Technology in Context

Technology Assessment for Managers

Ernest Braun

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781134671472
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Most managers know very little about the technology they introduce into their firms, often preferring to leave such decisions to a small band of technological 'experts'. As a result large amounts of time and money are often wasted on inappropriate and inefficient systems. The cost of retraining and reorganising can also be prohibitive if the new technology does not deliver the desired results.
In a business environment where technology is of increasing importance, the non-technical manager cannot afford to remain in the dark. Technology in Context provides a toolkit of approaches to this difficult subject.
Subjects covered include:
* the fundamental concepts required for the management of technology
* the gathering of information in a firm to support strategic decisions on technology
* technology assessment in the public domain
* the wider social implications of technology
* problems associated with technology, from the danger of environmental degradation to employment and skills.

1
TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

Technology management

Technology has become a vital part of the life not only of commercial and industrial firms, but of the lives of individuals and societies. Whether we speak of materialist society or of information society, it is technology that lies at the heart of producing material wealth and we use technology to handle, store and transmit information. We use technology for better or for worse and it is the task of technology management to tilt the balance toward the better.

This text is aimed at managers of technology. Technology makes specialist demands upon managers that cannot readily be met by generalist managers or by engineers without training in the management of technology. There are complexities and peculiarities about the management of technology that demand specialist knowledge and specialist approaches. Whereas the application, creation, design, maintenance and improvement of technology itself are, of course, the domain of the engineer and scientist, managing technology in the context, and for the benefit, of a firm is the domain of the technology manager. To paraphrase the famous dictum by Clemenceau about war being too important to be left to the generals: technology is too important to the life of firms to be left to technologists.

The task of management of a firm consists of coordinating and controlling its activities so as to serve its best interests. Leaving aside the question of what a firm's best interests are and who determines them, the task of managing consists of many interrelated functions. Clearly, there is general management, usually at the hierarchical pinnacle of the firm. At this level, the firm's strategy is decided and its different functions are coordinated and controlled. Each separate function of the firm also needs to be managed. Thus we usually speak of financial management, personnel management, sales management, and so forth. But surely if technology is such a vital aspect of a firm's activities, technology management must also be an essential task. Indeed technology is managed, generally under titles such as production management, R&D management, communications management. All these functions are specialist aspects of technology management. In information-intensive service organizations, such as banks, technology management usually falls to computer and communications managers. The term technology manager is an umbrella concept covering all the varied aspects of the management of technology.

It is common for technology management functions to be fulfilled by technologists who learn on the job. This can work well, and indeed there is no substitute for learning on the job, but learning on the job is usually easier and more effective on the basis of some theoretical foundation.

There are three types of enterprise likely to need specialist technology managers:

1 Manufacturing firms. These need, first and foremost, to manage their manufacturing technology (process technology). To some authors, this is the very essence of technology management. If the firm produces a complex product, then the task of product development also becomes a technology management task. It goes without saying that product and process technology are inextricably interwoven and that their management must be closely coordinated. In many cases the production of a new product demands new production technology and, more important, the design of a new product must bear ease of production in mind. Ease of manufacture, so-called ‘manufacturability’ is a key to major cost savings.

2 Service providers. Many service providers, such as insurance companies, transport undertakings, hospitals, or even retailers, now use highly sophisticated technology, ranging from computers to telecommunications and to automated ware-houses. For some service providers, such as airlines or railways, specialized complex technological systems are at the very core of their business. Purchasing and maintaining aircraft and computer and communications systems are among the most important activities of an airline. Hospitals use a wide range of expensive diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. The demands of management of technology in such organizations are complex and distinct from the requirements of other specialist or general management.

3 Utilities, extraction industries, construction, etc. Clearly, all these types of firm use complex technologies that are their life-blood, their raison d’être. It should not surprise us that the management of these technologies is important and requires the attention of specialist managers.

At a higher level of generalization, almost any commercial firm has two sides to it: producing a product or service, and selling it. Technology may or may not be used on the sales side, but it almost invariably lies at the heart of production. Each side, and its component parts, needs to be managed, and the whole needs to be purposefully coordinated.

The present text is not a general text on technology management; it deals merely with one aspect of the task: technology assessment. We may sum up this task by the proverb ‘look before you leap’. In other words, think long and hard about the consequences of choosing a certain technology before deciding on it. Technology assessment is neither more nor less than the task of gathering sufficient information about a technology, and its likely future consequences for all those who interact with it, before embarking upon developing or deploying this technology. This sounds like simple common sense and so it is, but the application of simple common sense requires a great deal of knowledge and specialized techniques. The knowledge that is obtained as a result of much thought and investigation by many well-trained people is deeper, and more dependable, than easy conclusions that look like common sense knowledge at first sight. True knowledge is built up gradually and painstakingly—it does not appear in a flash of inspiration, even if inspiration has an important role to play in the creation of knowledge.

