Bachelor of Business
Administration-BBA Semester V
BB0026 – Introduction to technology Management – 2
Credits
(Book ID: B0105)
Assignment (30 Marks)
Note: Each question carries
10 Marks. Answer all the questions.
Q.1
Explain the role and importance of technology management. [10 Marks]
A1 Technology
Management is set of management disciplines that allows organizations to manage
their technological fundamentals to create competitive advantage. Typical
concepts used in technology management are technology strategy (a logic or role
of technology in organization), technology forecasting (identification of
possible relevant technologies for the organization, possibly through
technology scouting), technology road mapping (mapping technologies to business
and market needs), technology project portfolio ( a set of projects under
development) and technology portfolio (a set of technologies in use).
The role of the
technology management function in an organization is to understand the value of
certain technology for the organization. Continuous development of technology
is valuable as long as there is a value for the customer and therefore the
technology management function in an organization should be able to argue when
to invest on technology development and when to withdraw. Technology Management
can also be defined as the integrated planning, design, optimization, operation
and control of technological products, processes and services, a better
definition would be the management of the use of technology for human
advantage.
The Association of
Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering defines Technology Management
as the field concerned with the supervision of personnel across the technical
spectrum and a wide variety of complex technological systems. Technology
Management programs typically include instruction in production and operations
management, project management, computer applications, quality control, safety
and health issues, statistics, and general management principles.
Perhaps the most
authoritative input to our understanding of technology is the diffusion of
innovations theory developed in the first half of the twentieth century. It
suggests that all innovations follow a similar diffusion pattern - best known
today in the form of an "s" curve though originally based upon the
concept of a standard distribution of adopters. In broad terms the
"s" curve suggests four phases of a technology life cycle - emerging,
growth, mature and aging.
These four phases are
coupled to increasing levels of acceptance of an innovation or, in our case a
new technology. In recent times for many technologies an inverse curve - which
corresponds to a declining cost per unit - has been postulated. This may not
prove to be universally true though for information technology where much of
the cost is in the initial phase it has been a reasonable expectation.
The second major
contribution to this area is the Carnegie Mellon Capability Maturity Model.
This model proposes that a series of progressive capabilities can be quantified
through a set of threshold tests. These tests determine repeatability,
definition, management and optimization. The model suggests that any
organization has to master one level before being able to proceed to the next.
The third significant
contribution comes from Gartner - the research service, it is the hype cycle,
this suggests that our modern approach to marketing technology results in the
technology being over hyped in the early stages of growth. Taken together,
these fundamental concepts provide a foundation for formalizing the approach to
managing technology
Technology management
aims at maximizing the cost effectiveness of investments in technology
development which contributes to the value of an organization. If an
organization fails to plan for its technology it might encounter issues like
data loss or misuse of that technology by its employees. But if the
organization creates a frame work and plans for its technology, its output will
increase. Below I have listed some of the importance’s
of technology management:
Growth
of the Firm: The process of managing technology
involves organizing, coordinating, and managing activities. If technology is
well managed, an organization will improve on its operations and reduce on
operational costs of the organization. The technical staff will have a
challenge of analyzing what customers need and specify which technologies are
supposed to be implemented as well as spot the ones to be stopped. After this
process of analyzing what is necessary, both the organization and its consumers
will benefit which will lead to the growth of that organization.
Eliminates
duplication: If technology is well managed, it will
automate information flow in an organization. In this case, the technical team
will set up a management information system (MIS) which provides periodic,
predetermined and ad-hoc reporting capabilities. In most cases the MIS reports
summarize or aggregate information to support decision-making tasks. So, MIS’s
are systems that have information-processing responsibilities that include
information through online analytical processing (OLAP) and conveying
information to whoever needs it. To a small organization this process might be
expensive, so people in charge must calculate return on investment. MIS’s are
commonly known as ‘’management alerting systems ‘’’ because they send alerts to
management concerned to the existence or potential existence of problems or
opportunities.A management information system (MIS) provides reports in many
different forms. Its reports can be periodic reports , summarized reports , exception reports , ad
hoc reports and comparative reports.
Periodic
reports are reports that are produced at a predetermined
time interval such as daily , weekly, monthly or yearly.
Summarized
reports; These are simply reports that aggregate information
from periodic reports these show only a subset of available information based
on some selection criteria.
Comparative
reports; These show two or more sets of similar information
in an attempt to illustrate a relationship.
Ad
hoc reports; These are reports you can generated at
any time. They are just the opposite of the periodic reports.
