Utilizing Information Technology Can Always Enhance Employee and Organizational Productivity - Coursework Example

Information technology can always enhance employee and organizational productivity, and will result in increased business performance.’ To what extent do you agree or disagree with this viewpoint? Justify your answer by looking into the impacts of information technology on the management functions and provide examples from business perspective to support your discussion. The most important goal in an organization is to increase productivity. The common means which are known to increase productivity in the organization is successfully implementing a strategy. However, few human resources believe that enhancing the employees can increase the productive of the organization as well. Employee productivity will be increased regarding speed, volume and quality per labor cost. Execution of a strategy in a company requires some steps to be followed. Application of technology is one of the steps of increasing productivity in an organization and also enhancing employee, and this will positively influence performance capability. Managing a workforce means that return on investment is optimized. Most of the HR is mainly concerned with executing transactions instead of focusing on the productivity of the organization. This paper describes how enhancing employee affects organizational productivity. It is not a must that the employees are enhanced through utilization of information technology, but there are other means that enhance them although technology contributes significantly (Snell et al., 2015) Research on factors which improve productivity in organizations identified some key foundations of productivity. One of the foundations is high performing and innovative employees. In an organization, the HR aims at employing and retaining employees with excellent capabilities and self-motivation. The role of the HR and the managers in an organization is, therefore, to identify employees with such skills. Once the right employees are hired, they should be supported by the management and the HR in the company because without the support they will not perform. Managers are important factors in productivity performance in an organization because they give direction, priorities and goals that will guide the workforce. The success of the company largely depends on the motivation and support that the managers offer to their employees (Robbins et al., 2013). Another way to improve productive performance of the workers is by establishing a strategy which builds commitment. A clear and well-communicated strategy motivated the employees and also provides a strategic direction for the business and helps them to be focused. In the competitive business environment, strategic direction contributes to the success of the organization. Measurable values that the employees contribute to the organization should be rewarded because this helps in building the commitment of the employees. In the organization, the role of each team member needs to be well defined. When the role of each member is well communicated, then the members will feel important, and they also feel that they are part of the organization. The unclear mission will make the employees lose focus and become less engaged in the productivity process. In addition to the well defined mission, the management should also set goals which are measurable and communicated properly. The purpose of goals in an organization is to inform the employees what is expected of them. This is important because each employee will understand the valuable activities and those who are not. The goals should be categorized according to priority. Setting priorities is not only applied to goals but also on tasks and customers. Setting priorities is important in management and resource allocation. Those priorities which are considered to be high should be allocated the resources proportionally since resources are usually scarce. The employees can also be enhanced by establishing performance metrics for continuous improvement. This is because effective metrics and reporting process reinforces employees because metrics provides a focus and feedback which ensures there is continuous improvement in the corporate. The performance metric can also be used to give monetary rewards the employees and these will double the reinforcement among them. Monetary excitements are best in maintaining focus and consistency in production performance. Factors which are outside the organization can impact negatively on employee’s productivity. These factors range from environmental, social, political, economic and personal-related factors. The managers should, therefore, ensure that factors of productivity are flexible so that the external factors can be adjusted once they affect an employee or production. These external factors act as productivity barriers, and it is the responsibility of the management to identify and eliminate these factors so that they cannot block productivity process. There are support factors which help in increasing productivity in an organization. In such a competitive world, working as an individual without any support is not effective. Collaboration improves productivity because it enables sharing of ideas and best practices. Human Resource managers of organizations are charged with the responsibility of developing methods which boosts cross-function collaboration and sharing within the organization. Cross-functional teams help to improve productivity in the firm because different departmental representatives have different approaches and skills towards a problem. The work of the employees in a firm is mainly dependent on the input. Inappropriate inputs hinder productivity and therefore it is necessary to provide the right input at the right time so that the productivity process does not interfere with (Snell et al., 2015). Using technology as a support tool and a form of innovation also contributes to increased production in the organization. Information technology in a business maximizes production and provides a platform for realizing