What we aim for in this text is to help the student to obtain a clear grasp of what sort of information is required for wise decisions about technology, and indeed what distinguishes wise from unwise in the technological context. We shall not lay down rules of wisdom, but attempt to provide some guidance for the student's own thoughts. When all is said and done, many aspects of wisdom are a matter of values and judgement and cannot be uniquely determined. What action is wise depends on what values you cherish and on what you wish to achieve.

Before we embark upon the details of technology assessment, we need to define and clarify some basic concepts. We start with technology.

The definition of technology

We all think we know what technology is, but when we think about it more closely, the term becomes elusive because it is so difficult to distinguish technology from other types of human activity. Definitions are important not only because they define and describe a subject, but also because they exclude other subjects. Thus definitions set boundaries for a topic of discussion, to the exclusion of all other topics. Set the boundaries too narrowly and the discussion becomes sterile, scholastic and pointless; set them too widely and the discussion becomes diffuse, unfocused and nebulous.

Definitions of such potentially all-embracing topics as technology cannot be unique and universally accepted. They must depend not only on the personal taste and attitude of the author of the definition but, more important, on the purpose the definition is to serve. In our case, in a textbook for technology managers, the definition of technology must be aimed at serving the needs of this particular audience. The role of the technology manager is a distinct one, different from the roles of other types of manager, because technology is a distinct class of objects, knowledge and activities. By defining technology, we define the domain of the technology manager. Each author on technological issues is forced to produce an own definition of technology, or select one from a multitude that have been proposed. We prefer to give our own definition, though without raising the claim that it is the only, or even the best possible, definition.

If we define technology too narrowly, we constrain ourselves to speaking of machines and tools. Defining technology too widely, on the other hand, perhaps as the organization and method for the production of material wealth, does not allow us to distinguish between technology and other purposeful activities, such as commerce, marketing, law, or accountancy. One such all-embracing definition is: ‘Technology means the systematic application of scientific or other organized knowledge to practical tasks’ (Galbraith 1974, 31). This would make the psychotherapist a technologist and that, to my mind, is casting the net too wide.

We define technology as the ways and means by which humans produce purposeful material artefacts and effects. Alternatively, we may define technology as the material artefacts used to achieve some practical human purpose and the knowledge needed to produce and operate such artefacts. Essentially, in this definition technology always consists of material artefacts (hardware, means), and of the software (knowledge, ways) necessarily and immediately associated with it.

An acceptable alternative definition of technology is: ‘A process which, through an explicit or implicit phase of research and development (the application of scientific knowledge), allows for commercial production of goods or services’ (Dussauge, Hart and Ramanantsoa 1992, 13). These authors use the term ‘technology’ as a high-level concept, whereas they prefer the term ‘technique’ for more mundane, less abstract, usage. This comes naturally to French or German speakers, as the French word technique (Technik in German) has a broader meaning in French (or German) than in English.

In broad terms, we distinguish between the product of a firm and the technologies employed to produce it. Thus we should distinguish between technology itself and products of technology, though some of the latter may themselves be technological devices. We shall, however, not insist on this distinction and follow the common practice of distinguishing only between production (or process) technology and product technology. The product of one firm may well be the production technology of another firm; for example the output of a machine tool manufacturer is used by other manufacturers to manufacture a range of various products. Though the basic, and commonly used, classification of technology knows only two categories: process (or production) technology on the one hand, and product technology on the other, it is sometimes useful to make more detailed distinctions between different types of technology. This further clarifies the nature of technology and gives a first inkling of the different tasks involved in managing different types of technology. The following might serve as a useful, though incomplete, classification:

•Production technology, i.e. purposeful systems of tools and machinery used to produce a variety of products. A system of production is not a random collection of suitable machines, but a system designed for a purpose, incorporating machines linked, controlled and managed in sophisticated and complex ways. We regard the organization of the system and the various measurement and control functions incorporated in it as part of the system. The system generally consists of many sub-systems, including quality control, stock control, materials handling, and so forth, Examples of such systems are the array of machinery, tools and instruments used to produce automobiles; or the machinery and control systems used to produce chemical fertilizers; or the somewhat simpler system of machinery used to produce shoes.

Sometimes a distinction is made between process and production technology, though more often these terms are used as synonyms and we shall not insist on the distinction. Strictly speaking, a process is something like a chemical process, a fermentation process, or welding, or turning. Production technology uses a variety of processes in a system to produce a product.

