Need for Technological Management

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Abstract

Change in technology is always rapid businesses need to adapt to this rapid change. In this proposal the issues relating to the Technology management will be viewed and discussed. Under study will be seven primary drivers that are responsible for bringing about changes in the 21^st Century.

These are Education and Training, Technology, Changes of structure of organization, Changes in the business Environment, Strategic direction of the Industry, Financial structure and Integration and collaboration.

Introduction

Technology affects just about everything, may it be business, individual, nature or society. Hence the advancement of technology would have a direct bearing upon wealth and the quality of living.

The decline of the corporations in the US was also attributed to the failure of businesses in recognizing the change in technology and because of the failure of the organizations to manage the drastic change within their businesses in accordance to change in technology (Dorf, 1999).

The problems that were inherent in the organizations were managerial problems, failure of organizations to recognize the power of technology, failure of use and extent of the technology and failure of technology turnaround into end product.

The global financial crisis and the technology stocks in respect to the stock market are indicators towards research and the newer concepts development in the field of technology management (Megantz, 2002).

Background

Technology brings about change and this change has a direct bearing on all the sectors and hence also affects the economy. Some consider technology as machinery that spins growth. The management of the technology is very important as it’s a doorway to international trade.

Moreover technology management can only be achieved with a detailed knowledge of its contents. Technology management is all about use of technology in an intelligent manner and grasping the opportunities that it provides to bring about change.

Significance of the problem

Many countries were a target of market share downfall. This was attributed to the failure of the majority of the companies to relate to the increasing shift of the technology. Most of the organizations failed to incorporate and upgrade their businesses according to the technology change. This resulted in their lagging behind and the overall growth decreased.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study is to provide information that relates to the need of technology management. To have in depth knowledge of the affects it produces if any on the business organizations or the industry.

Research Questions

How do the educational Institutions respond to the need of technology management?
What should technology management encompass?
What needs to be done in regard to technology management?
Is there a market for the technology management?
Is the demand being met?

Assumptions

It is assumed that by the end of this proposal there would be enough information researched to provide an in-depth analysis upon the importance for the need of technology management.

Limitations

Because of the time constraints it was not possible to actually conduct a survey for this proposal.

Hypotheses

Technology management is the need of today for organizations to become competitive and for the growth of the economy.

Definition of terms

Technology management is defined as the management of an organizations technology in order to have a competitive edge.

Literature Review

With the birth of the term technology management, a new profession known as the technology managers, originated. They are known to possess technical skills and having in-depth knowledge about the company strategy, they formulate ideas to incorporate the technology that would be supportive to the organization’s agendas and goals (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

It is the management of the technology that is usually more important than just the technology. The US suffered from a major market share downfall in most of its Industry sectors because of the rising global competition. With this, the educational, industrial and government sectors formulated initiatives to identify the root cause and have plausible answer to the problem (Dorf, 1999).

To devise a methodology to overcome the problem encountered, technology and scientific institutions like The National Science Foundation (NSF), The National Research Council (NRC), Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the American Association of Engineering Societies, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, sought to research.

At the same time the business sector was also looking for answers, for which the stakeholders teamed up. This scenario resulted in the setup of many workshops in the mid 1980s, which sought to have answers to the declining scenarios. In 1987 the NRC set up a workshop, and the Public Affairs Council of the American Association Societies followed suit with a workshop in 1988.

The result as per the workshop attendees was the identification of the need to change the technological environment management. Therefore it was mutually decided that there was definitely a need to change the technology management (Dorf, 1999). The outcome of the NRC workshop was that the practice gap and knowledge between management and business, science and engineering should be filled.

The Recommendation as per the report was the need for Technology Management in order to survive the global competitiveness. So for this purpose, Technology Management was defined as the field that bridged science, engineering and management together for the building of technological competence for gaining operational and strategic objectives that a business has.

