5 Reasons for Internal Resistance within Organizations for ICT Automation

Technological revolutions transform organizations. In recent times, it has been the ICT (Information Communications Technology) enablement that has lead the transformations within organizations.

Strategists suggest that ICT enablement is an ongoing process and it is about a series of consistent organizational transformations to leverage technology (for increasing productivity of organizations). Therefore, many experts insist on building inherent capability within organizations to keep on seamlessly adopting the changing ICT technologies.

But, adoption of ICT by any organization is not that easy. ICT Project Managers will tell you that for almost all the major ICT enablement projects, in between the push from management and pull from customers in favor of the project, there is a persistent internal resistance within the organization (undergoing transformation) throughout the life cycle of the project.

Moreover, it is observed that ICT projects are perceived to be more of a technology affair ever since its inception till its completion. And, in the process of ICT enablement, Change Management is not given the due importance. Change Management is at the best considered to be an internal capacity building exercise comprising of training (or at times hand-holding support) the existing employees to work with the newly installed systems.

In planning of the ICT lead transformation of organizations, what is grossly overlooked is the fact that organizations are run by people. If apprehensions in the minds of people (running the organization) are NOT adequately addressed, it results in internal resistance towards changes brought about by organizational transformation (through ICT enablement). Therefore, it is important to understand, what makes people resistive to change. My personal take on why people have a general tendency to resist ICT enablement at workplace are listed as under:-

1.      ICT Introduces Measurement – To indicate towards the fact that a lot of productive time gets wasted in the name of trivial things, it is so said that ‘In office meetings, hours are spent and minutes are recorded’.  Actually this is generally true for many aspects of office culture and meetings are no exception. Putting systems to monitor different aspects of official work puts a way to measure many of such tasks, which may be picked to supplement performance of employees. Prior to installation of ICT systems, people are used to be working in an environment, where only the supervisor assesses their assigned work for measurement of performance. Therefore, employees generally feel that computerization is taking them from a relatively free environment to little restrictive environment.

Moreover, measurements can become input to metric system used to derive different indicators about the health of any department (or section / sub-section) and may be compared with respect to other departments or against standard data for similar departments in other organizations.      

2.      ICT Limits Discretionary Power – Many employees are accustomed to using their personal discretion in matters related to (say) service provisioning or decision making on the behalf of organization (and these employees may be quite judicious while using their discretionary powers). ICT automation reduces instances when discretion of any office bearer would be required. And for the cases discretion is required, rational use of discretion may need to be established in the light of data captured by various systems. .

    

3.      ICT introduces Non-repudiation – Evidence stored in various server logs and various databases of the organizations (with authentication/authorization and with time stamp) makes non-repudiation assured to greater extent than physical files or physical registers managed by humans.

4.      ICT Curtails Positional Advantage – Usually people enjoy many advantages by holding a position within an organization. Such advantages stretch from social recognition to advantage of access to first-hand information. It is widely believed that computerization reduces asymmetry of information within an organization and at the same time reduces number of persons who approach to office bearers for services.   

5.      ICT Increases Role of Experts in Decision Making – ICT can be exploited to the best if it can be used to process information to create knowledge. To have the capability to process information captured within an organization and correlate with the external information (domain specific nitty-gritty, industry specific trends and information on market conditions on supporting facilities like (say) finance, human resources) requires contributions from external expertise. Howsoever polite, such expert interventions in the sphere of line management may seem, it may not always go well with the traditional way of decision making in traditional set-up.   

In the end, I feel that one word that can sum-up the above five points could be CONTROL. With the introduction of ICT enablement it is the control that employees feel they may be losing to machines. And, if the organizational change managers may take this into account, while designing change management plan, may be ICT projects may go much smoothly.   

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Two Points on Good Execution

“Be it a vision, a mission, a strategy or a plan, in the end, it is the execution that makes it happen”

Companies put every possible bit in place to make execution succeed. It is widely believed that one of the key attributes for achieving sustainable competitive advantage is excellence in execution capability.

However, it is observed that different departments of an organization have different perceptions, ways and methodologies for making the execution successful for instance – Quality Consultants insist on strict adherence with standard processes for ensuring a perfect execution or (say) Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) suggest mastering the domain specific dynamics can make execution successful.