Q.2
Explain how the ten basic tenets for the management of technology is used in an
enterprise to operate within a TC framework by taking a sample enterprise to
explain [10 Marks]
A2 1 Value diversification is a poor substitute for the management
of technology (MOT). Value diversification is the improvement of stockholders’
investments in a company through quick-fix solutions on paper, such as mergers,
acquisitions, and other stock-enhancing strategies.
2 Manufacturing must keep pace with
inventiveness and marketability.
3 Quality and total productivity are
inseparable concepts in managing technology.
4 It is management’s responsibility to bring
about technological change and job security for long-term competitiveness.
5 Technology must be the “servant,” not the
“master.” The “master” is still the
human being.
6 The consequences of technology selection can
be more serious than expected because of systemic effects.
7 Continuous education and training in a
constantly changing workplace is a necessity, not a luxury.
8 The technology gradient is a dynamic
component of the technology management process, to be monitored for strategic
advantage. The technology gradient is a dynamic component of the technology
management process, to be monitored for strategic advantage.
9 The RTC factor must be carefully analyzed
and meticulously monitored for gaining the most out of any technology,
particularly a new one.
10 Information linkage must keep pace with
technology growth.
Here are some basic tenets of management as
practiced in the Editorial Division at the Daily Press. This list is by no
means exhaustive or all-inclusive. But it provides enough rudimentary hints to
get you through just about anything you'll face as a manager.
Use the team.
There are a lot of brains at work here. They can help make a bad thing good or
a good thing better. Solicit ideas from your subordinates and from other
editors. There's a lot of creativity available nearby. What we do can affect a
lot of people – news people, other departments at the paper, our readers. It
helps to kick an issue around so that we get a chance to consider its
ramifications and to come up with the best solution.
Listen to
your instincts. There's a little person inside you waving a flag. Pay
attention to her. If she's whispering an idea, it might be a good one. You'll
kick yourself for having thought of it if you didn't move on it and someone
else did. If the flag is a red one, heed the warning. If something bothers you,
act on it, question it, make a note of it. The red flag might be a false alarm.
But, then again, it might not be.
We correct
our mistakes. All of them. If we've published something incorrect, we
want to own up to it and set the record straight. We make a practice of
aggressive correction of factual errors, even when the error is of no
particularly dreadful consequence. And we correct mistakes even when no one has
complained. If nothing else, we want our readers to know that we know we made
the mistake. We make a practice of knowing how the mistake was made, so that we
can prevent a recurrence and take appropriate responsive action.
Important: Involve
the person who made the error so that he can learn from the mistake. Nobody
likes mistakes and nobody likes corrections, but making of them a learning
process salvages great value from adversity.
How to make the boss
feel better about the correction: Have the correction ready before anyone asks
for it and know precisely how the error occurred.
How to make the boss
crazy, which has unpleasant ramifications: Make a mistake in the correction.
You own what
you do.
When something
important happens, make sure there's a piece of paper in the responsible
party's file. That goes for the good stuff, maybe even more than for the bad
stuff. An employee's evaluation file should be filled with notes about our many
successes.
If the bad stuff is
particularly grievous, make sure there's an appropriate document in the file
and in the hands of the offending employee. Before you do that, see the rule
about making big decisions alone.
A good supervisor is
slow to take credit and quick to take blame. When the goodies are being passed
out, deflect everything you can to your staff. And when the bad stuff hits the
fan, make sure you jump between it and your staff. You can pass it on appropriately
and constructively later. The people you work for will thank and respect you
for it.
But do
something.
You shouldn't let the
fear of making a mistake freeze you or the people who work for you. Trying
something is better than trying nothing, and if it goes wrong, you'll at least
have learned something. But do yourself a favor: Don't try it for the first
time in a situation where there's no escape. It's like diving into unfamiliar
water; it might be awfully shallow.
No surprises.
We communicate.
Tell your boss, tell
your colleagues, tell your staff. If you can't find your boss, tell your boss's
boss. The no-surprise rule lets your boss know that you're on top of the
problem, that you cared enough to issue the warning and that you're looking for
a solution.
Keeping your staff on
board allows them to offer ideas and solutions for the challenges that we all
face together.
As you disseminate
information to the people who work for you, don't blame it on someone higher
up, don't fall into the "Jane said ..." or "Jack said ..."
syndrome. When you do, you abdicate your authority and become a mere messenger.
Make the message your own. If that means talking it out – even arguing about it
– with your boss, do it. But when the debate is over, embrace the idea as if
you had come up with it yourself, even if it's not exactly the way you'd do it.
The worst things that
can happen to you: The boss hears about a problem in your department from
someone other than you. Your staff misses out on something important because
you failed to tell them about it. Your boss learns about something big and ugly
when she reads it in the paper.