For this development to take place, the need was to gear up the research and education in Technology management and also to have NASA and NSF like funding agencies support the research (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

It formulated the following requirements that were seen as inherent for the management and the teaching practices:

Evaluating and assessing technology in an efficient manner.
Reducing product developing time
Leveraging the efficacy of the technical people
Conducting education and research in the area as being fundamental
Integrating technology with the strategic goals of an organization
How to adapt and alter technologies as per requirement
Management of complex, systems and projects
Accomplishment of technology transfer

Management of the internal technology usage of the firm:

As a result, a workshop was sponsored by the NSF in 1988 at the University of Miami, which published a report on the Opportunities and challenges for Research in the area of Technology Management (Tesar, 2003). This emerged out in 1988 by the UM/NSF. The report identified some major problems which demanded research in the field of technology Management. These were:

Management of the technical organizations with respect to technology
Management of human resource in technological competitiveness and Tools, and methodologies devised for technical resources.
Management of the link between the external environment and the organization

Hence, by the mid eighties to the early nineties the requirement and aggressive need was seen in the development and application of the technology for the need to remain in the global competitiveness. Many Academic institutions responded to this extensive research by introducing revised curriculums. Along with this, several problems were identified pertaining to the educational programs.

These were the need for practice and focus-based education, integration failure of curriculum for illustrating the dependency of topics, and so on. These flaws had to be looked at by the universities as well as the student needs with respect to provision of flexible programs to enhance their career opportunities (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

The business sector has also been devising ways to combat the drawbacks and contribute towards increasing the global economy. The business sector has brought upon many changes in the last decade. The organizations have been toiling for internal makeovers and today these changes are more rapid as compared to earlier days.

However for all the changes to take place, businesses must have some method of updating the techniques as per the technology changes. For example, outdated methods are assessments finance formulas, traditional accounting or the physical assets.

Today’s trend demands the inclusion of intellectual capital, intellectual properties, information technology and service based products, and intangible properties. The technology trends and the stock market’s reaction to it are a detriment of the fact that research is inherent along with the introduction of newer concepts and methods in the field of technology management.

For the identification of the changes required, The International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT), University of Miami and National Science Foundation set up a workshop in 1998. From the research conducted in the workshop, it was highlighted and realized that the organizations must adapt and understand the knowledge of changes in the technology being deployed.

It was stressed that businesses need to incorporate such employers that are thorough professionals and can adapt to the changes of technology in the business. For these big changes to be implemented in the business environments there is also the need of education based on the business models encompassing dynamics (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

The workshop also conducted a survey amongst its attendees in Orlando, Florida which was aimed to answer the questions like: Is demand being met ?, How should educational institutions respond?, Is there a market for education of Technology Management?, What needs to be done? And what should be the content of Technology Management?

Questions	Answers
Is demand being met?	No
How should educational institutions respond?	More programs of Technology Management
Will education of Technology management sell?	Yes
What all could be achieved?	Other than the obvious
What should be the content of the Technology Management?	Increased Industry Input

The workshop concluded in the following points

An urgent need is required for the legitimization of the Technology Management as a recognized field in the Universities and Corporations.

All the individuals trained in the Technology Management field should know everything about the technological change, business dealings incorporating technology, excellent computer skills, great communication skills, understand the global cultures, can appreciate the diversity, receive cross disciplinary work, could integrate resources and knowledge, have strategic thinking with the understanding of sociology, have operational efficiency, have understanding and knowledge of technical methods for enhancing the training and competitiveness, and have strong values and ethics.

Requirement for well trained and educated individuals which are specifically educated in regards to the changes in the Industry.
MBA programs which are able to incorporate the dynamic environment of the Industry rather than the static environment (Dorf, 1999).
Realization of the fact that the undergraduates are not ready for the new business environment
The weight of the ideas of Technology Management was questioned in regards to its application in the different sectors of the economy.
The businesses should be more focused on the selection of the progressive technology, and integrate the technology with the business.
The Academic institutions should alter their academic practices and integrate Technology Management faculty and bring about change in the institutions (Tesar, 2003).

The research concluded in two glaring facts which were identified as

Education was failing to provide Industry needs
The failure of the Universities in changing the education curriculum to best fit the Technology management (Dorf, 1999).

Drivers of Technology Management

As per the UM/NSF 1998 Workshop, the following drivers were identified:

Technology, Changes in organizational structure, Education and Training, Changes in Business Environment, Financial Sector Structure, Strategic Directions of Industry, Communication, collaboration and Integration.

Technology

Technology has a vast influence on the future changes. Some of the technological changes that could affect the Industry and the businesses are described as follows:

Fusion of Technologies: This is applied to the concept that the different technologies combined together would create something even bigger and with much more magnitude. The fusion of the mechanical, electronic and manufacturing technologies is an example of such integration of technologies. This in-turn would enable multi disciplinary environment of engineers and managers (Tesar, 2003).

