Online Custom «Institution Research Plan» Essay Sample

Information Communication Technology (ICT) refers to communication systems that are integrated to be able to deliver appropriate information to a user or a decision maker. Some of the elements of ICT include computers, telephones, software, audio systems and others that enable a user to set information in the required form. Information is a key to success and effective operations of contemporary organizations encouraging businesses to embrace ICT (Ehnert, Harry & Zink, 2014, p. 121). In many cases, people refer to ICT as information communications, which generally mean delivery of communication to the appropriate decision-maker in the right way. Growth of ICT in the whole world is one of the Millennium Development Goals. As a result, international organizations, such as the United Nations, have endorsed ICT as part of achieving the goals (Ehnert, Harry & Zink, 2014, p. 102). I believe that the method of interactions between human beings in a specific setup usually affects the decision-making of the concerned individuals. ICT has undergone some transformations as the technology continues to improve. Examples of the transformation include the improvement in speed of computers and increased access to internet. In general, ICT has led to better performance of businesses due to the increased speed and efficiency of decision-making.

ICT has brought about some benefits in organizations with the first one being the improved efficiency and speed of processing information. Several examples include statistical decision-making tools by the use of programs, such as Excel, which has enabled the managers and decision-makers to have the required information in order to make appropriate decisions. ICT has also resulted into more security to privilege and important information of an organization owing to the availability of backups and secure online storage. Lastly, ICT has reduced the bulk of many employees in terms of handling documents and other matters manually, thus affording the employees more time to do other constructive activities.

Currently society faces various challenges due to ICT. Issues that arise in this case are as follows:

Human Relations Problems

The main challenge that the societal and organizational structures face when it comes to the introduction of ICT is the staff relations among each other and how such relations affect the productivity of the employees. If an organization does not have ICT infrastructure installed, the staff tend to base their social interactions on more consultation (d’Iribarne, 2012, p. 144). The installment of ICT infrastructure changes the dimension of the decision-making of the employees. Namely, many of them prefer to reduce their social interactions and instead spend most of their time in computer systems. Lack of social connections in the organizations may lead to poor relations among the staff, and improper coordination and communication would lead to poor business performance (Ehnert, Harry & Zink, 2014, p. 115). Similar problems occur in society we live in because people have become influenced by ICT. Hence, their social interactions and relations have changed to an extent of straining the societal bond of sharing information. People have turned out to ICT-related tools, such as the internet and computers, to find comfort that had been previously reserved for human interactions. As a result, people have become more insensitive, and the new nature of the human beings has translated to all the economic, political, and organizational structures. The level of consultancy among the employees can be called as an example in this case. Due to the availability of ICT, employees no longer engage in consultation with each other. Such a situation may lead to difficult relations among the staff members, and it would become hard for a manager to coordinate their performance.

Information Inflow

Information is vital in the current complex world, but it should also be limited because too much information may ruin the society. In political sector, there is a challenge of availability of information (Ehnert, Harry & Zink, 2014, p. 78). For example, if people have access to information, they will demand for more democratization policies. It follows that such a political set up will be full of individuals demanding for more democracy, putting stability of a particular governmental set up at risk (Fu, 2010). In terms of economic problems, there exists a cost-benefit problem. Specifically, organizations might engage in adopting ICT without considering the costs of the adoption and the corresponding benefits of the development. To illustrate, customers or employees having information on various revenues and profits that an organization is making may lead to the employees’ demanding for more pay and customers requiring for more social responsibility from the business.

However, there are solutions to the problems caused by ICT to make it more beneficial to human beings without having a negative effect on their lives. For example, regulation by organizations and authorities can be important because it would control the amount of effect the ICT has on many people. By the same token, the problems in this field are too diverse. Hence, there need to be further studies to determine how ICT can be made more efficient to improve societies in general and reduce the negative effects of technology at the same time.

Method

The research will require substantial data collection and authorization for some information about the organization involved in research procedure. The exploration will focus on one organization that has employees from different cultural backgrounds. Employee data will also be necessary so as to identify the cultural distribution of the staff around the world. In order to make sure that the research to be effective, I will gather the information on the different cultural characteristics of people from various backgrounds and how they perceive ICT prior to the research procedure (d’Iribarne, 2012, p. 145). It will therefore be possible to link their current behavior to their background in terms of communicating with other staff members and seniors in the organization.