Give
feedback.
If you can say
something nice, say something nice, the more detailed the better. (Those
general "good jobs" have a hollow ring.) If you can't say something
nice, say something constructive. In survey after survey of newsroom attitudes,
reporters and copy editors complain that they don't get enough feedback. Make
'em happy and help 'em grow.
Don't assume.
When in doubt, ask.
Not knowing is not an excuse. You have immense resources at your disposal: lots
of co-workers, a well-stocked and well-wired library, a major communications
corporation. The inverse corollary: Don't ask the editor where the bathrooms are,
and don't let your staff do it, either. Be resourceful before you ask a dumb
question whose answer you can easily find on your own.
If it
doesn't make sense, it's probably not right.
Rules and edicts tend
to collect like seagulls to a garbage dump. They also tend to lose a great deal
in translation from original notion to the chiseled-in-granite version. If you
are presented with some block-of-stone idea that sounds goofy, question it.
Some of these things spring from spurious parentage. Some of these things get
passed badly from hand to hand. And if it's something we've "always done
that way," maybe it's time to change. Be an innovator.
Grow a
successor.
We put a premium on
developing talent. That requires a supervisor's attention and care. Be a teacher.
Be a mentor. You can expect the same thing from your boss. Make the wisdom your
own and pass it along.
If you don't
ask for it, you may not get it.
Don't wait for
something to happen. Make it happen. Don't assume that your reporters will know
the best way to approach the story; coach them through it, probe for angles,
help stimulate some ideas. Don't assume that the photographer will have an
inspiration for an illustration; share your own inspiration. If you think it
will improve the paper, ask for it.
If it's
broken, fix it.
We make a practice of
trying to make things right. If that means reshooting a photo assignment,
tearing up a page or rewriting a story, do it. Don't let expedience stand in
the way of excellence. And if you have an idea – for the newsroom or elsewhere
– share it.
Use facts.
If you have a case to
make, make it with empirical data, not supposition or anecdote. If you don't
know, say so. Then find out.
Use your
judgment.
We can't make rules
for everything, and you wouldn't want to work here if we did. So you sometimes
have to make decisions without a net. Think about it, ask about it, consider it
and do something. You're here because someone had a reasonable degree of faith
in your ability to think, to judge. Be the gatekeeper. If you thought about
what you were doing and did it because you considered it right and appropriate
after thinking about it, you'll find lots of people standing behind you. They
may want to talk about the decision, debate your conclusion, but they'll defend
it. On the other hand, you'll find that a lapse in judgment – the failure to
exercise it – is quite lonely.
In all matters
requiring judgment, refer to the rules about using the team, making decisions
alone, communicating and asking smart questions.
Try the
golden rule.
Above all else, be
fair. Treat your charges the way you'd like your boss to treat you. Put
yourself in their shoes and ask whether you'd want to treat yourself that way.
Q.3 How do you
assess technology management? [10 marks]
A3 The problems dealt in this assessment concern the quality
of present and future life system threatened and social and environmental
system dragged by the industrial option. The achievements are to assess the
impact of the technology management. Quality management is the proposed
methodology. It is a global strategy by which enterprises manage the entire
organization so that they excel on all dimensions of products that are
important to the customer. Achievements are about evaluating the advantages and
the disadvantages on the industry application of Technology Management. The
study is about appraising what happen while a Computer Integrated Manufacturing
keeps on running and assessing what is the actual situation without that
innovative technology. From the above studies the following results are pointed
out; the technology remedies contrasts between industrial and environmental
strategies and the innovative technology brings luck to restart the
competitiveness in a sustainable development context. So technology improves
not only the competitiveness of the enterprise and the national economy but
also reconciles the binomial industrial development and sustainable development
TA is the study and
evaluation of new technologies. It is based on the conviction that new
developments within, and discoveries by, the scientific community are relevant
for the world at large rather than just for the scientific experts themselves,
and that technological progress can never be free of ethical implications.
Also, technology assessment recognizes the fact that scientists normally are
not trained ethicists themselves and accordingly ought to be very careful when
passing ethical judgement on their own, or their colleagues, new findings,
projects, or work in progress.
Technology assessment
assumes a global perspective and is future-oriented, not anti-technological. TA
considers its task as interdisciplinary approach to solving already existing
problems and preventing potential damage caused by the uncritical application
and the commercialization of new technologies. Therefore any results of
technology assessment studies must be published, and particular consideration
must be given to communication with political decision-makers.
An important problem,
TA has to deal with it, is the so-called Collingridge dilemma: on the one hand,
impacts of new technologies cannot be easily predicted until the technology is
extensively developed and widely used; on the other hand, control or change of
a technology is difficult as soon as it is widely used.
