How has Internet Changed the Workplace and Organisations?

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Since its inceptions in the early 1990, the worldwide web has dramatically changed the landscape of many organizations and the workplace. Although in many cases, the workplace and the organization culture do influence the use of information technologies in organizations, the influence is greater in the other way round.

The use of the worldwide web significantly influences many aspects of the work process in organizations. The use of the World Wide Web influences many aspects of the business like business strategy, organization culture, workplace structures; communication in the workplace and the management processes of organizations (Andrew, 2004.p35).

This paper outlines and reviews the impacts and the implications the World Wide Web has had on organizations and the workplace since its inception.

The World Wide Web made its debut in the early 1990s and triggered a wave of changes that affected many aspects of organizations and their workplace around the world. The internet has changed the way organizations operate in the modern world.

The internet technologies have changed the basis of organization structures from a basis on the use of manual labor to the use of knowledge management (Claire, 2004 p100). The use of the internet in the workplace has also changed the social systems of organizations.

The internet has also become a key factor to the competitiveness strategy of organizations (Barbara, 2003, p75).

The organizations that will not adapt to the rapid change in internet technologies cannot survive well in the modern or the future marketplace.

The dramatic effects of the internet on organizations and the workplace have captured the headlines of the media and organizations have been experimenting with the ways of exploiting the internet for the maximum advantage (Jason, 2005, p332).

The modern workplace has therefore become a netcentric environment in which the capabilities and the influences of the World Wide Web have permeated the working environment on a very big scale (David, 2003. P.270).

Net centricity has triggered many changes in the workplace. One of the major changes netcentricity has been making the desktop or the personal computer a gateway to the world for communication using email and the social networking websites.

With the internet, it is now possible for organizations to use the internet to share information or exchange ideas with other organizations at nay part of the world (Kate et al 2001, p 360).

The internet has changed work context in organizations, the nature of organizations in general and has became a catalyst for new strategies for organization structures (Jackson, 2007, p. 114).

The internet has brought new factors that affected the competitive landscape of organizations, has created new competitors and rivalries and in the process creating new pressures for organizations, that many organizations find it hard to address.

The internet has changed the way people think about running organizations and has led to a change in the roles that people play in the value chain process of the organization. The World Wide Web has also made the organization landscape very competitive and has made the workplace very fast moving (Laura, 2001 p50).

The World Wide Web has enabled twenty-four hour connectivity through technologies such as cell phones, wireless devices and the social networking media (Linda, 2004.p220).

All these factors have resulted in a re conceptualization of what constitutes a workday or worksheet. For example, twenty-four hour connectivity has led to development of work at home professions where people work at the comfort of their home anytime for twenty hours (IDG, 2003, P34).

The internet has also led to the growth of outsourcing business. Organizations now have the chance of outsourcing their work to third parties in any part of the earth significantly changing the nature of the workplace nowadays (Lynn, 2004, p115).

The netcentric nature of the today’s workplace has changed the concept of work balance because of the highly competitive nature of the netcentric workplace that makes each worker accessible any time at any place (Information Gatekeepers nd p1).

Employees of organizations can share data with colleagues from just anywhere on earth using the internet. The internet has introduced a concept where people are always connected and always on the mode for work are both a disadvantage and a drawback the internet has brought to the workplace (IRRA, 2002.P20).

The internet has also brought many changes to the organization management and leadership structures. The management of people in the netcentric age has both opportunities and drawbacks for organizations.

The managers of organizations nowadays must learn how to use their management skills not only in the face to face environments of the traditional workplace but also acquire managerial skills that makes them to manage their workers through interaction via networks (Muragan, 2006, p100).

The employees of today now include their managers more often in their conversations through internet technologies like the social networking websites.

The modern day leaders and managers of organizations must therefore learn how to use and take advantage of the World Wide Web to effect change and communication in the workplace (Pavel, 2005, p24).

The World Wide Web has also brought quick access to information in the workplace. This quick access has had enormous influence of the nature of information that an employee can access on their desktops.

Intranets, social networking websites and email and blogs provides employees with the huge information that provides the workers with huge information and update information on just anything they need for in their work (Mehdi, 2006.p234).

Organizations that take advantage of this wealth of information available to employees can make use of the knowledge to make the employees able to solve problems easily and increase their productivity in the workplace (Paul, 2001, p307)

The internet has also enabled distant education and electronic learning and this changed the way many organizations provide professional development training to their employees. Distance education programs have grown at alarming rates since the advent of the internet.

The advantages of these distance-learning programs in the workplace are very powerful because they cut travelling costs for employees and the time employees spend out of work. These distant learning programs offer flexible learning opportunities for the modern day employee (Peacock, 2008.p112).

The internet has also changed the way organizations hold their employee meetings for brainstorming or organizational briefings. In the traditional way, face-to-face briefings were the main way organizations carried out these meetings.

The advent of the internet has brought innovative technologies take advantage of the internet to allow holding of these meetings virtually via the internet. Examples of these technologies include video conferencing technologies (Paul, 2001, p309)

The internet has also changed the nature of employee privacy in the modern organizations.

With the internet it is easier for organizations to servile their employee by the employers the netcentric environment of the modern day worker has greatly increased the scope and the ease in which the employers can perform surveillance of their employees (Stein, 2007 p410).

Many digital documents remain accessible for years in the internet while software that track internet surfing are very common in the workplace nowadays. Today these issues raise may ethical and legal issues in the workplace because of the violations of the privacy of the employees in the workplace (Weckert, 2010, p40).

