Technology and Management Functions

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that managing people and resources in today's world has become a complex undertaking due to the changing nature of the business environment. The world has truly become a smaller place with people's ability to travel faster from one end of the globe to another or talk amongst each other using modern and emerging technologies. As a result of all these, management nowadays cannot be confined to hands on style but rather managers need to understand how to use current technologies in order to achieve their company's strategic, tactical and operational goals. The writer discusses this matter as it relates to the United States military. The writer maintains that despite military management's reliance on technology, this is all done not only to improve operational capabilities but for the benefit of the soldiers in order for them to do their jobs to the best they can with the best technology there is. The writer concludes that while technology will be crucial to achieving greater operational agility and precision lethality, the human dimension will continue to be the critical element of war.

From the Paper:

"Indeed, from the smallest to the largest unit of the military hierarchy, technology is used to improve the operational conditions. In the unit to which the writer belongs, management's use of technology is ubiquitous and no doubt without which, doing our jobs will be difficult. One of our unit's tasks is to process contracts for military personnel deploying to the Iraqi theatre of operations. Rather than travelling to and from different locations to consult or meet, we use video teleconferencing technology to do this. The system is connected via secure satellite link and fiber optic network. The thirty personnel in my unit also uses secure laptop PCs to do most of their work and this has been also an effective tool not only in terms of facilitation communications but getting all the necessary administrative and logistics work done. Using these types of technology also lessen our dependence on paper outputs since information are stored either on our laptops or available online from our servers."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baase, S. (2003). A gift of fire: Social, legal and ethical issues for computers and the Internet. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
• Department of the Army. (2005). Army strategic planning guidance 2005. [Online] Retrieved Feb. 14, 2008 from the Website: http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/the_army_plan/army-strategic-planning-g.shtml.
• Gray, C.H. (2005, May 29). War and information technology. [Online] Retrieved Feb. 14, 2008 from the Website: https://cpsr.org/issues/weaponspeace/Gray-WarIT.
• Department of the Army. (2005). Field Manual 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
• Stair, R.M. & Reynolds, G.W. (2006). Fundamentals of information systems, 3rd. ed. New York: Thomson Learning.

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