Some of the major
fields of TA are: information technology, hydrogen technologies, nuclear
technology, molecular nanotechnology, pharmacology, organ transplants, gene
technology, artificial intelligence, the Internet and many more. Health
technology assessment is related, but profoundly different, despite the
similarity in the name.
Forms and concepts of
technology assessment The following types of concepts of TA are those that are
most visible and practiced. There are, however, a number of further TA forms
that are only proposed as concepts in the literature or are the label used by a
particular TA institution.
Parliamentary TA (PTA):
TA activities of various kinds whose addressee is a parliament. PTA may be
performed directly by members of those parliaments (e.g. in France and Finland)
or on their behalf by related TA institutions (such as in the UK, in Germany
and Denmark) or by organisations not directly linked to a Parliament (such as
in the Netherlands and Switzerland).
Expert TA (often also
referred to as the classical TA or traditional TA concept): TA activities
carried out by (a team of) TA and technical experts. Input from stakeholders
and other actors is included only via written statements, documents and
interviews, but not as in participatory TA.
Participatory TA (pTA):
TA activities which actively, systematically and methodologically involve
various kinds of social actors as assessors and discussants, such as different
kinds of civil society organisations, representatives of the state systems, but
characteristically also individual stakeholders and citizens (lay persons),
technical scientists and technical experts. Standard pTA methods include
consensus conferences, focus groups, scenario workshops etc. Sometimes pTA is
further divided into expert-stakeholder pTA and public pTA (including lay
persons).
Constructive TA (CTA):
This concept of TA, developed in the Netherlands, but also applied and
discussed elsewhere[6] attempts to broaden the design of new technology through
feedback of TA activities into the actual construction of technology. Contrary
to other forms of TA, CTA is not directed toward influencing regulatory
practices by assessing the impacts of technology. Instead, CTA wants to address
social issues around technology by influencing design practices.
Discursive TA or
Argumentative TA: This type of TA wants to deepen the political and normative
debate about science, technology and society. It is inspired by ethics, policy
discourse analysis and the sociology of expectations in science and technology.
This mode of TA aims to clarify and bring under public and political scrutiny
the normative assumptions and visions that drive the actors who are socially
shaping science and technology. Accordingly, argumentative TA not only
addresses the side effects of technological change, but deals with both broader
impacts of science and technology and the fundamental normative question of why
developing a certain technology is legitimate and desirable.
Health TA (HTA): A
specialised type of expert TA informing policy makers about efficacy, safety
and cost effectiveness issues of pharmaceuticals and medical treatments, see
health technology assessment.
ng>
Right Education: The provision of right education to the citizens of a
country is a necessary component of any successful development strategy. In
developing countries, the educational system is defective. There is mush-room growth
of English medium schools in cities. The syllabus taught to the students at
each level of education reflects the Western culture and not the culture and
requirements of their own country. The result is that the students holding
degrees remain jobless which creates discontent and frustration among them. The
brilliant students of the developing countries go outside the country.
5.
Write a brief note on international HRM strategy.
Ans.
Human Resource Management is becoming more and
more important for multinationals as it is believed to be an important
mechanism for co-ordination and control of international operations. At the
same time it has been acknowledged that HRM constitutes a major constraint when
MNCs try to implement global strategies, mainly because of the different
cultural and institutional framework of each county the MNC operates. The
national context affects the way people are managed in different countries and
MNCs are facing pressures to adapt HRM practices accordingly. The present paper
constitutes an investigation into how HRM practices in subsidiaries of MNCs in
Greece differ from those in local companies. The descriptive analysis reveals
both differences and similarities. It indicates that Greek companies are highly
embedded in their local regulatory framework and cultural environment, but
there are also sings of change. At the some time, there is evidence that
subsidiaries are using hybrid HRM practices, shaped by both local forces and
their parent company’s practice.
6.
Discuss the organizational structures for multinational strategies.
Ans.
Multinational companies are faced with two
opposing forces when designing
the
structure of their organization. They are faced with the need for
differentiation that allows them to be specialized and competitive in their
local markets. They are also faced with the need to integrate. The structures
adopted therefore have to find a balance between these opposing needs and also
remain in strategic alignment for the company to thrive. Multinational
companies have therefore evolved many structural permutations to suit their
business needs.
the
structure of their organization. They are faced with the need for
differentiation that allows them to be specialized and competitive in their
local markets. They are also faced with the need to integrate. The structures
adopted therefore have to find a balance between these opposing needs and also
remain in strategic alignment for the company to thrive. Multinational
companies have therefore evolved many structural permutations to suit their
business needs.