Volume 2 (16) Issue 3 2011 [608942]

Volume 2 (16) ™ Issue 3 ™ 2011

New Trends in Information System Management Approach

Claudiu Adrian ANTOFIE
Valahia University of Targoviste, Romania
[anonimizat]

Abstract
Among the most significant premises of management information trends are
technical and technological developments in computer science and communications. The
most important international organizations and governments of many countries, especially
developed ones, are concerned with analyzing and forecasting developments of computer
science and communications as the most revolutionary changes in recen t decades are IT
and communications, radical product developmen ts causing important and heterogeneous
consequences in all parts of society, economy and technology .

Keywords : management approach,information, computer science,
communications.

JEL Classification : A2, O3

Introduction

A proof of this approach is the World report on communications and computer
science for 1999-2000, conducted by UNESCO1. The report is divided into three parts. The
first part deals with analyzing the impact of information technology on human
development, media, education, culture and ser vices in informatics. The next part focuses
on the description of technological advances, especially in computing, communications,
multimedia and Internet. The third part of th e report examines the evolution of computing
and communications on geographical areas, highlighting the great inequalities between
different regions and countries . The final conclusion of the report is clear: IT and
communications are progressing very fast and differently, with a tendency to amplify ,
which brigs radical changes, though uneven, to our society and economy . Many
technological developments in computing and communication can be grouped according to
specialists2, in six categories:
– internet and Intranet professional applications;
– mobile telecommunications and portable computing;
– computer assisted telephony (call centers and tele-management systems
services);
– groupware and workflow management;
– video communications;
– development of communications networks.
                                                             
1 Rapport Mondial sur la Communication et L’information 1999-2000, Edition UNESCO, Paris, 1999 p. 334
2 M. Laurent, H. Raimond, G. Valenduc, P. Vandramin, FTU, Namur, 1998, p. 8
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Other specialists group developments in IT and communications in an almost
different manner, but having essentially the same content1. According to experts who have
developed the World report on computer science and communications, there are three
major trends in this area:
The globalization of information and communication technologies , which rely on
computer hardware and software, TV sets a nd radios, broadcasting and
telecommunications equipment, multimedia a nd network management systems developed
worldwide. They generate new products and services, which after 1997 have been
multiplying in an incr edibly fast pace.
The convergence of technologies , which occurs on two levels. First, the
convergence between information and communication technologies, evidenced by
encoding and standardization of many categori es of information, electronic equipment and
computer products, reduction of differences between hardware and software innovations,
expanding of databases and com puter networks, development of computer systems with
reduced set of instructions, making of parallel processing systems of information and
increasing security of applications. The second aspect of convergence refers to computer
science, television broadcasting systems, telecommunications and electronics for the public.
Integration of IT and communications – based on previous trends – are reflected in
the creation of many virtual communities, regrouped in certain areas or sectors, allowing
you to identify products, systems and services that meet your needs. Internet Protocol (IP)
has the predominant role in computer and co mmunication foreshadowing, which is a real
vector of reorientation and development of information and communication technologies.
It has had a major positive impact on the deve lopment of major international information
networks (WAN), networks within compani es (Intranet), networks between companies
(Extranet), metropolitan networks (MAN), lo cal networks (LAN). Simultaneously, IP
marks the substantial development of networ k computers, work spaces, services for group
work, for work group servers, media services, cable television netw orks and wireless
connections. Developments in software and computer products are the becoming more
structured around WEB and electronic distribution of information over the WEB. In the
coming years it is estimated that ubiquity of IP will increase, under growing convergence
of computing, radio and television broadcasti ng, telecommunications and electronics to the
public2.
For the future, EU experts3 consider that developments in computer science and
communications will have three characteristics:
– information and communications technology costs will decrease, while costs and
prices of other technologies will rise;
– annual growth rates of information and communication technologies
performances will exceed what we have known so far;
– combinations of new information a nd commnication technologies and betweer,
them and technologies from other areas will generate many new products, more
unpredictibale, causing many changes in products, services and existing markets.
                                                             
