Creating Futures

Leading Change Through Information Systems

Andrew Dorac-Kakabadse

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138738584
• eBook ISBN: 9781351731904
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This title was first published in 2000: This volume focuses on the influence of, and additionally explores the value adding contribution of, information systems and related technologies on the development of society and private and public sector enterprises. The chapters are stand-alone units representing the research work and thinking of the Cranfield School of Management. The initial chapters examine the impact of IS/IT on society and organizations. As the book progresses, attention is then given to exploring the effects of IS/IT on individuals within the information arena and more broadly within varying walks of life.

1 Information Rich vs Information Poor: Issues for Public Policy

NADA K. KAKABADSE, ALEXANDER KOUZMIN AND ANDREW K. KAKABADSE

Abstract

This chapter¹ explores the effects of current IT policies and corporate and government praxis in the arena of technological development and use. It also explores global trends that lead toward futures that a majority of the world population, arguably, would not choose and should actively seek to avoid.

It emphasises growing discrepancies between information rich and information poor, segregated by an invisible technologically-imposed boundary and further controlled by surveillance technology creating newer social cleavages and IT-harems. The chapter also explores current visions for the future of employment in an information society and concludes with 'wicked' policy issues for urgent consideration.

Introduction

The once widely embraced notion of modern capitalism, in its strictest form, has been replaced by pragmatic national quests for policies that promote economic growth in an increasingly globalised economy. The trend in a number of political systems has been to reduce direct state intervention (cutting taxation, privatising functions previously performed) in areas such as education and employment creation (Wilson, 1992); although states have generally been unable to control, by political means, a number of variables of macro-economic importance-a phenomenon reflecting rising uncertainty about production and markets with respect to the increase in international trade (Ohmae, 1995), The curbing of direct state intervention appears to be a response to the New Right, Public Choice Economics perspective which argues against state intervention and against the growth of the size of the state. The economic climate of the late 1970s and 1980s had already appeared to favour capital over labour, only to affirm it in late 1990s (Reich, 1991; Drucker, 1993; Soros, 1999).

The rapid economic transformation to 'market fundamentalism' has been coupled with the rise of (neo)conservative governments, employers and powerful business factions which threatened macro-economic balance (Soros, 1999). The emergence of 'market fundamentalism', the idea that markets need only be regulated by forces of profit and competition, has distorted the role of capital to the extent that it 'is today a greater threat to open society than any totalitarian ideology' (Soros, 1999). Both developed and emerging economies, alike, irrespective of their political alliance, are attempting to improve economies by adopting the 'market' as the arbiter of 'good' in a range of policy areas; most notably the work force.

The waning of direct state influence in the industrial sphere in recent years reinforces the elitist situation in which state agencies respond to capitalist demands over and above the claims of others between election times. Thus, employers (particularly large corporations and confederations) have had the resources to secure even greater access to the policy ear of the state. This is further reinforced by IT polices that provide further power to those who, already, have disproportionate influence within the large corporations and the state. Phenomena such as this, in turn, assists the generation of significant inequalities amongst citizens in their capacities and opportunities for participating as political equals in governing the state (Dahl 1985, pp.54-55)-as Rokkan (1966, p. 105) has stated it more laconically: 'votes count, but resources decide.'

Globalisation and the Changing Role of the State

A growing number of national policies are being built upon the widely-held belief of economists that the state should divest itself of many traditional areas of activity in both social and market environments on the premise that the natural operation of markets will result in 'efficient' outcomes. The main argument against this assumption is that it requires a great deal of faith in the notion that individual agents participating in the market operate in a rational, fully informed and consistent manner (Dahl 1985; Ormerod, 1994). Many question the rationale behind this economic liberalisation, as in virtually every economy, where such policies have been implemented, it is commonly observed that this is only achieved at the expense of reduced levels of social welfare, rising rates of unemployment and, in some cases, instability in financial markets (Ormerod, 1994; Krugaman, 1999; Soros, 1999). This is not to say that free market policies are always wrong, but the 'real' world is far more complex than is allowed for in the model of 'Rational Man and Competitive Equilibrium' (Ormerod, 1994, p.70).

