link to their contents when posting them on Facebook as a way of encouraging its spread. Therefore, Facebook has ensured that the sharing of contents becomes easy. This implies that information now reaches many people within limited period as opposed to the past when a media outlet like a newspaper must physically distribute its copies to the people in the streets (Brivot, 2011, p. 489). This insinuates that the society comprehends its position within the market set-up, and contributes to the progress of ideologies and facts. The emergence of Facebook as a socio-technical system has increased business management owing to the advancements and improvements in the way consumers behave digitally. With the number of Facebook users always on the increase, the online population of the world is increasing as well. Many of the Facebook users are brand consumers who are willing to share their most appealing products and services to their peer, colleagues and friends. This largely helps the brand companies advertise and engage their customers directly. Alternatively, companies can engage their customers through sharing success consumer stories to potential consumers who are Facebook users. The prevailing dynamics in the field of doing business require intelligent business managers who are committed to making the business achieve its goals maximally. This will require them to look for ways of realigning their businesses to information-based platforms of their time. The present day business demographics will not require the use of telegraphs as an option. Apparently, the economics of the day have dictated the changes for business innovation by entrepreneurs. According to Drucker (1998), the use of computer technology in the socio-technical system can have positive outcomes in the capital investment decisions (Drucker, 1998). The popularity of Facebook has been explored by business organizations to advance their agendas in their economic and instrumental habitation. The socio technical systems of Facebook manifest the processes through which organizations grow rapidly in engulfing the operations of that business enterprise (Willmott, 1995, p. 7). It also serves as a determining factor of the conditional terms upon which an organization redefines its conditions and terms concerning production and distribution of goods and services. The management of information system requires an organization to relay the social networking system that encompasses the wider initiatives of economic, institutional, and technological aspects. Through this process, the organization can easily generate process, store, and communicate its ideas in a majorly crucial trans-organizational domain of delivering message and data (Mowshowitz, 2011, p. 271). The success of organizations to apply the socio-technical systems in their management objectives depends on the ability of that organization to install functions and structures that are dependent largely on computer based information technology (Quattrone & Hopper, 2005, p. 744). Computer based information technology operate without the hindrances of geographical distance and time limitations (Neil, Williams, & Procter, 2003, p. 15). In this context, an organization can successfully run its operation in manner that befits a classroom without walls. The use of Facebook in the virtual organization has the implication of enabling shifts in the responsibilities of job specifications. As a result, the management and the employees of the organization will have extraordinary flexibility in their functionality and responsiveness to their work and operating environment (Mowshowitz, 2011, p. 273). The choice of the most appropriate socio-technical system to adapt by an organization is not an easy one. With vey many socio technical systems and the social network sites, it will be complex for an entity to select the most adequate and relevant one. This is partly because many of these social networking sites have membership of clients drawn from diverse backgrounds, some of which might not be interested in an organization’s products and services (Hislop, 2002, p. 662). It is based on the understanding that an organization ought to have sufficient knowledge on the operations of the socio-technical systems for successful management of information systems. Blacker contends that knowledge must emerge as a significant tool for strategic business management (Blacker, 1995). Reference List Baloun, K 2007, Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness, Karel Baloun, Victoria, B.C. Blacker, F 1995, Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations: An Overview and Interpretaion, Organization Studies, 16.6 , 1021. Brivot, M 2011, Controls of Knowledge Production, Sharing and Use in Bureautratized Professional Service Firms, Organizational Studies, 32 , 489. Coe, L 2003, The Telegraph: A History of Morses Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States, McFarland, Jefferson, N.C. Drucker, P1998, The Coming of the New Organization, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Havard Business Review. 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