Pros and Cons of IT Training - Essay Example

Information Technology Training: It's Advantages and Disadvantages Part of this technological advancement is the emergence of the Information Technology. Information Technology (IT) management is often regarded as the unquestioned cornerstone towards competitiveness in the 21st century (Brancheau and Wetherbe, 1987). These technological advancements have brought people especially those in the business word to utilize a strategy that would be helpful in enhancing the business value of any organisation. Furthermore, this development has made changes and development of the plans and strategies of the management of any organisation especially those in the marketing environment. Within the market place, one of the most important things to consider is to establish a strategy that will be useful for different activities of the organisation and enhance the value of the business as a whole. In any business organization, the core responsibility of the management is to ensure the consistency of its stakeholders' relationships, to establish that the planned output can be achieved with the planned inputs of labour, capital, and materials. For each of these relationships, there is a corresponding financial flow. Herein, the firm receives sales revenues from its customer, makes payments for to its suppliers, meets its wage bill and its tax bills and pays a return to its investors (Brancheau, Janz and Wetherbe, 1996). These are being totalled and summarized in the business value statements while the competitive environment- the relationship between the firm and its rivals-determines the degree to which the business value can be created. The purpose of any business strategy is to put together a set of relationships which maximize and meet the needs of any industry and to minimise problems. The merging of information technology and the business strategy in order to ensure growth and competitiveness of the company is often called strategic alignment. This happens when the Information Technology management performance merged with the most essential strategies and core proficiency of the business organisation (Burn, 1993). When both of these are being aligned, the capability of the Information Technology (IT) becomes consistent and amalgamated with the central strategic path of the organization as a whole, which allows different stakeholders to create a particular Information Technology linked business forces and organizational strategic ways and directions. The strategic alignment of the business strategy and the information technology management is not only risk-taking to the efficacy and efficiency of the organization to create a business value in using Information technology. The complexities of achieving business success through increased efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness, combined with innovative applications of IT, has heightened the awareness of both IT and business managers towards more strategically oriented approaches for planning and management (Luftman, Lewis & Oldach, 1993). Some studies suggest that no business or corporate strategy is complete if there is no information systems strategy. For most firms it is the business strategy that increasingly is dependent on, or made possible by, investment in appropriate information systems. For some, however, the corporate strategy may be linked closely to information systems, especially if information technology provides the infrastructure through which the firm positions itself in its sector or plans to diversify or integrate into another sector. Using Information technology in a business signifies different advantages and disadvantages. It is said that people are living through an era in which organizations within industrialized societies are experiencing a prolific growth in the development and deployment of information and communications technologies. The development of an IT-strategy discourse has thus been partly the result of technology developments. It also reflects however a more widespread concern with strategic planning in organizations (Hoskin 1990; Knights and Morgan, 1991; Mintzberg, 1994). A further stimulus to change was the increasing awareness that the strategic use of information technology could transform the competitive position of a company in a rapidly changing market-place. Information Technology and the computer are transforming what marketers do, how they do it, and how they organise themselves to do it (Mitchell, 1994). Information technology, is transforming the way that business is conducted. Computers prepare invoices, issue checks, and keep track of the movement of stock, and store personnel and payroll records. Word processing and personal computers are changing the patterns of office work, and the spread of information technology is affecting the efficiency and competitiveness of business, the structure of the work force, and the overall growth of economic output (Hoskin, 1990). This transformation in the way in which information is managed in the economy constitutes a revolution that may have economic consequences as large as those brought about by the industrial revolution. Indeed, information technology can be considered as the strongest and powerful tool that any business firm can use (Luftman, Lewis and Oldach, 1993). The proper use of this marketing strategy offers an enormous ability to talk to consumers and distributors with a customized experience. If a company will be able to utilize information technology in its strategy, this will harness the advantages of direct transaction capabilities of the company. All in all, through this, whether the user of such information technology is a customer, employee, stockholders, vendors, retailers or end customers, the true strength of information technology is acceleration of the company's business value. In addition, utilizing information technology can make competitive advantage to a business firm. The study intends to know the perception of the employees of the company regarding the IT Training. Though methods and networking alone do not assure the success in the innovation development process, they are enabling factors for business growth. Aim This research aims to investigate the importance and benefits of IT Training to the employees of the company using ITT. 2. Objectives The objectives are to: - To examine the importance of IT Training to the employees of a company - To investigate using this methodology the advantages of IT Training. - To evaluate the drawbacks of the use of IT Training utilizing this methodology. Background The remarkable growth of technological development has become the driving force of the market in this day and age. The flow of the information technology has revolutionized the business arena. The use of the technology is altering high-tech marketing instantly while different industries have been trying to use it as part of their marketing strategy. It does not only reconfigured the way different firms do business and the way the consumers buy goods and services but it also become instrumental in transforming the value chain from manufacturers to retailers to consumers, creating a new retail distribution channel (Donthu and Garcia, 1999). Part of this technological advancement is