The underlying complexity of the 'real' world is a source of criticism of mainstream economics and also in development models of the economy. Economists have traditionally resorted to models with many simplifying assumptions, exemplified by the Phillips Curve (1958). The central conclusion from Phillips' (1958) work is that, from a policy maker's perspective, it is impossible to have both full employment and price stability; the two are simply incompatible goals. Although many policy makers and politicians have subscribed to this view, in terms of their economic prescriptions, there is increasing concern Phillips's hypothesis, supported by evidence from a number of countries where low levels of unemployment and inflation have been observed simultaneously for some years (Krugaman, 1999). It is often the case that in order for a particular model to even loosely depict the state of the economy, the assumptions which are made, along with the restrictive nature of linearity assumed in a non-linear world, cast much doubt about the efficacy of these models (Ormerod, 1994). Too often, the defense for this process has been grounded in the idea that any model is better than no model at all. This outlook may be acceptable in the confines of a laboratory, but given the influence that economists have had over policy development in recent times, and the impact that such policies have had on society, an autonomous approach such as this is inappropriate as the 'crisis in unemployment has finally come to attract the attention of the world's political leaders' (Ormerod, 1994, p. 145).

Until the twentieth century, many states impinged upon individuals through regulatory and judicial activities; only in relatively recent times did they become heavily involved in the provision of services and in the operation of the economy. For example, in 1821, the number of bureaucrats in Great Britain was 27,000 whilst by, 1985, the number grew to 1,056,000 (central government servants only), only to reduce to 495,000 (476,000 permanent civil servants and 19,000 casual staff) by 1997 (Finer, 1932; Rose, 1985; Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1997). The roles of modern state agencies have gradually converged to the extent that they are now located in an increasingly international and interdependent economic, political and social system.

Some see globalisation, or the global economy, as a 'corporate Olympics', a 'series of games played all over the world with international as well as domestic competition' and where 'global games are increasingly team sports requiring collaboration across national, cultural, social, ethnic and economic differences' (Kanter, 1985, p. 18). Others observe that current global transformations re-arrange the politics and economics of the coming century so that 'there will be no national products or technologies, no national corporations, no national industries' (Reich, 1991, p.7; Ohmae, 1995; Reich, 1991, p.77) further argues that there will no longer be national economies. What will remain 'rooted within national borders are the people who comprise a nation'. Notwithstanding that nationality still has meaning for companies who are financed by local debt and serve local markets with locally-traded goods produced by local workers, the meaning of nationality is disappearing for the growing population of corporations serving global markets or facing global competition and 'global Webs' whose products are international composites (Reich, 1991; Ohmae, 1995. p.10). Reich, (1991, p.113) points out that what is increasingly being traded between nations is 'less finished products and increasingly more specialised problem-solving (research, product design, fabrication), problem identification (marketing, advertising, customer consulting) and brokerage (financing, searching, contracting) services, as well as certain routine components and services, all of which are combined to create value'.

The emergence of the 'global option' would have been inconceivable without advancements in IT, particularly telecommunications (Castelles, 1989; Henderson, 1991), since the root of global re-structuring is a 'techno economic' process establishing a whole range of new organisational possibilities, facilitated by computer-related physical technology, and creating a new world order.

In as much as there has been some state withdrawal from services and benefits to citizens, the increased importance of other state activities and the continuing significance of more 'core' governance functions mean that individuals still remain affected in almost all aspects of their lives by the actions of the state, including a substantial portion of those who are employed by it, exemplified by increased surveillance. The expansion of surveillance in the modern political order, in combination with the policing of 'surveillance', radically transforms the relation between state authority and the governed population, compared with the traditional state. 'Administrative power now increasingly enters into the minutiae of daily life and the most intimate of personal actions and relationships' (Giddens, 1985, p.309). With ever increasing dependency on the electronic modes of storage, collection and dissemination of information, the possibilities of accumulating information relevant to the practice of government are almost endless.

'Control of information within modern, pacified states with very rapid systems of communication, transportation and sophisticated techniques of sequestration, can be directly integrated with the supervision of conduct in such a way as to produce a high concentration of state power' (Giddens, 1985, p.309). Proudhon's 1851 writings summarise this state as he writes that to be governed 'is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured and commanded by creatures who have neither the right, the wisdom nor the virtue to do so' (Proudhon, 1923, p.293). As an anti-centraliser and advocate of worker's self-rule by mutualite, Proudhon (1923) saw government as an intrusion on citizens' life.

