Organizational Behavior

There are a couple new articles at ComputerWorld that peaked my interest and may be something you too will be interested in reading.  The first is an opinion piece by Frank Hayes, "Frankly Speaking: Rewiring Respect for IT".

Why don’t IT people get more respect? On this Labor Day, things are actually looking better for people who work in corporate IT. Budgets aren’t quite so tight. Companies are hiring. Interesting IT projects are getting a green light. But when it comes to how our fellow employees think about us, IT work is a train wreck. Users break the rules we set up, ignore the proc­esses we develop and generally act as if we’re clueless in what we do.

On a different subject, Bruce A. Steward has written an article to remind us that supporting our customers is more than just improving the business process.

"If you think you need filtering technologies to be sure your employees aren't damaging your reputation, that's a management problem, not a technology one.  If employees can't be trusted, technology is the least of your problems."

- Tim Bray, Director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems Inc., "Keeping Secrets in a WikiBlogTubeSpace World", ComputerWorld, March 19, 2007

In late 2006 and early 2007, a resurgence of articles began focused on the generation of workers entering the workforce after Generation X. This generation, born after 1980, has also been called other names including Generation Y, the Millennials, and Generation Next. As it has always been, organizations must continue to learn and adapt when generational changes take place in the work force. The next generation of workers now entering the organization promises to "rewrite" the rules for those of us in information technology.

"Why have IT report to accounting?  You show me a company where the CIO reports to the CFO, and I'll show you a company lagging in its industry in the use of technology."

- Benjamin Salzmann, Acuity CEO, Quoted in "CIO to CEO: If You Want to Move Up", ComputerWorld, December 18, 2006

"A huge part of the problem is that newspaper companies are still being run, mostly, by people from the print side -- and who, though they may attempt to understand interactive media and the needs and media habits of young people, aren't effective at moving their organizations in a radically different, and necessary, direction."

- Steve Outing, "Why Aren't Newspapers Breaking Out of the Box", Editor & Publisher, September 25, 2006