Efficiency and IT

I came across an opinion piece today by Thornton May about IT and its association with efficiency.  The author described a wonderful analogy of the application of Frederick Winslow Taylor's efficiency studies for the manufacturing processes and how IT was applied in a similar manner to make organizational information processes more efficient.  In this article, the author was expressing the need for IT to be applied for innovation efforts rather than simply as a means for improved efficiency.

I can relate to the association of IT to "Taylorism" from my experiences in the industry.  IT often represents change and those impacted by this change often resent the source of the change.  Similar to the resentment described by May toward Taylor, the IT field also faced similar resentment.  IT has been known to wreak havoc with legacy processes that were well established and comfortable with employees in the organization as well as displace workers due to varying levels of process automation.  IT has also become so efficient that information is so readily available that we now have new problems such as "information overload".

While Taylor's practices and IT are both intended to improve organizational performance, we must be sure we apply efficiency techniques in a manner to provide value and be cognizant of the implications the changes.  These revelations are not new but we must be reminded of the past so that we are not to replicate our mistakes in the future.