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Introduction
The influence of the Internet has caused a change in the way we communicate, learn and shop. The Internet is probably most famous for the ability to spread information, fact or fiction. We were once limited to news editors of a local paper, then to national cable news. Now anyone can search the globe, visit local papers in foreign countries, and see the views of all sides. This ease of information has also brought with it a large amount of hoaxes, money schemes, and fallacies.
Internet has transformed our lives and the way we communicate, how we learn, how we work and spend free time, in essence � it has more or less changed every aspect of human society one can think of. The significance of the Internet and information technology (IT) in both business and private field has grown considerably in the last years, with exponential growth of Internet users and services offered.
Since � in today's business environment � people and their knowledge are company's key assets; it is obvious and expected of each company to be aware and prepared for such changes. Not only (or not at all) are the IT specialist's ones that should be aware of the new trends and understand them, but also (or even first and foremost) the manager.
Current Influence of the Internet and IT
The number of Internet users has grown over 400 million in year 2008 (predictions for year 2010 are set for more than one billion). Any potential advantage of the Internet-usage, that a company can exploit to recruit, develop and retain these types of personnel, is even more important due to the fact that there is a shortage of highly profiled people in the workforce market.
On the one hand, since the primary use of the Internet is communication, some people might speculate that the Internet will have positive social consequences in people's everyday lives because it increases the frequency and quality of interpersonal communications among people. People with easy access to others would feel better connected and more strongly supported by others, leading to happiness and engagement in families, organizations, communities, and society more generally.
But, on the other hand, the ease of electronic communication may lead to weaker social ties, because people have less reason to leave their homes and actually interact face to face with other people. The Internet allows people to more easily work from their home, to form and sustain friendships and even romantic attachments from their home, to bank from their home, to vote and engage in political and social issue based discussions with others (from home).
Use of Internet for Staffing
Research from the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) has found that the number of firms using their corporate web sites to recruit board directors has almost doubled over the past year, rising from 12 per cent to 27 per cent. 79% of companies from the Global 500 group (500 largest world companies by revenue) at least to a certain extent use the Internet for seeking new personnel.
The main advantages for Internet supported recruiting are: - Lower costs of recruiting (savings in invitations for application, postal-costs, data- processing costs).
- Quicker process of recruitment: period from the point when the need for a new employee is sensed until the point when he starts doing his job is, according to the research, cut for twelve days.
- Possibility to attract better and more candidates � invitation for application published on a website can also be spotted by those, who are currently not seeking new employment actively.
Besides the corporate websites, third-party websites are gaining importance. Not only that they act as "work- force exchange" where supply meets demand and vice versa, many of them also publish relevant business news, articles on job-hunting, CV writing etc., which acts as additional pull mechanism for web users, which ensures head- hunting companies that their call for applications is seen.
Use of Internet for New Ways of Work
With Internet and (more broadly) Information-and-Communications-Technology (ICT) development in the full swing for the last two decades, organisations have been provided with 'a whole range of new possibilities for performing work and structuring organisations' , which will undoubtedly extend even more in the future and therewith grasp even wider sphere of employees.
Two of new ways of work are discussed below.
1. Teleworking
Telework is a wide concept, whose 'common element' is 'the use of computers and telecommunications to change the accepted geography of work'. It means that we are 'moving the work to workers instead of moving the workers to work', with help of information technologies.
2. Project-oriented work with subcontracting
According to economics theory, two of the main reasons for pooling of human resources into companies are the cost reduction that is achieved with partitioning of work and the need for management of work, which is divided between numerous employees.
Though, today's ICT enables efficient collection of people with similar interest and complementary skills, and their cooperation in short- or long-term projects. All that without necessarily being a formal part of the company.
Use of Internet for Employee-Development
Acquiring new and supplementing existing knowledge is one of the top- level motivational factors for a person that has covered his basic existential needs, therefore as it a key success factor for an individual it is also critical for successfulness of organization as a whole. Internet-based technology offers numerous possibilities for getting hold of new knowledge and skills. information technology has an impact over Organizational Learning as IT facilitates OL at both the individual level and the organizational level in creating knowledge which ultimately enables organizations to improve capabilities and enhance performances to cope with change. Companies are using various IT application or tools to promote OL either through knowledge depository database, online training, staff rotation planning or various IT based communication channels. The use of knowledge management strategy and the role of IT on OL coincide with the strategic objective set by the company. Companies also use different combinations between tacit and explicit knowledge in respond to the strategic goal. Both tacit and explicit knowledge are always used in all companies but the mixture produces different results. It is the management that has to determine the right combination between them to create the maximum impact on OL. IT can be a tool help managing tacit and explicit knowledge but people are more important in the process of knowledge creation as it is individuals who possess the critical minds led to learning. It is important to realize a fact that organization will never learn if its people do not learn.
Changes in employee-control
The importance of control as continual observation of work performed by employees will be lower. On one hand, due to the fact that such traditional control is impossible or at least very difficult (how to control teleworkers?), and on the other hand, because of individualization of employees that will also bring demand for higher level of autonomy in their work; ceaseless control would demotivate them.
The solution for the problem is, according to (Drucker, 2001), management by objectives and self control. Business performance depends on how each task is directed toward the objectives of the whole company. The number of highly educated specialists will increase dramatically and at the same time, the new technology will demand much closer coordination among specialists. Furthermore, the performance of the manager is also measured by the contribution he makes to the success of the enterprise; "the greatest advantage of management by objectives is perhaps that it makes it possible for a manager to control her own performance" (Drucker, 2001), with help of state-of-the-art technology that enables fast gathering, analysis, synthesis of data and retrieval of relevant information
Effect of ICT and Internet on Organization
Information and communication technology and the Internet have not affected only the IT professionals and those employees that use IT for their work on a regular basis but also the environment of the organization, organization itself and the "social universe" (Drucker, 2001). Managers need to be aware of these changes, try to sense them in advance and adapt to them appropriately Especially in the field of employee-motivation we can expect essential changes. Even though visionaries predict deep and fundamental shifts in society, authors believe that first and foremost task of managers will remain motivating employees: firstly to arouse needs in employees and secondly to show them the way how to satisfy those needs in a manner, which contributes to achievement of organizational goals.
Conclusion
"Some people have tried the internet and given up, but the technology is only a decade old and still in its infancy. Employers need to step back and look carefully at how best they can use the current offering on the Internet." Nowadays the world is shrinking in all major respects. People, goods, capital and information are moving around the globe as never before. Companies are trying to become global players just to survive, let alone prosper. They have also been sending key management members to attend global seminars, workshops, and training sessions regularly. India has become a sourcing centre for many global giants are utilizing the services of skilled labour here in order to create distinct cost advantages for their products. Agility pays rich dividends and HR managers have an important role in creating a favorable work climate to initiate and implement changes quickly with the help of growing technology.
To remain competitive, most HR managers nowadays anticipate such cyclical changes in advance and initiate proactive steps that are less painful. In the long run, how effectively a company uses it human resources can have a dramatic impact on its ability to compete or survive in an increasingly competitive technological environment.
References
Influence of Internet and Information Technology on Work and Human Resource Management,2003 survey, Peter Baloh and Peter Trikman |