1 Maria White, The Impact of Communications Networks on Access to Information, in M. Grives (ed.)
Information Policy in the Electro nic Age, Bawker Saur, London, 1999
2 O. Nicolescu, Sistemul Informa țional managerial al organiza ției, Bucure ști, Editura Economic ǎ, 2001, p. 139
3 Status Report or European Telework-TEL EWORK 98, UE, Bruxelles, 1999, p.199
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The impact of developments of equipment, information and communication
technologies on the content of activities of organizations and their performances will be
huge. Their foundation is doubling the capacity of information processing that occurs
every two years1. As far as the organization's activiti es are concerned, changes of work
tasks will continue, directed to their automation. As a result, rationalization of work
processes will increase. In addition, and pre dominantly, the impact will be felt in the
management of organizations, due to internal a nd external information changes, in flows of
information and in coordination of activities2. Managers’ operationa l and decision-making
speed will increase, while reducing the number and size of managerial mistakes3. They
will gradually turn in a development in terms of productivity and implicitly of
performances and competitive capacity of orga nizations in general and of businesses in
particular.
Another important premise of the new tr ends in information management is the
evolution towards a new economy – knowledge-based economy . Knowledge-based
economy represents a new type of economy, radically different from the industrial economy or – if accepted – its post-industrial ve rsion, that has been working in developed
countries in recent decades. The main features of the knowledge-based economy
4 will be
briefly presented below:
– The importance of knowledge in all spheres of economic activity due to the
decisive impact they have on functionalit y and performance. In production processes,
knowledge is a more important input than land, money or work.
– Concentration of economic activities, not on the production of goods, but on
treatment of information, storing of knowledge and productio n of knowledge-goods.
– Substantiation of economic activities, not primarily on tangible resources (land,
buildings, equipment), but on intangible r esources, such as knowledge and skilled minds.
– Fund of knowledge is a special, intangible, fluid capital, whose exclusive
possession is difficult to ensure a nd can be retrieved and reused.
– The proliferation of equipment and sy mbolic products, while diminishing the
relative physical products; symbolic products based on information, whose value is
independent of the physical characteristics of these goods. Cards, electronic commerce,
electronic banking software, computer software packages, etc. are categories of symbolic products which will prevail the knowledge-based economy.
– Demassification of production, to elim inate the need to concentrate large
amounts of physical and human resources in an organization, to generate economic
performance. The first steps were made by "just in time" systems, processing of computer-
based integration, miniaturization of equipment etc.
– The gradual disappearance of borders between the activities of the firm and
between firms at sectorial, regional, nationa l and international level. The organization
focused on the labor division and hierarchy gives way to the organization based on
teamwork, interchangeability of tasks and inte rdepartmental functionality. Differences and
boundaries between various fields of activity a nd regions gradually diminish, in the context
of internationalization of activities.
                                                             
1 O. Nicolescu, Sistemul Informa țional Managerial al Organiza ției, Bucure ști, Editura Economic ǎ, 2001, p.
139
2 Rapport Mondial sur la Communication et L’information 1999-2000, Edition UNESCO, Paris, 1999, p. 35
3 M. Laurent, H. Raimond, G. Valenduc, P. vandramin, FTU, namur, 1998, p. 8
4 P. Toriel, Nouvelle Economie t Financ ement, IT, Ottawa, 1994, p. 1-2. A. B. Jones, Knowledge Capitalism –
Business, Work and Learning in the New Economy, Ox ford University Press, Oxford, 1999, p. 225-225
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– Generation, operation and improvement of technologies become a widespread
and important subject for survival and performance.
– The majority share, continuously growing, of service sector, in the economy as a
whole, at the expense of the productive sector.
– Development and growth of exports due to the blurring of differences between
national markets and the gradual elimination of institutional, time and space barriers
between countries.
– Fast proliferation of small and medium enterprises, while reducing the number of
large firms, because they are simpler and can quickly adapt to contextual developments.
– The proliferation and diversificati on of economic association between the
organizations – strategic alliances, networks of firms, industrial parks etc. – to capitalize on a higher plan the knowledge and other resources available to them. Underlying these forms of collaboration is a new type of knowledge – integrating – and modern information and
communication means. Naturally, these features of knowledge-based economy are not exhaustive and some of them are perceived harder due to a strictness and absorption
capacity involved. Overall, they give a true account to detect specific knowledge-based economy and substantive differences acro ss the economy that prevails today
1. In the
knowledge-based economy, the main component is the knowledge-based business.
Analyses carried out by specialists, as well as the reality of companies operating in the top
branches of the Triad countries, shows that the knowledge-based company has different
characteristics from the firm that prevails in the current period, namely2:
– Reduction of company’s physical assets, work done and employees, while
developing the internal knowledge and expa nding ties with customers, suppliers and
external labor.
– Outsourcing of activities that are not essential to the firm, along with
internalization of the essential ones or of those strongly complementary for the essential
knowledge of the organization.
– Changing relations with external labor of the firm, calling on it for clerk work,
less important for the maintenance of the organization; for their realization firms will
appeal widely to small businesses and individuals worki ng independently.
– Strategic development of the company will be based on increasing the depth or
width of knowledge of the company, which means that it has the ability to develop its own
knowledge and to recognize the opportunities for synergistic cooperation in the field of
knowledge.
– The internal organization of knowledg e-based company is analogous to human
cognitive model, characterized by less stru ctured networks, semi-autonomous teams
composed of individuals possessing the knowledge, organizational and individual readiness.
– Maximizing of effectiveness and efficiency is based on the structure of teams,
where "coupling" must be minimized and cohesion for learning maximized.
– Reduction of number and roles of middl e and inside managers and gradual
outsourcing of people who do peripheral activities, while integrating "knowledge
                                                             