The IT-Harem Metaphor

The invisible IT-harem is a metaphor for an invisible barrier set up against disadvantaged individual's potential (physically challenged, 'have-nots', women, ethnic minorities, poor). IT-harems are considered to be enclosures without walls, but ones that are implicitly constraining (Korac-Boisvert, 1994). The Islamic word 'harem' comes from haram, 'forbidden', the opposite to halal, 'permitted'. Traditionally, in Islam, women were both the forbidden ones and those to whom almost everything was forbidden, separated from the world of man by a huddud, a secret barrier.

The abaya or chuddar, the outer garment worn by women in traditional Muslim societies, which covers women from head to toe, is perceived by some, and in particular those with fundamentalist values, as liberating-it provides personal freedom in allowing women to roam, away from the roving eyes of men, and social freedom, women being protected from view as an object of desire, thus, providing women with reassurance of their value and self-respect in society (Di Giovanni, 1998). Others argue that abaya is a symbol of oppressiveness, as it imprisons women and impinges on their rights for self-expression and liberation (Di Giovanni, 1998).

In a similarly contested vein, some have argued that IT has a liberating power, particularly for those who are socially, economically, physically or geographically handicapped (Turkle, 1984). Others have urged that IT has a power to enslave, as it gives power to those who know how to exploit IT over those on whom information is recorded and manipulated (Webster, 1990). Thus, like fundamentalists who perceive the abaya as a return to traditional values, optimists perceive a society transformed radically for the better and IT as a tool for liberation and empowerment (Turkle, 1984). Pessimists see IT as a tool for increasingly inhumane and despotic capitalism (Webster, 1989, 1990) in the same vein as the secular modernist perceives any attempt to force women back into abaya, or even the home, as an imprisonment, exploitation and misery (Di Giovanni, 1998).

The reality of IT advancement has been, like all technical innovations, varied in its impact across different categories of social sectors but with a higher magnitude. Although it is plausible to believe that power can be distributed equally for everyone by giving equal access to the same technology, such as IT, new technologies do not necessarily empower the powerless. The technocratic dream of a technological 'fix' cannot be extended to all social ills (Korac-Kakabadse and Kouzmin, 1996; Kouzmin, Korac-Kakabadse and Korac-Kakabadse, 1999a). This is perhaps most evident in developing societies, over the last decade, where often highly divisive effects of attempts to introduce high technologies into developing societies' programmes are found.

There are numerous examples of redemptive introductions of technologies in developing societies in an attempt to alleviate deficiencies in quality of life without sufficient attention being given to formative context and appropriate social policies or their failure (Korac-Kakabadse and Kouzmin, 1996; Kouzmin, Korac-Kakabadse and Korac-Kakabadse, 1999a; 1999b). The crucial question is whether there is the will to bring about social justice through IT policies. Will IT promote a more caring, sharing world or will IT development and implementation be dominated by media and technology multi-nationals which promote more selfish values that give free reign to redistributing wealth in their own favour?

IT and ‘Invisible’ Barriers

The Internet, for example, is considered at the moment to be the most egalitarian mass media since the public meeting. With the volume of content growing at a rapid rate, users will, increasingly, turn to others, the 'infomediaries', to help them find the content of interest (Hagel and Singer, 1999). The others they will turn to are, in the most part, the media and technology multi-nationals which will have an interest in making some sort of information easier to find than others. However, with increasing access to pornography (Hollands, 1999, p.7), there is a tendency for introducing censorship or, at least, there will be a need for swamping: search engines are increasingly getting more effective at finding the main commercial sites (where questionable values are explicitly promoted) and, in doing so, are less often returning the sites of critics.

Some argue that the new information technologies will help the poor become literate, learn how to plant new crops or sell their services within an expanding information marketplace. However, such 'opportunities' are dependent on citizens being provided with the communication systems; hardware, software and training needed to join the 'IT-harems', otherwise known as the 'information club' (Dertouzos, 1998; Kouzmin, Korac-Kakabadse and Korac-Kakabadse, 1999a). In the absence of such help, they cannot even get started. Computing and technology have implications for praxis and, as such, are as political as any other sort of practices with social repercussions (Dertouzos, 1998). IT policy discourse that arises is political, to a greater or a lesser degree. Some try to demonstrate their apolitical nature, by ignoring or concealing what is at stake, socially, in terms of technological change.

