Understanding the Implementation of
Mobile Technologies Within The Firm:
Looking at Individual and Organizational Processes of
Change in Selected Case Studies
António Miguel A. D. Amaral
Orientação: Professor Manuel Heitor
18-Dec-04
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Miguel Amaral -
18 December, 2004
SCOPE OF THE THESIS AND RESEARCH DIMENSIONS (WHAT)
MOTIVATION AND EXPECTED CONTRIBUTIONS (WHY)
MAIN ARGUMENTS AND RESULTS
FURTHER WORK
METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK (HOW)
SUMMARY:
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MOTIVATION AND EXPECTED CONTRIBUTIONS (WHY)
PRODUCTIVITY
BUSINESS AS USUAL
TIME ADJUSTMENT COSTS PRODUCTIVITY TIMEINNOVATION
Conceição, P. & Veloso, F. (2002).Is Investing in Innovation Unproductive? A Time to Sow and a Time to Reap, Academy of Management Annual Conference, 11-14 August, Denver, Colorado.
MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES
(WITH GPRS SERVICE):
•
SMART
PHONE
•
PDA
•
LAPTOP
1. HOW DO INDIVIDUALS USE AND ADAPT TO
MOBILE-ICT WITHIN THE COMPANY, REGARDING THEIR
SKILLS, CONTEXT OF WORK AND JOB FUNCTION?
2. WHAT SPECIFIC ADJUSTMENTS DO HAPPEN IN
ORGANISATIONS WHEN ADOPTING MOBILE-ICT?
SCOPE OF THE THESIS AND RESEARCH DIMENSIONS (WHAT)
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS:
SYSTEMIC
APPROACH:
Adjustment
Costs
Organizational
Change
Technological
Change
Mobile ICT
(Implementation)
Innovation
Productivity /
Performance
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“Lumpy “
Adaptation
High
Low
Time since
installation
Le
ve
l of
Adap
ti
ve
ca
pac
it
y
Continuous
Adaptation
EXISTENT PARADIGMS ON THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND ADAPTATION
Management of
Technology
Interpretivist
Technological
Determinism
Political
Interests
Technology
Focus
Contextual
Focus
Stati
c
D
y
nam
ic
Liker, J. K., Haddad, C. & Karlin, J. (1999).Perspectives on Technology and Work Organization. Annual Review Of Sociology, August 1999, Vol. 25, Pp. 575-596
Tyre, M. & Orlikowski W. J. (1997),‘Exploiting Opportunities for Technological Improvement in Organisations’, In Tushman Michael L., Anderson Philip, Managing Strategic Innovation and Change. A Collection Of Readings, Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford
CONTINUOUS AND EPISODIC
TECHNOLOGICAL ADAPTATION
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TRADITIONAL
TAYLORIST
LEAN
LEARNING
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN EUROPE
• Autonomy in work
• Learning dynamics
• Complexity of tasks
• Responsibility for
quality control
• Work rate
constraints
• Repetitiveness
• Monotony
• Team working
• Job rotation
Knowledge-Workers
X
Traditional Workers
Lorenz, E. & Valeyre, A. (2003).Organisational Change in Europe: National Models or the Diffusion of a New “One Best Way”?, DRUID Working Paper No 04-04
• Financial and
Business
Services
• Managers,
Executives,
Technicians
• Manufacturing
(vehicles,
electronics,
paper)
• Blue collar
workers
• Manufacturing
(textile, leather,
paper,
vehicles)
• Machine
operators,
assemblers
• Unskilled
workers
• Services
• Sales and
service staff
• Unskilled
Workers
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A) INTEREST OR IMPORTANCE OF ADOPTION/ACCEPTANCE OF MOBILE
TECHNOLOGY BY USERS
•
Users’ perception and understanding of the technology
•
Patterns of use following adoption/acceptance
•
Factors or processes leading to adoption and adaptation
•
Workers’ performance driven by mobile ICTs, within professional context
B) RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRENDS IN IMPLEMENTATION AND SPECIFIC
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WORKFORCE :
•
Firm’s “Knowledge” / “Traditional” Organisation of work ;
•
Job functions / Workers’ skills
C) RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IMPLEMENTATION OF MOBILE-ICTs AND
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
•
Potential to foster organisational changes
•
Impact on Structure ,culture, leadership and strategy
RESEARCH DIMENSION
S
METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK (HOW)
• QUESTIONNAIRE (“CLOSED QUESTIONS”)
• DATABASE FROM THE MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS OPERATOR – TMN (MSP, NVB, CDL) • INTERVIEWS (AUDIO RECORDINGS) • QUESTIONNAIRE (“OPEN QUESTIONS”)
METHODS
:
QUANTITATIVE
ANALYSIS
QUALITATIVE
ANALYSIS
METHODOLOGY
:
CÍRCULO DE
LEITORES
ÁGUA DO
MARÃO
T R ADIT IO NALMICROSOFT
PORTUGAL
NOVABASE
KN O W LED G E(CLOSED + OPENED QUESTIONS) PRÉ-TEST •VALIDATION (BASED ON DELPHI METHOD)
•FINAL QUESTIONNAIRE QUESTIONNAIRE “ADAPTATION TO MOBILE
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECNOLOGY IN THE ORGANIZATION”
QUESTIONNAIRE “ADAPTATION TO MOBILE
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECNOLOGY IN THE ORGANIZATION”
PERSONAL INTERVIEWS PERSONAL INTERVIEWS GPRS USERSGPRS USERS CEO / IT MANAGER CEO / IT MANAGER GPRS DATA (TMN) GPRS DATA (TMN)
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DURATION IN SECONDS (AVERAGE PER USER)
-100.000 200.000 300.000 400.000 500.000 600.000 700.000
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV
CL MS NB
VOLUME OF UL AND DL KBYTES (AVERAGE PER USER)
-2.000 4.000 6.000 8.000 MS 1.960 3.086 5.559 4.222 5.440 5.998 3.531 5.221 4.554 3.392 3.832 CL - 954 6.240 5.096 3.134 5.753 6.823 1.913 4.952 3.817 4.200 NB 628 2.433 3.351 3.374 3.113 827 5.309 2.623 1.123 1.506 3.336
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV
Understanding the Technology
Pay per Volume
X
Pay per Time
Using the Technology
“MEASURING” IMPLEMENTATION:
MAIN RESULTS AND ARGUMENTS
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Initial enthusiasm → Growing adaptation → New Challenges / Projects
Low initial adaptation efforts → Growing enthusiasm → Shorter adaptation cycles
Low initial adaptation efforts → Low experimentation → Only one adaptation cycle
KBYTES PER SECOND
-0,1000 0,2000 0,3000 0,4000 0,5000 0,6000 0,7000 0,8000
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV
MICROSOFT
KBYTES PER SECOND
-0,1000 0,2000 0,3000 0,4000 0,5000 0,6000 0,7000 0,8000
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV
C.LEITORES
KBYTES PER SECOND
-0,1000 0,2000 0,3000 0,4000 0,5000 0,6000 0,7000 0,8000
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV NOVABASE
Traditional
workers
Knowledge
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CONCLUSIONS
•
General Users
•
Direct Sales Agents
•
Sales Inspectors
CDL
ADM
Traditional
•
General Users
•
Information Technology
Professionals
•
Business Decision Makers
•
Knowledge Workers
MSP
NVB
Knowledge
USERS’ PROFILE
•
More agile
sales process
•
Better contact with
clients
•
Improved
geographical mobility
•
Faster
and
accurate information
about sales and
clients
•
Swift individual adaptation to
new competences and
routines
•
More agile business
decision-making
process
•
Remote access to corporate
intranet and resources
from HR
, sales and marketing
•
Better
communication
between colleagues, and
external partners (Know-who)
•
Platform for
testing
company online products such as
multimedia content and service sites
MAIN RESULTS
(INDIVIDUAL LEVEL)
MAIN RESULTS
(ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL)
•
Time-Savings
(circa 50 minutes per user/day)
•
Low adjustment Costs
•
Better organisational performance
without the need for Large-scale
Organisational Changes
•
Better performance
independently of
:
9
Knowledge or Traditional Organisation of work
9
workers’ skills
9
job functions
•
Great potential for shifting the present risk averseness paradigm and
enable the
adoption of new technologies
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FURTHER WORK
H1) Mobile workers have positive perception about the potential of handheld devices for
increasing their work productivity, as well as regarding its effects on firms’ performance .
H2) Implementation of mobile-ICTs is quickly accomplished by users, independently of Firm’s
“Knowledge” / “Traditional” Organisation of work; job functions or workers’ skills.
H3) Mobile-ICTs‘ have great potential to foster organisational changes, but limited potential to
hold Large-Scale organisational changes (particularly in Knowledge Organisations).
It would be desirable
to analyse…
•More Companies
•More Users
•Extended Periods
•Different Technologies
In order to foster:
•Inter-firm comparisons
•International Benchmarking
•Policy-Making
•Theory Building
Understanding the Implementation of
Mobile Technologies Within The Firm:
Looking at Individual and Organizational Processes of
Change in Selected Case Studies
António Miguel A. D. Amaral
Orientação: Professor Manuel Heitor