the emergence of the Information Technology. Information Technology (IT) management is often regarded as the unquestioned cornerstone towards competitiveness in the 21st century. These technological advancements have brought people especially those in the business word to utilize a strategy that would be helpful in enhancing the business value of any organisation. Furthermore, this development has made changes and development of the plans and strategies of the management of any organisation especially those in the marketing environment. Within the market place, one of the most important things to consider is to establish a strategy that will be useful for different activities of the organisation and enhance the value of the business as a whole. In any business organization, the core responsibility of the management is to ensure the consistency of its stakeholders' relationships, to establish that the planned output can be achieved with the planned inputs of labour, capital, and materials. For each of these relationships, there is a corresponding financial flow. Herein, the firm receives sales revenues from its customer, makes payments for to its suppliers, meets its wage bill and its tax bills and pays a return to its investors. These are being totalled and summarized in the business value statements while the competitive environment- the relationship between the firm and its rivals-determines the degree to which the business value can be created. The purpose of any business strategy is to put together a set of relationships which maximize and meet the needs of any industry and to minimise problems. The merging of information technology and the business strategy in order to ensure growth and competitiveness of the company is often called strategic alignment. This happens when the Information Technology management performance merged with the most essential strategies and core proficiency of the business organisation. When both of these are being aligned, the capability of the Information Technology (IT) becomes consistent and amalgamated with the central strategic path of the organization as a whole, which allows different stakeholders to create a particular Information Technology linked business forces and organizational strategic ways and directions. The strategic alignment of the business strategy and the information technology management is not only risk-taking to the efficacy and efficiency of the organization to create a business value in using Information technology (Sydnes, 2000). Primarily, the main purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of Information technology to business and to provide details of other related issues. Hence, the discussion of this paper is threefold: first, this paper will determine the positive or negative effects of Information technology to a business. Secondly, this will also tackle the impact of Information technology to society as a whole and lastly, the ethnical impact of Information technology. Research Design Months 1-2 An extensive literature review will be done in the first 2 months, involving research ideas, planning and scheduling. In this period there will be collection of data from reliable journals, books and comprehensive studies regarding the topic. Months 3-4 There will be focus group discussion among the respondents of the company, they will be divided into 6 groups and there will be one session per group. Each session will be one and half hours. Months 5-6 There will be one on one interview with the respondents and this will be facilitated by the hired research assistants. Survey will also be facilitated after the interviews. Also, during this period, all data collected will be collated and analyse. Rationale This study used a descriptive design which focused on the present condition. In descriptive-survey design, the purpose is to find a new truth in the study (Creswell, 1994). The truth may have different forms such as increased quantity of knowledge, a new generalization, an increased insight into factors which are operating, the discovery of new relationship, a more accurate formulation of the problem to be solved and many others. Particularly, descriptive-survey design was used in this study. This approach is appropriate whenever the objects of any class vary among themselves and one is interested in knowing the extent to which different conditions obtain among these objects (Patton, 1990). In descriptive-surveys, it is important the psychological and sociological aspects of research by way of application or implementation of evidence to recognize between facts and influence. The data from a descriptive-survey design when used as basis for interferences that may aid in solving practical problems is of value to the researcher rather than the principles and laws applied in conducting an experiment in the laboratory. This design involves selected students of electrical engineering, which determined the relationship between employee dissatisfaction with their employer and employee dishonesty. The descriptive method includes empirical observation through the used of survey-questionnaire on the current conditions about a group of persons. This method was utilized to determine the functional relationship significant relationship between employee dissatisfaction with their employer and employee dishonesty. Determination of the Sample Determination of the sample size is basically a researcher's decision. Some investigators have no idea of determining the sample size in a given population scientifically, and arbitrarily select majority criterion as sufficient for their study. Although sampling design is advisable if the population is greater or more than 100, the researcher decided to have 50 respondents that are employees of the company. References Brancheau, J. C., B. D. Janz and J. C. Wetherbe (1996). Key Issues in Information Systems Management: A Shift toward Technology Infrastructure. Brancheau, J., & Wetherbe, J. (1987). "Issues in Information Systems Management. "MIS Quarterly, 11(1), 23-45. Burn, J. M. (1993). "Information systems strategies and the management of Organisational change - a strategic alignment model." Journal of Information Technology 8(): 127-136. Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Donthu, N. & Garcia, A. (1999). The Internet shopper. Journal of Advertising Research. 39 (3), 52-58. Hoskin, K. W. (1990). 'Using History to Understand Theory: A Reconsideration of The Historical Genesis of "Strategy"', paper delivered at the EIASM Workshop on Strategy, Accounting and Control. Venice. Knights, D., and Morgan, G. 1991). "'Corporate Strategy, Organizations and Subjectivity: A Critique'", Organization Studies, 13(2): 211-28. Luftman, J.N.; Lewis, P.R; Oldach, S.H. (1993). Transforming the Enterprise: The Alignment of Business and Information Technology Strategies. IBM Systems Journal 32(1): 198-221. Mintzberg, H. (1994). The Rise and fall of Strategic Planning. New York, London, Prentice Hall. Mitchell, A. (1994). The Hi-Tech Hybrid. Marketing Guide to Marketing Technology, 23 June, pp. v-vi. Patton, M. (1990). Qualitative evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Sydnes, Anne Kristin. (July 2000). "ICT Examples in Developing Countries." 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