Impact of technological changes on Human resources

In todays turbulent business environment, the only thing that appears to remain constant is change. Social, economic, competitive and technical pressures are forcing organizations to rethink and rebuild the way which they provide their service. These pressures can originate from internal and external sources; pressure from competitors and customers to provide. Management should improve their efficiency and overcome pressure for reduce the cost and improve quality. The implementation of new technology is often central to achieving these goals. Old and traditional systems can become inefficient and too costly to maintain as compared with modern technological solutions. So what is needed and required is make a clear change in technology in order to overcome lagging with old and inefficient ways of managing people. But the real problem comes after the technological changes. The advent of new technology requires both new technological skills and knowledge. The typical reaction to new technology is fear, anxiety and uncertainty in the form of resistance to the change. Resistance to change can be accepted as a natural reaction. It is however can be identified as one of the major obstacles facing organizations when trying to implement change. Employees fear and resist change for a variety of reasons, fear of redundancy, fear of extra work. It was found that management who rationalize away such concerns generates an instinctual protective reaction. Change management helps to guard against over simplification of employee concerns. Change management is the process, tools and techniques to effectively manage people and the associated human resource issues that surface when implementing change. There are some technological concepts present in the world of business which will move an organization towards the technological changes with the improvement of them. They are,

Modern technology
This concept includes modern mechenary, improvements of process of production and introduction of new and efficient process. This sector affects the production stage in an organization.

Information technology
This describes on the implementation of new IT infrastructures to support internal and external communications and information sharing. IT comprises computer networks with business based networks, telecommunication systems and remote controlled devices. The networking of business had brought with it new opportunities and increased social and economic rewards from creating and using technology. The Impact of technological changes on Human resources can be seen in these ways,

Accepting technology
Figure shows the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), first introduced by Fred D. Davis in 1986. The TAM aims to isolate factors which most affect the integration of new technology into an organization and is used to predict, explain and increase user acceptance of technological systems and applications and to understand why end-users can reject the use of new technological solutions. The TAM focuses on two major characteristics of a system or software application.

They are, Perceived Ease of Use (EOU) is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort. Perceived Usefulness (U) is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance their performance. So the TAM shows that EOU (Perceived Ease of Use) and U (Perceived Usefulness) are influenced by external variables, some examples are listed below. A users experience of the current system and fear of redundancy. This was experienced when the computer or desktop publishing was introduced to government offices instead of typewriter. Most of them thought that it was introduced for getting more work from employers. But the true purpose was fast working, better protection of work and easy transfer work among fellow workers. Popular opinions to the new implementation, both positive and negative.

Pressure from workers unions. When the finger print reader was introduced for the marking of attendance in governments health services there was a huge resistance from their unions. Age users feeling they are too old to learn. This is a major problem among most government officers with more than 15-20 years of service. Unlike European countries our elder employers are tend to reject information technology because their bad attitude for computers. Examination of the TAM shows that the main cause for the non-acceptance of a technological system or application introducing is the impact of the external variables on its potential users. The probability that a system will be accepted and used can be increased by focusing and acting on the factors that influence users perception of a system. This accepting of technology barrier must be overcome in order to make a real change to an organization. The Human Development Report 2001 (UNDP, 2001) lists three reasons for supporting the adoption of new technology as follows. Potential benefits, where the expected benefits are at least as great as the risks. Costs of inertia versus costs of change, where new technologies improve on those they replace. Managing risks, where potential harms can be managed and their effects can be reduced through systematic scientific research. Even if the reasons listed above are valid from a managerial point of view, it remains difficult to convince workers of the need for technological change. People react in different ways to change, some embrace change, some pine for the old days of clearly defined roles and responsibilities. So we can introduce the Levins (1947) three step process for change for system migration as follows.
Unfreezing overcoming the habits and inertia of an organization. Moving making the change to the new system. Local examples are ICTAs IT programs for government officers, seminars provided by local universities and other campaigns organized by organizations. Refreezing making the changes last.