1 O. Nicolescu, Sistemul Informa țional Managerial al Organiza ției, Bucure ști, Editura Economic ǎ, 2001, p.
139
2 A. B. Jones, Knowledge Capitalism – Business, Work and Learning in the New Economy, Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 1999, p. 42-43, 170-171
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managers" in the firm, who often begin their wo rk with agents or consultants of change
within the organization.
– Remodeling of economic and management capabilities of the company, to
emphasize their knowledge through their op tions, decisions and actions they take.
– Targeting of investment in training, in external labor to replace their own
employees who are not progressing.
– Allocate resources for training and providing fewer opportunities for promotion
for staff from peripheral groups, which bear the main responsibility for their own training
and professional development.
– Re-conception of motivation system, according to the following coordinates:
• enhancing reward based on performances and merit for the entire staff of
the company;
• increased use of peripheral groups staff rewarding according to
individual performance;
• increasing use of global, group and personal incentives, for the
company's core staff;
• wide promotion of staff within and outside the firm.
Underlying these features are trends that show the transition from the current
economy to knowledge-based economy , namely1:
– main functions of the company are coordination, protection and integration of
knowledge;
– transactions and activities involving high levels of expertise and default
knowledge are internalized;
– transactions and activities involving exp licit knowledge highly specialized are
outsourced;
– property and business management are converging;
– links between education, economic activ ity and preparing of staff redefine.

Conclusion

As a result of all these elements at the Annual Congress of the International
Council of Small Companies (ICSB) held in 1999 at Toronto the central theme was the
smart company, the knowledge-based company, with less hierarchical levels, more flexible, approaches to info rmation and communication being significantly different from
those of a classical company. So, in the context of the new economy the transformation of
a company in a knowledge-based organization appears as a necessity, which pays
particular attention to learning, prior issue to discuss in the European Union. At the Lisbon
summit of 2000, which established as the strategic objective of the European Union the building a knowledge-based society, was a dopted a Memorandum on Lifelong Learning,
which is a real action program in this resp ect. Within it there are six goals and six key
messages of lifelong learning, four of which directly concerns the manifestation of
companies as learning organizations. In lite rature were highlighted as opportunities for
achieving a management based on knowledge, the following:
– strong improvement of education, particularly through active learning training
and technical information, resulting in "production" of graduates holding a larger volume
                                                             
1 A. B. Jones, Knowledge Capitalism – Business, Work and Learning in the New Economy, Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 1999, p. 43
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of knowledge, much of it very modern, increased awareness, general and specialized
training of population as a result of continuous pr oliferation and of the media, reflected in
the heritage of knowledge of citizens;
– increased responsiveness to new inform ation and modern technologies, which
favors production, transmission and use of new knowledge;
– proliferation of innovative approaches, methods and techniques in organizations,
with positive effects on the innovative capability of the employees within them, resulting
in higher potential to generate new knowledge1. Knowledge-based management
development has not spared even the public sector. In 1996, Twijnstra Gudde showed with
reference to the reasons for introducing th is type of management in this domain:
– there is no clear perception of the public institutions on their own knowledge;
– much of the knowledge available is not adequately capitalized;
– knowledge required is not known sufficiently in advance;
– there is a need for upgrading knowledge;
– lack of knowledge is not always realized;
– there are many types of knowledge and experts for each of them;
– knowledge is not always systematic;
– there is a variety of customers with different expectations;
Specialists consider that the new trend manifested in public management involves
several important concepts: knowledge, competence, learning, learning capacity,
knowledge-based management. Knowledge-based management aims to create an
organization where employees are encourag ed to use knowledge effectively and
efficiently.
 
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