The informated individual -a consideration of importance to the business organisation

Abstract

This paper starts by outlining the role that ·Downsizing and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) can play in the creation of a flatter and therefore a more responsive organisation. The role of computer-based information technologies in the implementation of these strategies is considered. Owing to the level of importance IT can play in both Downsizing and BPR initiatives, the importance of ensuring alignment between the IT, organisational, and management strategies is discussed. This leads to a consideration of the profound human resource implications such initiatives have and the need to ensure these are recognised in the development of an appropriate human resource strategy. From this consideration arises a discussion about the contribution that empowerment, the Leaming Organisation, and the informated individual can make in ensuring the success of such initiatives. The lack of literature detailing the exact nature of the informated individual, specifically the types of skills, characteristics and behaviours of such an individual, is raised. The importance of such factors, and their application to the evaluation of an information system's effectiveness and success, is discussed. The paper concludes with a call for the development of a model which both details these characteristics and behaviours and explains their interaction.