the success of the business. Business productivity software has been designed to improve productivity in the organization. The software helps in executing strategy and ensuring its achievement in the present business world. This software is also automated, and this allows completion of projects at a higher rate, more time spent on prioritized strategic activities and faster communication in the organization thus resulting in improved productivity (Ulrich, D., 2013). In addition to those contributions of the productivity software, the software also increased productivity by creating an open and communicative environment. It does this by placing performance appraisal information centrally within an online framework thus enabling the managers and the employees to communicate easily regarding business strategy and the goals. Technology reduces communication barriers which existed in the era of traditional management. It also creates a clear picture of the goals, and this creates a visibility to the employees and in return, they will understand how each goal will contribute to the success of the company. Through this, the employees will remain engaged and energized, and their performance productivity will be increased. The software will promote unity in the organization by virtually connecting teams within the organization. In most of the organizations, the team members create portals and team support sites where they can access organization’s information and motivate each other. Through technological devices, the employees can also get expert information that is useful in their productivity (Ulrich, 2013). The management can also utilize technology to motivate their employees because technology enables them to track and monitor the performance of each employee (Pierce et al., 2015). The information gathered can be used to reward those improve their performance, and this will motivate the employees to work even harder and the productivity increased. Through the use of the internet, new skills in the area of productivity could be identified, and the employees can be asked to advance their skill to enhance productivity. The employees can be trained better allocation of products is done to improvement the level of production in the organization. Monitoring of the employee performance and goals achievement is also possible using the software. Through monitoring, the progress is determined regarding the phase at which the goals are realized. This is important because in the case of any ineffectiveness immediate action will be taken such as supervision of the employees so as to ensure that they meet deadlines in the process. Through this, the productivity of the organization will be higher because the employees will be challenged to do better in their respective tasks and they will also improve their skills. Continuous monetary and incentive motivation is required so as to make the employees happy and they will work hard (Certo, 2015). In the current world of technology, business analysis is becoming simple because the management uses business analysis software to analyze the performance, market trends, and customer preference. The analytical reports are available online, and the management can use this together with the performance metric to review their strategies. In addition to the performance analysis, technology promotes innovation of products and services. to increase the productivity in an organization, there is a need for continuous innovation for both products and business processes. In most of the organizations, there is a need for increased efficiency so that improvement in those areas is achieved. Therefore, HR must encourage innovation among is employees through training and incentive measures. Technology is one of the effective means of offering to train to the employees and also innovation information is obtained through online research. An example of a company which employed innovation to its products is Apple. Apple embraced innovation to its products back in 2008, and it is now the leading distributor of tablets in the world. Technology is also a source of a correct set of data that can be used to improve decision-making process. When the managers and employees access accurate information, they will be able to make effective decisions which in turn yield increased productivity (Ulrich, 2013). Despite the positive impacts that technology has on business productivity, failure to provide adequate training and updates regarding technology can lower productivity. This is because there are new technological aspects that are developed every day and new business are utilizing them. Therefore, when an organization fails to implement them, they can be out of the race because there is stiff competition in the business today. In summary, enhancing the employees can increase the productive of an organization as employee productivity will be increased regarding speed, volume and quality per labor cost. A clear and well-communicated strategy motivated the employees and also provides a strategic direction for the business and helps them to be focused. In the competitive business environment, strategic direction contributes to the success of the organization. Using technology as a support tool and a form of innovation also contributes to increased production in the organization. Information technology in a business maximizes production and provides a platform for realizing the success of the business. Business productivity software has been designed to improve productivity in the organization. Sources Certo, S., 2015. Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Pierce, L., Snow, D.C. and McAfee, A., 2015. Cleaning house: The impact of information technology monitoring on employee theft and productivity. Management Science, 61(10), pp.2299-2319. Robbins, S., Judge, T.A., Millett, B. and Boyle, M., 2013. Organisational behaviour. Pearson Higher Education AU. Snell, S., Morris, S. and Bohlander, G., 2015. Managing human resources. Nelson Education. Ulrich, D., 2013. Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Harvard Business Press. Read More