Changes Affecting Organisations

Coping with change is the primary task of manegement and the MIS which support them.

Areas of change include; greater competition, faster pace, new technologies and methods, globalisation, employment patterns:

• More competition: All types of organisations face greater competitive pressures.

• Faster pace: The faster pace of society and business is apparent in many ways. New models of all types of manufactured goods have shorter life cycles, this in turn means that product development must also be speeded up. The knowledge and training that people have rapidly becomes obsolete because of changing requirements. Existing work patterns and practices need to be updated more or less continuously to keep pace, current information rapidly becomes out of date, technology seems to change month by month and so on.

• Increased globalisation: Because of lower trade barriers, faster transport and communi­cations, and the easier flow of capital, there is a world market in manu­factured and agricultural products and raw materials such as oil, coal, iron ore etc. In addition, banking and financial services operate on an international scale. The effect of these developments is that there is increased competition for virtually every product, commodity or service. There is a further problem with the global marketplace, that of volatility. Currencies, markets and political environments change continually and often unpredictably. The global marketplace has caused dramatic changes in the location of certain types of manufacturing businesses. Many Western firms have set up manufacturing plants in various parts of Asia and China to take advantage of lower labour and overhead costs with obvious consequences for domestic manufacturers.

The process is not just one way. For example, Japanese, Korean and American firms have established factories in the UK making cars, televisions, computers and domestic appli­ances in order to secure an entry into the lucrative European market. This inward investment has several advantages for the UK. Firstly there are the direct employment and financial effects of the new factories. In addition there are indirect but more important benefits arising from the introduction of more efficient management practices, and higher quality and productivity standards.

• Changing Employment Patterns: A long term change in employment is taking place in Britain and other developed countries. There are now many more part-time workers or workers on temporary contracts. More women are employed than men and organisations are seeking to gain flexibility and lower costs by shrinking their core work-force of full-time employees and employing sufficient part-time or temporary workers to cope with fluc­tuations in demand. In many firms just-in-time inventory management is now accompa­nied by just-in-time labour. In addition, changes in manufacturing techniques, the growth in the use of technology and other changes in the work place have increased demand for skilled/educated personnel at the expense of the unskilled. This means that many unskilled workers are now effectively unemployable even in boom times. Although a number of these changes no doubt benefit the individual organisation when considered in isolation there are wider, social costs. These include; greater stress and insecurity, a growing gap in incomes between those in work and those unemployed, a sense of alienation from society by the long-term unemployed, poorer health, possible increase in crime etc.