•The products of technology are many and varied. We may usefully distinguish between several categories.

1 Technological implements, i.e. tangible artefacts used to achieve some desired practical purpose or effect. We use this term to include tools and implements such as hammers, ploughs, or pots and pans. It may seem a little far-fetched to call furniture, garments and footwear technological implements—but though their use is more passive, the definition still fits them.

2 Measuring instruments and control devices, such as micrometers, thermometers, or strain-gauges. Measuring devices and sensors often form part of a manufacturing system or of more complex devices, such as vehicles.

3 Devices that use energy to achieve some physical effect, such as air conditioners, refrigerators, heaters, furnaces, lighting.

4 Vehicles, such as cars, railway engines and carriages, aeroplanes. These could be subsumed under point 3, but are too important not to be given a classification of their own.

5 Devices used to achieve effects that are not primarily physical. This category includes the whole range of devices used in information and communication technology and in entertainment, such as computers, telephones, video-recorders.

6 Engines, motors and machines. Engines and motors convert some form of energy into mechanical motion; machines use mechanical motion to achieve some desired effect, such as turning, washing clothes, pumping water. Robots and conveyor belts also fall into this category.

7 Building and construction, including houses, roads, bridges, dams, tunnels and so forth.

8 Processing technologies, such as the production of engineering and other materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, and so forth.

•Technological systems, e.g. complex sets of devices and material artefacts, serving some practical material purpose.¹ An example is the railway system, consisting of track, bridges, a signalling subsystem, stations, locomotives, rolling stock, and an elaborate set of rules and procedures to enable the system to function as an effective carrier of goods and passengers. Our definition of technology includes those rules and procedures that are directly related to the operation of the technical system, e.g. the rules controlling activities of engine-drivers, or procedures related to the maintenance of rolling stock. We exclude matters such as financial management, ticket sales, or catering.

A road is part of a technological system; the system of road transport. The boundaries of this system can be chosen somewhat arbitrarily, but we may sub-divide it into the technological system, i.e. roads, bridges, traffic lights, petrol stations, the system of fuel supply, cars and lorries; and a secondary system, consisting of laws, law enforcement, emergency services, etc. Strictly speaking, ambulances and medical services are not necessary for the functioning of the road transportation system, but it is hard to envisage a society that does not try to ameliorate some of the horrors that are the by-products of their choice of technological system.

To some people, technological knowledge itself is technology. This is debatable, but certainly the knowledge necessary to design, construct and operate technological artefacts cannot be properly divorced from the artefacts themselves. Thus the knowledge necessary to design and produce automobiles, and a production system to manufacture them, is technological knowledge and is a pre-condition for the manufacture of automobiles. Generally speaking, technological knowledge is the knowledge dispensed in engineering courses. It is a moot point whether the knowledge dispensed in a course on the management of technology is technological knowledge. On balance, we tend to think that some of it is, but much of it is not because it attempts to consider non-technological factors that are important to the management of technology.

The word technique, although closely related to the word technology, is used in a narrower sense to describe the way we perform certain tasks, e.g. the technique of using a tool, or a measurement technique. Technique is akin to method, manner of execution, or skill.

Purely organizational arrangements, where the use of physical artefacts is trivial or not of the essence, are not regarded as technology. Thus a system of sales outlets and representatives, however vital to the operations of a manufacturing firm, is not considered technology, though the sales force may use technology for the performance of certain tasks, such as communications, control, or display. The general organization of a firm should not be regarded as technology, any more than a system of governance or the organization of a church should be considered as technology.

With the advent of computers and their ever widening use, it is tempting to widen the definition of technology to include all computer software. Indeed the computer, including its systems and applications software, is a technological device par excellence, and computer software may be regarded as technology in so far as it is inseparable from a computer. Strictly speaking, we must consider a book as a product of technology, albeit a passive one. We must beware, however, of identifying the computer with the tasks it can perform. Even if a balance sheet is produced by computer, this does not make accountancy into a technology. We must maintain a boundary between technology and the purposes for which it is used, otherwise everything becomes technology. After all, music uses instruments which are products of technology, but musicians are not technologists; linguistics uses computers, but linguistics is not a technology; and even the dreaded inspector of taxes is not a technologist, despite the widespread use of computers in tax offices. We must not fall into the trap of confusing the tool with the task performed by it.

Our definition of technology encompasses the hardware, the tangible artefacts, used to perform some practical task, as well as the software immediately associated with the hardware. Although technology and organization interact strongly, we regard a distinction between them as useful. The efficacy and effi...