But, howsoever good the strategy be and howsoever good the synchronized efforts of all the departments function to create a flawless support mechanism to facilitate smooth execution, eventually, the onus to perform for intended results comes to the Core Execution Team.

A team comprises of individuals committed towards achieving a common goal.  Therefore, it is important for every member of a team to streamline individual efforts keeping in view the shared interest of the team.

Contribution made by a cohesive and coherent team is much more than sum of individual contributions put-up by its team-members. This is so, because shared values, mutual trust and collective recognition drives each team member to apply herself / himself to a greater extent for achieving common goals.

What makes a team of professionals stand out? What should a team leader do to elevate the performance of its team to highest possible levels? These are among the common questions, which usually keep on getting repeated during informal discussions among professionals belonging to any field, any level and any region.

Here is my take on the topic, the two things that I consider most important in making the team perform to the best of its potential are:-

1.     Clarity – Clarity in the minds of team-members on questions like:

a.     What exactly a team member needs to do?

b.     What other team members are supposed to do?

c.      What exactly is the goal?

d.     What is the evaluation criteria for the team and for individuals?

2.     Consensus - Consensus among the team members on issues like:

a.     How can the goals be achieved?

b.    What makes just and fair approach for the individual interest and for the interest of the team?

c.     Reward mechanism

d.    The vision, the mission and future prospects of the team

Clarity & Consensus in Two Dimensional View

The adjoining figure presents, extent of clarity and extent of consensus in a two dimensional view. This figure is drawn to explain my personal observations on characteristics of teams with respect to these two aspects (Clarity and Consensus). Based on the figure, my general observations are listed in following four points:-      

A.    Team with High degree of clarity and Low degree of Consensus (marked as A in figure)

a.     Reasonable Team Performance

b.     Politically Charged Work Environment

c.      Low Degree of Sustainability (Poor Outlook for Long Term Prospects)

d.     High Attrition Rate

e.     Limited Access to Information to Team Members  

f.      Limited Application of Professional Skills by Team Members

B.     Team with High degree of clarity and High degree of Consensus (marked as B in figure)

a.     Excellent Team Performance

b.     Profession Focused Work Environment

c.      High Degree of Sustainability (Good Outlook for Long Term Prospects)

d.     Low Attrition Rate

e.     Easy Access to Information to Team Members

f.      Excellent Application of Professional Skills by Team Members

C.     Team with Low degree of Clarity and Low degree of Consensus (marked as C in figure)

a.     Poor Team Performance

b.     Hostile Work Environment

c.      Low Degree of Sustainability (Poor Outlook for Long Term Prospects)

d.     Very High Attrition Rate

e.     Poor Access to Information to Team Members

f.      Poor Application of Professional Skills by Team Members

D.    Team with Low degree of Clarity and High degree of Consensus (marked as D in figure)

a.     Poor Team Performance

b.     Hierarchy and Team Spirit Driven Work Environment

c.      Low Degree of Sustainability (Poor Outlook for Long Term Prospects)

d.     Average Attrition Rate

e.     Limited Access to Information to Team Members

f.      Poor Application of Professional Skills by Team Members

In the end, one must NOT forget that the only way clarity and consensus can be increased within a team is through COMMUNICATION. Establishing a formal way of communication within a team and promotion of informal way of communication accommodating diverse views should be one of the very first thing a team leader should ensure.

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Chhattisgarh - Poised for Growth in Service Sector

Fisher-Clark Theory of stages of development suggest that as industrialization takes place in an economy, the share of primary or agriculture sector in total output and employment gradually diminishes, while that of the secondary or manufacturing sector increases. This popular theory has been re-interpreted and extended by many economists to explain empirical observations related to increase in contribution from service sector during post-industrialization phase in advanced economies and also in under developed economies.

In reference to the above theory, following diagram represents the change in employment landscape as economies develop.

Clark’s Sector Model 

Reference - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clark%27s_Sector_Model.png

Data for Sector Wise Distribution of Employment in Chhattisgarh during the period 2004 - 2010 suggests decrease in Primary Sector Employment, a marginal increase in Manufacturing Sector Employment and significant increase in Tertiary Sector Employment (Non-Manufacturing and Service Sector). It can be assumed that the same trend is continuing from 2010 onward to 2014/15

Reference http://mla.prsindia.org/sites/default/files/policy_guide/sector%20wise%20emp%20%281%29.pdf

It can be observed from the above table that change in service sector employment in some of the relatively advanced states like AP and Maharashtra are negative. There is hardly any change for TN. Delhi and Karnataka have registered 2% and 3% change respectively.

