WORKSHOPS

The Integrated Office: What is it?

Moderator:
Sheila McFaddzean

Speaker:
Mary Baetz, Consulting
Services

New office technology is quickly creating many simultaneous changes. All change, even for the better, is experienced as a disruption, and disruption is anathema to most organizations. The existing rules, norms, procedures, divisions and hierarchies all work to maintain a steady state, and to isolate and diminish the impact of disruption. How to manage a disruption for which there are no rules, norms or procedures, and which spans divisions and hierarchies, is the challenge facing management.

The key to increasing organization effectiveness is not the selection of appropriate tools, but selection of appropriate methods for introduction and integration of these tools. The new technology has significant implications for the way people will work in the future. Indeed, the definition of "work" will change, and the distinction between work and non-work will blur. This will result from an increase of people working out of their homes, working varying schedules, working part-time, and sharing jobs between or among two or more employees.

Enhanced communication, due in part to electronic message switching and electronic mail, will allow a simultaneous decentralization of offices with a centralization of control for critical parts of the business. The tools of office automation allow for more flexibility in treatment of individual employees and the changing demands of the marketplace. Response time can be shortened significantly, and the quality of decisions made can simultaneously be upgraded.

A number of issues must be dealt with on a strategic level, in order to ensure that the organization as a whole is able to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs (including social) of the new office tools. The first issue is integration of the tools, which fall into three categories: equipment (hardware), information manipulation and management (software), and physical facilities. Many organizations understand the need to integrate the hardware, and thereby, to reduce the need to repeat tasks.

The issue of integration of information management in relation to office technology, however, is less easy to resolve. Each division, department and organization has its own information, which it regards as a resource. The unit will want to retain control over the information, and to manage its use and possible misuse by other units. Yet, the organization will recognize maximum benefit if it has access to all information in a format which the whole organization can understand.

The new technology will be a driving force to an eventual restructuring of the organization. As the various tools are integrated and the organization uses information in innovative ways, new methods of working and relating will emerge.

The new technology will also have an impact on the physical space, lighting, and type of office furnishings required to perform the tasks. For example, present lighting is designed for work at a desk with paper, rather than work on an electronic console, and the same is true of present office furniture.

Every function within the organization will feel the impact of the introduction of office automation tools. Some job categories will disappear, some will be created, and almost all jobs will be affected. Issues of job design, career planning, performance appraisal and the like, will emerge. The training function will generate a considerable amount of work.

The impact of the office tools will be system-wide. Any strategy considered must be based upon a system orientation, and must be measured by its ability to meet the system-wide needs.