Management of Technology - Essay Example

Retail industry, because of its optimum development has been incorporating technologies in various facets of its functioning. One of the key technologies that is being sizably used is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID for short), which tracks and locates products through organisation’s supply chain using some hardware. Organisations are ‘structures’ with number of individuals doing their allocated work to accomplish set goals. Thus, the implementation of RFID in an organisation will mostly not be an individual’s decision and inputs, instead various parts of the organisation has to work in cohesion, with organisations and its management taking decisions to make the RFID function effectively.

On these lines, many retail companies are implementing RFID in their operations. So, this paper will first focus on Rogers’ and other experts’ perspectives or ideas of technology diffusion. Then will discuss the origins and functioning of the RFID Technology and how diffusion process is applicable to this technology. Finally, the paper focusing on the retail sector and retail companies will critically evaluate RFID’s diffusion process using the literature review, and concluding with recommendations for further improvement to the literature and the development of future technologies.

The technological and the innovation perspectives of diffusion got established in 1960’s, in the aftermath of Everett Rogers’ book, Diffusion of Innovations. Rogers focused on how innovation or technology got diffused or infiltrated into the society through various channels. Rogers defined diffusion as “the process in which an innovation is communicated thorough certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (Rogers 1983, p.5). It was Everett Rogers and its diffusion model which was widely accepted in various fields.

The process of