Sector Wise Distribution of GSDP (Gross State Domestic Produce) for the state of Chhattisgarh during the period 2004 - 2014 indicates that Production of Service Sector has recently taken over Production of Industrial Sector.

Reference - http://santoshbehar.blogspot.in/2014/09/illustration-on-gsdp-of-some-of-indian.html

In the light of above mentioned points, drawing the Clark's Sector Model from the perspective of Chhattisgarh:-

Clark's Model Redrawn by the author in reference to Chhattisgarh
Reference - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clark%27s_Sector_Model.png

Thus, it is apparent that Chhattisgarh is slowly getting positioned for the phase of economic development, in which Primary Activities will decrease, Secondary Activities will have a tendency to stagnate and Tertiary Activities will surge ahead.

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Presentation Slide Pack on Application of ICT for Welfare of Rural Masses

Slide Pack for Presentation by Santosh Behar at "National Conference On Applications of Computers & Electronics For Welfare of Rural Masses", organized at Rungata Group of Colleges, Bhilai on 06 FEB 2015.

Transition from e-Government to e-Governance: Two Aspects to Keep the Focus On

In general, e-Government refers to provisioning of public services through the use of electronic means (usually using internet). Therefore, the e-Government initiatives deal with putting in place an electronic infrastructure (like for instance - means of connectivity, supporting platforms, innovative applications and robust databases), making amendments to government processes, norms and legalities to incorporate electronic delivery of services in best possible way and lastly ensuring adaption of e-Government practices at all levels within government bodies.

E-Governance refers to the leveraging the electronic technologies (particularly e-Government infrastructure) for providing good governance to citizens. The e-Governance initiatives usually deals with aspects related to improving decision making, putting up improved controls, ensuring suitable checks and balances and increasing participation of masses in governance. 

The objective of e-Governance is to utilize the e-Government infrastructure for administrative and institutional reforms with the intent of enhancing democratic values. The exercise to meet this objective is a complex process of state transformation. This transformation may require governments to re-adjust, accommodate and absorb new dimensions in the interest of making the state much more just and fair for its citizens.

More details on definitions on e-Government and e-Governance are given below this blog-post for ready reference. In my opinion, keeping in view the following two points by the practitioners of e-Government and e-Governance could be helpful for better design of e-Government / e-Governance initiatives:-

1.    Developing a Culture of Data Driven Decision Making

In the time to come, promises and limits of ‘data driven decision making’ will be put to test. In my opinion, establishing Single Version of Truth for Data will be a big challenge for success of e-Governance. Taking into account, the volume and diversity associated with the machinery of government (especially in a country like India), capturing relevant and diagnostic data is a herculean task.

Developing a culture of data driven decision making will help governments in policy making, regulatory functions and in service delivery. It is widely believed that robust data capture will help in minimizing influence of general bias and personal whims in governance.

Open Government Directive, USA (December, 2009) and Government Digital Strategy, UK (December, 2013) stress on importance of quality of data and importance of data driven decision making.

2.    Developing a Culture of Feedback Driven Continuous Service Improvement

The true test of success of any service can be done through feedback from end users (beneficiaries in case of government services). Electronic medium has made it possible to capture feedback from huge number of beneficiaries through different medium (for example, Voice Recording, Online Forms, Complains and Suggestions in text format) and to interpret responses at significantly low cost. Considering possibility of deployment of feedback driven continuous improvement can be contemplated. This will require developing techniques for measuring quality of (rendered) services through direct interaction with beneficiaries. This will be followed by developing a mechanism of interpreting the feedback obtained through interactions (with beneficiaries) and exploring possibilities of improvement of government services.   

It is observed that assessment of results based on quantified and measurable output improves management of services. Therefore, building a culture of feedback driven continuous improvement will eventually help in increasing efficiency of government.

