COMS 245

 Technology in Organizations  Current Events Facilitation  Questions about Organizational Culture Paper

 Definition: application of a specific logic of a technique to a domain of human activity  Anthropological perspective: a body of knowledge available to a civilization to manipulate the world around us  Etymology: the nonnatural actualization of possibilities inherent in the physical world

 You work for a 500-person company that manufactures cell phone batteries. Parts are sourced from rural communities in Africa and made in hi-tech factory in Asia.  They are sold after-market for phones such as iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, etc., and known for their extended battery life. The company is based in Indianapolis, with offices in San Francisco & Boston and a plant in Singapore.

 Discourse of new technologies  Dislocation of new technologies  What is the discourse surrounding your technology?  In what ways does your technology dislocate information?

 Generally, how a technology is oriented toward time and space  Enhance the speed of communication  Facilitate immediate access to information  Enable complex information exchanges across different geographical locations

 Asynchronous vs. synchronous communication  What are the respective benefits of a/synchronicity?  Which one is your technology?

 Monitoring and surveillance  You are in charge of writing a monitoring and surveillance policy for the use of your technology in the organization.  Be sure to address:  What type of monitoring/surveillance should be used;  Who should/not be using the technology;  In what ways the technology should/should be used;  The consequences of violating the policy.

 Interactivity—the extent to which communication reflects back on itself by reacting and responding to past messages  In what ways does your technology have the possibility to be interactive?  How can your technology be used for internal and external interactivity?

 Critical mass theory  Examines the adoption of a medium as a function of the size of the community of users  There is a “tipping point” at which organizational users sustain the technology  What is the number/percentage of people needed to make this technology useful to your organization?  Does it matter which organizational members adopt the technology?

 Media richness theory  Examines how organizational actors make media choices  Usually, managers choose a communication medium suitable for the ambiguity of the task  What type of organizational activities is your technology well-suited for?

 The anticipated technical and practical effects used to justify the adoption of a technology; instrumental and task-related  What are the first-level effects of your technology in the organization?

 How people act and react to the new technology, including:  paying attention to new and different things  organizing and interpreting relationships differently  expecting different outcomes from their actions  What are the second-level effects of your technology in the organization?

 The ability to communicate in ways that highlight and present certain personal characteristics and downplay others  How does your technology facilitate hyperpersonal communication?  How can your technology be used strategically by your organization?