The information gap between rich and poor in the world is not difficult to assess. For example, the Bangladesh economy devotes one-tenth of one per cent to hardware and software products and related services. In the US, the corresponding figure is 100 times larger-ten per cent of the US economy goes to IT (Dertouzos, 1998). Since the average Bangladesh citizen is 30 times poorer than the average American, the disparity, per person, between US annual expenditure on IT is even more staggering-an average of US$3,000 for each American compared to US$1 for each Bangladeshi (Dertouzos, 1998). Similarly, with poor Americans, there is an equally obvious dissonance between IT expenditures in the inner city and the suburbs – 'people struggling for daily bites of food having nothing left over for 'bytes' of information' (Dertouzos, 1998). Whereas the rich, who can afford to buy the new technologies, use them to become increasingly productive and, therefore even richer, the poor stand still. Thus, left to its own devices, the information revolution will increase the gap between rich and poor nations and between rich and poor people within nations.

IT and Social Isolation

Even across America there is a troubling 'digital divide'; a study by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) ranks the 50 states on how well they are adapting to the new E-Economy. The study uses criteria such as the number of high-tech jobs, quality of educational technology, percentage of population on-line, commercial Internet domains and available venture capital. The reports identifies a clear geographical pattern; the West Coast and Eastern Seaboard, from New Hampshire to Virginia, are at the forefront of the 21st century economy, whilst the Deep South and the upper Midwest lag far behind (Dunham, 1999). For example, whilst 52 per cent of Alaskan populations are on-line, only 17 per cent of the population are on-line in Mississippi (Dunham, 1999). Similarly, whilst the state of Michigan is the highest investor in R & D. with 4.9 per cent of its total economy invested, Hawaii invests zero per cent, followed by Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota and Louisiana with 0.1 per cent (Dunham, 1999).

Furthermore, the SRI's psychographic analysis of the US's Web population identifies two broad categories of the Web 'audience'; the 'upstream' and 'downstream' segment (Freeman, 1995). The 'upstream', or 'actualisers', represents 50 per cent of the Web population but only ten per cent of the US population. This group consists of successful men and women with high self-esteem and active 'take-charge' lifestyles, of which 77 per cent is male and 97 per cent have some college education (Freeman, 1995). The 'downstream', or 'other half, already on-line represents the 'led/user' of the 90 per cent of US society. This group consists of younger people (70 per cent under 30) and on their way to being just as educated (89 per cent have at least some college education), of which, 64 per cent are male and 36 per cent female (Freeman, 1995).

Social isolation is defined as 'the state where one's achieved level of social contact is lower than one's desired level of contact' (Caldwell and Taha, 1993). Isolation is increasingly problematic for information societies as personal relations are seen by sociologists 'as the mortar of society'. It is through such relations that people are taught norms that make for smooth social interaction, are assisted in times of trouble, and become contributing members to a broader social life. When individuals are alone, they, by definition, do not benefit from a social life; when a society has made isolated members 'it is prone to crumble' (Derlega and Margulis, 1982, p.160; Fischer and Phillips, 1982, p.21; Peplau and Perlman, 1982, p.8).

Increasing social isolation is proving to be technology-based on two accounts; due to loss of 'off-line' social skills (Turkley, 1997) and, secondly, due to socio-economic depravation of 'virtual connectivity' or 'information reach'. These currently limit those who have physical access to required technology (Evans and Wurster, 1997; The Weekend Australian, 1999, pp.6-7). The policies that government, public and private sector adopts now will shape the socio-economic opportunities for the next ten or 20 years.

Problematic Technology Transfer

The notion of technological capability, which has become increasingly prevale...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Information Rich vs Information Poor: Issues for Public Policy
• 2 Information Technology's Impact on Quality of Democracy: A Philosophical and Administrative Framework
• 3 Information Technology for Public Sector in Developing Countries: Designing Relevant Infra-Structural Capability or New Colonialism?
• 4 Information Technology – Enabled Communication and Organisational Effectiveness
• 5 Current Trends in Internet Use: E-Communication, E-Information and E-Commerce
• 6 Knowledge Management: Understanding and Praxis
• 7 Decentralised, Interactive and Available: Fundamental Changes for IS/IT Professionals
• 8 'Profession' and Professional Ethics: An IT Perspective
• 9 Leadership Determinants for Effective IS/IT Adoption
• 10 Technostress: Over Identification with Information Technology and Its Impact on Employees and Managerial Effectiveness
• Bibliography
• Index