Cost and Complexity driving collaboration

The cost and the complexity will eventually lead companies to collaborate in a drive to be more competitive. In order to save onto money and time the companies would rather work together in order to develop a newer technology.

This will also involve the government in the strategic collaboration with academia and the industry, to increase the research funding in order to increase the national competitiveness (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

Multidisciplinary change

The complexity of the technology will lead to technological changes inside the organizations. This will incorporate the cross cultural training, cross- disciplinary training with a view of sensitiveness to the increased demand of the technology.

Rapid Growth Areas and emerging technologies

Two sectors seem to be the emergents of tomorrow and these are the Information systems and the Molecular biology. Other industries especially of agriculture, healthcare and the genetic base will undergo the technology transformation. It is for this reason that most organizations already realize the importance of information and communication technology (ICT).

Diffusion of Information

This is the spread of the information because of the changes in the technology. The Internet is the provider of all the raw information that a person seeks. The same spread of information is also an example in the organization setup with the use of the web based services. This type of information differs from the information that is processed and packaged.

This ability of multi way interactions will result in increased communication (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001). Changes in organizational structure would be Integration/Alliance, Permanent to temporary structure, new business model, organizational sensitivity to cultural differences, increased move towards the service economy, and Knowledge driver and Mergers/acquisitions (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

Education and Training: Hands on education, change in formal education styles, change of educational needs in people, Electronic Education, the new discipline and new business leadership.

Changes in Business Environment: These are knowledge generation, information and communication security, emergence of multiple stakeholders, intellectual property rights, technological Imperialism, Outsourcing, and multiple parties involved in innovation and globalization.

Financial Sector Structure: How to finance multiple party innovations, changing funding trends, innovation in financial sector, justifying investment in technology (Pavitt, 1999)

Strategic Directions of Industry: Intellectual Capital, Strategic Planning, small business role, Harnessing Technology and the different phases

Communication, collaboration and Integration: Collaboration amongst companies, internal collaboration, changes in the organizational culture, Multi-disciplinary culture, Compartmentalization to integration, Government collaboration, Sophisticated Customer and Internet as communication revolution.

A need for change: There is a definite need for change especially in the educational sector with the advancement of the technology. The institutions are still not adamant on the issuance of the traditional degrees especially of the business and the engineering. Where the changes in the technology takes place in a rapid manner, there is need for the innovative and creative competition to get ahead.

For this the primary Technology Management Education beneficiaries are students, entrepreneurs, professionals, top managers, public policy makers, external allies, organizations that recruit students, supervisors/team leaders, technical and managerial staff, and paying customers (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

Fig 1: Disciplines Contributing to Technology Management (Khalil, Lefebvre & Mason, 2001).

Technology Management

Today the companies and organizations are forever in the rat-race to get ahead from their competitors. For capturing the competitive advantage, they manage their technology basics through management disciplines. The technology management field applies to all the strategies and operations that companies and organizations undertake to incorporate the technology for betterment (Megantz, 2002).

However the management of technology is a difficult task as it is forever evolving and often the changes are sudden and drastic.

As defined by the US National Research Council in Washington, management of technology (MOT) is an engineered science that manages disciplines to develop, plan, and enhance in order to maintain their competitiveness (Cannell, Dankbaar & European Commision, 1996). There are many beneficial effects of this technology management on the businesses. Some of these are:

Adaptation of the changes in scale and format: The example of this stands true for the companies of the 21^st century that sought to produce the PDA’s, MP3’s, and mobile phones with added features like email support , web browsing, picture taking, and text messaging (Pavitt, 1999).

Reorganized administrative operations: The banks around the world have decreased their costs of serving the customers by integration of technology. They started extensively using the Internet, automated teller machines and toll free help centers. Additionally, the year 2005 witnessed greater cost reduction; this was evident by the fact that the cost incurred from a bank transaction was $2 as against a phone banking transaction that was $1.00. This had a direct bearing on the labor-management relations and employment in the bank.

Reduced costs of operations: Companies used for decreasing the administrative and manufacturing costs. This was evident in case of Dell computers who used the technology to sell the computers at cheaper prices than their competitors (Megantz, 2002).

Improved customer service: The package tracking system has enabled many companies to locate their shipments and the use of web enables the customers to conveniently locate their shipments on their own.

New product and new market creation: Miniaturization of electronics to produce portable electronics for the consumers was initiated by the Sony Company.