One of the negative aspects the introduction of the internet has had on organizations and the workplace is the effect it has had on employment and displacement in jobs. The rapid rise of the internet has generated a wave of many job displacements and changes in the remuneration packages for employees (Wallace, 2004 p8).

For example, in some organizations some employees trained in certain aspects of information technology are placed in privileged categories in the workplace because of shortage in the workforce. Some types of information technology staff continue to remain in vey high demand because of short supply of these workers.

Mostly these specialized workers are placed in special compensation plans by their organizations.

In areas where there is no shortage of employees, some jobs and whole business departments in organizations have became victims of disintermediation, restructuring and phasing out leading to job losses in some organizations (Winter & Taylor 1999).

One aspect of the internet that has had a major impact on organizations is the speed of flow of information in an organization. The internet technologies such as instant messaging, email, social networking sites and intranet connections are being used to speed the process of information flow in an organization.

Many management information systems and production management software’s are being developed by organizations to maintain competitive advantage.

The new internet technologies being developed are allowing workers and the management of organizations to carry out work in distant miles electronically without the need of reporting at the office.

The advent of internet technologies such as email, teleconferencing and videoconferencing has led to decentralization of the workplace and offices and the easy movement of work across many borders (Pavel, 2005 p27)

The internet is increasing becoming the marketing tool that most organizations are using to advertise themselves. Organizations are increasing using the websites, social networking sites and email to market themselves.

This marketing tool enables organizations to reach a huge number of people using only limited resources. Electronic marketing and sale through websites is increasing becoming the method of choice for many buyers as more people access the web and become more comfortable with the idea of electronic marketing.

The internet presents a growing audience to organizations for which to tap into and many organizations have had to change their business processes to handle the needs of internet marketing.

The numbers of people reached through internet marketing increases day by day and most organizations have shifted most of their advertising to internet presence as more people start accessing the internet (Linda, 2004, p234).

Organizations are also using the internet to carry out market research as opposed to the traditional methods of carrying out marketing research like paper questionnaires. For example, the internet is the tool of choice used to gather data about existing and potential competitors.

With the internet, it is easier to obtain the desires and the wants of the customers and this information can help organizations in customizing their product and services according to the wishes of the customer. The internet is also the tool used to generate market leads for products and the services of a company.

The internet is also serving organization as a tool for customer service (CLaire2004.p125). For example, through organization websites soils networking sites and email, customers are able to obtain information about the products and the services of an organization at any time and obtain feedback.

The internet has also changed the nature of human resource management in organizations. The internet has enabled work flexibility and work at home opportunities characterized by the existence of a virtual office.

More employees are increasing working off site and there are estimates that in the future two thirds of the organizations will have their employees working from a virtual office.

With the virtual office ,many employees attend lesser face to face meetings.the work specified for the employees has increasingly became a collaborative experience and the human resource management tools spend a significant amount of time managing cross functional team of employees who enjoy autonomy (David,2003,p143).

The internet is therefore creating a trend where the future workplace of organizations will have a decentralized model of human resources.

Human resource managers must therefore learn how to accommodate virtual employees in remote virtual work destinations and finds ways of managing employee orientation and socialization.

For human resource managers to obtain a very competent work force, they must learn managing such employees and shape the employees without having to use face-to-face meetings.

The internet has also made the workplace a global environment where growth of internet business has resulted in workers crossing borders more easily. Human resource managers must therefore learn how to handle other cultures and business practices to manage effectively diverse employees (IRRA, 2002, P24).

The internet has also significantly changed the way business carry out their financial transaction, the advent of internet banking and electronic selling and many interne based payment processes and applications have improved the speed at which organizations carryout their transactions.

With these internet and mobile phone, based payment transactions have greatly improved the speed of business transactions and greatly improved the efficiency of organization processes (Stein, 2007.p 412).

Although the internet does enhance the work environments of organizations by improving communication marketing and collaboration, it has brought some negative aspects to organizations. One of the most serious negative aspects of the internet in the workplace is employee misuse of internet in the workplace.

The misuse of internet in the workplace has inflated the workplaces resulting in lost productivity, liability for organization and the existence of hostile workplace environments (Stein, 2007 p412).

According to a report released by Bajai in 2011, 30 percent of internet usage by employees in an organization is not directly related to work because employees use it to send personal mail chat over social networking sites like face book, read news as well as engaging in other leisure activities on the internet.

The use of internet for other purposes other the workplace has also resulted incases where organizations are exposed to liability like the infringement of copyright laws or the use of the internet for cyber attacks against other computers or cyber harassment.

Organizations sometime impose disciplinary action like firing or suspension of employees due to these violations. Organizations and their workplaces have therefore changed significantly since the advent of the internet information technologies.

Organizations need to be ready for changes in the day-to-day operations of the organizations because the future promises even more changes as more advances in information technologies (Lynn, 2004, p117)

The internet has changed the view of the workplace and organizations from a mechanistic view of the workplace to an information-oriented view of the workplace.

The advent of information technologies that engage the productivity of some professions in the workplace means that the internet will transform these professions in the future into other professions or completely make some professions obsolete altogether (Laura,2001.p75).

In future, new models of organizations will emerge based on internet information technologies. As the internet users grow and more internet based technologies continue to be integrated into the workplace the more changes the internet will bring to the organizations and their workplaces (Andrew, 2004, p75).

The internet will also lead to increase in globalization of organization and their employees because people will have greater access to information at any time and attachments to organizations and the workplace will decrease marginally because of the increase in the flexibility of the workplace

References

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