INFORMATION AGE: Write a report that analyzes the possible influence of information technology on practical management today or in the future
The twentieth century started with the unprecedented intensification of economic efficiency of production and technological advancements. However, it was understood soon after that if industrial civilization wished to survive in a future, it would need to develop a new perception of the role of human motivation and people behavior in business organization, proceeded from the premise that human behavior is more often motivated neither by logics nor facts, but sentiments. One more era in management thought commenced in the first half of this century – the so-called “the Social Person Era”, which was accompanied by technological and organizational changes, thus providing prerequisites for human relations movement, which is a separate present-day management branch, giving rise to expanding interest and numerous researches relating to industrial behavior and development of top management idea in organizations.
One of the significant studies was carried out at Hawthorne as a result of high interest in social behavior and social systems. The most famous participants and leaders of the Hawthorne research were Elton Mayo, William Dickson, Fritz Roethlisberger. Primarily, the research was conducted with the view to evaluate the influence of various technical factors, such as illumination, on effectiveness of labor work. There were five hypothesis of management proposed for explaining drawbacks of the initial research of illumination:
1. Increase of labor productivity was due to improvement of work conditions in observation room;
2. Shortened working days provided no fatigue;
3. Breaks eliminated monotony in work;
4. Piece-work rate for labor stimulated productivity;
5. Improvement of workers and supervisor relations stimulated labor productivity.
These entire hypotheses were examined. The first explanation was...