Methodology

The methodology adopted for the proposal is qualitative analysis. The source of the information was from authenticated published books. The research conducted was checked against biased opinions and was validated thoroughly. The research findings were confirmed against the available data and literature available on the subject.

The study includes different research material of the workshops that were set up to study the need for the management of technology. There were authenticated researches conducted by the workshops that were funded by known research organizations and Universities. In depth knowledge of various organizations and the gap in the business structures was analyzed for gathering of sufficient information so as to support the proposal.

Critical Analysis

In today’s competitive and ever-changing technological world, most of the countries are facing global recession. The advancement of the technology is happening at a critical pace and it is because of this reason that the companies have failed to cope with this advancement of technology. As a result they have lagged behind leading to decreased growth and attributing towards the recession.

It becomes all the more important to realize what needs to be done and what and how to implement into the systems in order to progress and be competitive. Many changes, both externally and internally, are taking place in the organizations who have grasped the concept but unless the whole system is integrated, starting from the education of the individuals in the Universities, it is not as fruitful.

Rationale of the study

There are four important factors that affect the technology management of the organizations. There is a diverse and widespread effect of technology on the performance. The businesses tend to differentiate themselves amongst each other on the pedestal of technology.

There are many examples where even mature firms have geared up and revived something new with the utilization of management of technology (Cannell, Dankbaar & European Commision, 1996). Secondly there is a harmony and independence between knowledge skills and technology. The investments in the technology also require knowledge and skill in the people that are required to use and implement it.

Hence this is true for all the levels of management. Thirdly there are Organizational implications of the shape of the technology. This means that the organizations must seek to import research from different product areas and incorporate them into their infrastructures. The use of external sources of technology could have a positive effect on the production processes (Pavitt, 1999).

Next are the limitations of technological autonomy that are faced by organizations. Today’s complex technologies render even the biggest organizations dependent upon the outside source. Also the companies think up of strategic alliances for leveraging their own technological advancements. Because of this the organizations face many internal problems (Cannell, Dankbaar & European Commision, 1996).

The rationale of the study is chosen because of the global challenges that the companies are failing to meet up with. Although many workshops have been funded for the research yet some of the institutions need to realize that a change in their internal setup is a big step to the contributing factor for the technology management and its effects on global economy.

The limitations are the time constraints. As the study had to be submitted in the little available time most of the area that needed more focus was generally covered and discussed.

Conclusion

The trends in the Technology Management are indicative of the changes in the business and technology sectors. This paper highlighted the need of changes required in certain sectors like education. What is needed in today’s time has been stressed in this paper together with the Industries response to the changing Technology.

This is supported by the need for the Education sectors to wake up and realize the changes needed in their curriculum for meeting up with the demands of the technology based businesses. Moreover, the future growth of the industry and the businesses is dependent upon the technology management with the beneficiaries like students, professionals, etc.

It is inherent that today, broadcasting is created for the Technology Management Information. The realization of both property and wealth and the consequent growth indicates the value of this field. There is much research that needs to be sponsored and done for the realization of the Technology Management as well as its importance.

Recommendations

It is recommended that in order to improve the organizational setup and structure of any Industry there is a need for detailed education on the Technology Management. The organizations need to understand the involvement of the technology management into their systems from staffing to implementation in order to increase growth of the organization.

There is an inherent need for the research in the field of the technology management as still there are many institutions and organizations who have not grasped the use and meaning of the Technology Management.

The increase in knowledge and use of the Technology management in the systems will greatly enhance the competitiveness of the business community as well as the education sector, which needs to include the discipline of Technology management seriously in their curriculum so that the community is provided with specially trained individuals in this discipline who can join the different organizations and provide something positive and up to date for them to progress.

References

Cannell,W., Dankbaar, B., European Commission, (1996). Technology management and public policy in the European Union, UK: Oxford University Press.

Dorf, R., C. (1999). The Technology Mangement Handbook, USA: CRC Press.

Khalil, T, M., Lefebvre, L, A., Mason, R., M. (2001). Management of Technology: the key to prosperity in the third millennium: selected papers from the 9th International Conference on Management of Technology, United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing.

Megantz, R., C. (2002). Technology Management: developing and Implementing effective liscencing programs, USA: Wiley.

Pavitt, K., (1999). Technology Management and systems of innovation, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Tesar, G., (2003). Strategic Technology Management: Building bridges between sciences, engineering and business management, London: Imperial College Press.

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