Documents de référence

Projet de recherche initial : Preliminary Research Proposal.doc

Première présentation à Grenoble (complète) : DBAPres01.ppt

Première présentation à Grenoble (tronquée) : DBAPres02.ppt

Premier document soumis à SLL : E-Management01.doc

Premier document de travail !

GGSB
Grenoble Graduate School of Business

 

 

E-MANAGEMENT
ETHICAL AND CULTURAL CHALLENGES ARISING FROM THE USAGE OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS IN MANAGEMENT

Lessons from the Information and Communication Technology Industry


Fernando A. A. Lagraña
DBA Student, Grenoble Graduate School of Business

Ever felt overwhelmed by the number of emails in your inbox?  Ever felt hurt, or insulted, by the tone of your supervisors’ emails?  Ever been harassed by a colleague requesting immediate answers to his/her emails?  Ever considered that some discussions should take place face-to-face rather than electronically?  Practice raises a number of ethical and cultural issues regarding the usage of electronic communications in the professional environment. Using the example of the Information and Communication Technology industry, this study aims at identifying these issues, analyzing their consequences and proposing best practices and guidelines for e-managers.

E-Management is one of the most promising paradigm change in the management of organized entities (hereafter “organizations”).  The management of organizations, and in particular of businesses, can be divided into four main processes .  These include the goal-setting process (mission, strategy, planning, budgeting, etc.), the organizational process (structure and coordination mechanisms), the control process (strategic control, auditing, controlling, etc.), and the team management process (human resources management, post and hierarchy definition, internal communications, etc.).  These core intrinsic processes define the internal nature of organizations.  Three extrinsic processes, the client-relation process, the supplier-relation process, and the partner-relation process complement the internal processes and position the organizations in their environment.

 

All these processes are supported by an underlying information system.  E-management refers to the usage of electronic data handling (EDH) for the information system supporting the four core internal processes of management.

 

EDH systems and applications belong to the wider family of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).  When introduced into management, ICT systems and applications bring with no doubt new efficiencies into organizations.   ICT-based management – e-management, also raises new issues, in the sense that it modifies the managerial and communication processes.

 

This research aims at analyzing the ethical and cultural challenges facing organizations that have introduced e-management in their team management processes, and particularly those using electronic communications as the basis for internal communications.

Indeed, modern managers have now at their hands a number of communication tools, which for most of them didn’t exist ten years ago.  Electronic communications had been limited for decades to plain old telecommunication services (POTS) such as telephone, fax, and answering machines.  New ICT systems and applications now include the well-established e-mail; the Internet and the World Wide Web in their various forms, such as intranets, extranets and share-points; instant messaging systems including chat; social and professional networking tools such as Facebook or LinkedIn; or on-line collaborative tools such as videoconferencing, white boards and virtual meeting applications.

 

New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been increasingly facilitating and speeding-up the exchange of information between their respective users.  They have proven to be extremely efficient in a number of areas such as business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) communications either to support the client-, supplier-, or partner-relations or as a new paradigm for promotion and external communications.

 

On the other hand, the efficiency of ICTs to support internal communications, be they peer-to-peer or hierarchical, is questioned by practice.  As any new technology, ICTs also carry on their own risks.  Who has not felt overwhelmed by the number of emails in his/her Inbox?  Who has not faced a colleague rushing into one’s office to get a review of a working document posted on the team’s share-point seconds ago?  Who has not been misled by the lack of emotional cues in a message received from a colleague, and misinterpreted the tone of the message?  Others have faced the difficulty of drafting a clear and concise written message while not feeling articulate enough.

 

Experience and perceptions vary according to the user’s background, ethics, culture, level of education, personal sensitivity, gender, relation to time, etc.   The purpose of this research is to analyze the ethical and cultural challenges arising from the usage of electronic communications in internal communications.  We will review a panel of organizations, which have been early adopters of new information and communication technologies – the private and public sector entities affiliated to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Specialized Agency for ICTs.  These companies design, manufacture, research or regulate – and use – ICT products, services and applications, in particular electronic communications.  These organizations also offer a wide range of cultures, nationalities, even religions, and educational backgrounds.  To some extent, the organizational cultures also vary, since some are private sector businesses, while other organizations include regulators, scientific organizations or research institutes, or universities.  Other target entities are public companies, such as national telecommunication operators.

 

<To be continued>

Première présentation du projet !

Lundi 24 novembre, 14 heures. Le tirage au sort me désigne comme premier présentateur. Devant 4 collègues et 2 enseignants, dont mon maître de recherche, Séverine LE LOARNE, je me lance et présente en quelques diapositives l'idée de ma recherche :

 

MANAGING BY EMAIL

 

Le projet, à ma grande surprise, est très bien reçu... et discuté pendant une bonne heure ! Voilà qui donne du beaume au coeur.

Voici un aperçu de la présentation: DBAPres02.ppt