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Definitions of e-Government (source Wikipedia) 

E-Gov Strategies (or Digital Government) is defined as "The employment of the Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to the citizens." (United Nations, 2006; AOEMA, 2005).^[2]

Electronic Government (or e-Government) essentially refers to "The utilization of Information Technology (IT), Information and Communication Technologies (ICT s), and other web-based telecommunication technologies to improve and/or enhance on the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector.".^[1]

Definitions of e-Governance (source arc.gov.in)

Although the term ‘e-Governance’ has gained currency in recent years, there is no standard definition of this term. Different governments and organizations define this term to suit their own aims and objectives. Sometimes, the term ‘e-government’ is also used instead of ‘e-Governance’. Some widely used definitions are listed below:

i. According to the World Bank

“E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.”

Thus, the stress here is on use of information technologies in improving citizen-government interactions, cost-cutting and generation of revenue and transparency.

ii. UNESCO defines e-Governance as:

“Governance refers to the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of a country’s affairs, including citizens’ articulation of their interests and exercise of their legal rights and obligations. E-Governance may be understood as the performance of this governance via the electronic medium in order to facilitate an efficient, speedy and transparent process of disseminating information to the public, and other agencies, and for performing government administration activities.”

This definition visualizes the use of the electronic medium in the exercise of authority in the management of a country’s affairs along with articulation of citizens’ interests leading to greater transparency and efficiency.

iii. The Council of Europe has taken e-Governance to mean:

“the use of electronic technologies in three areas of public action:

·         relations between the public authorities and civil society

·         functioning of the public authorities at all stages of the democratic process (electronic democracy)

·         the provision of public services (electronic public services)”

In this case, the focus is on making use of electronic technologies with a view to encourage better interaction between government and citizens, promote democracy and provide public services.

iv. The US E-Government Act of 2002 defines “electronic Government” to mean (Section 3601):

“the use by the Government of web-based Internet applications and other information technologies, combined with processes that implement these technologies, to-

(A) enhance the access to and delivery of Government information and services to the public, other agencies, and other Government entities; or

(B) bring about improvements in Government operations that may include effectiveness, efficiency, service quality, or transformation”.

This definition reflects the strategy of the US Government regarding the use of ICT in improving Government operations on the one hand and enhancing the access and delivery of information and services to citizens and government entities on the other.

Source:

http://arc.gov.in/11threp/arc_11threport_ch2.pdf

6 Points to Consider for Effective Management of e-Governance Projects in Indian States

It has been observedthat most of the e-Governance projects fail. To fully understand the associated problems could be a topic of research. This blog-post is an attempt to highlight some of the points, which may be useful for e-Governance project planners.

1.      Efforts put-up by different Government Departments towards e-Governance initiatives could be streamlined towards presenting a Single View of the Government to Citizens through a Central Program Management Office (for all e-Governance Initiatives).

2.      Identification and Monitoring of critical success factors could be done through practice of standard IT (Information Technology) practices - for example

a)      matrices driven project management

b)      putting appropriate checks and balances in project management processes

c)      defined control mechanism rooted in project management process

d)     adequate administrative controls to the project managers

e)      developing practice of data driven decision making throughout project

f)       risks and mitigation planning for the project. 

3.      Information Technology could be at the best an enabler to intent of various government departments to improve services, analytics and governance at large by making use of electronic means. Therefore, the onus of implementing departmental e-Governance projects may be with the concerned department.

Different departments are at different maturity level in terms of Information Technology Management. Projects also differ in terms of implementation dynamics. It is difficult to consistently drive the projects towards intended objectives and to manage different stakeholders with different perceptions (about the on-going projects).

At times, some of the stakeholders (or some of the interest groups) may have ability to influence the project to much greater extent than they may have been initially thought-out.

Therefore, a domain expert (a senior subject matter expert from department) could be given responsibility to lead the e-Governance projects and she/he could be empowered to independently take decisions in the interest of project.

4.      Central tracking of project metrics using excel-sheet (or other project management tool) with wider visibility to all the concerned employees (or if possible to general public at large) may be helpful in bridging information asymmetry to different stakeholders and also to consultants to suggest best practices for decision making.

5.      Implementation of fully functional IT enabled environment (installed applications and other required IT infrastructure) to support electronic automation aspect of project could be separated from the job of putting to use the IT environment by the department (implementing project) to deliver services to the beneficiaries.

6.      Precise mapping of objectives and results (outcome of each milestone) through a quantified method could be put in place. And strict evaluation of progress at each milestone with respect to the mapping may be scheduled, so that, re-assessment of project plan at (the end of) each milestone could be done to better understand the progress of the project.

References:-

·         http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/cafrad/unpan011226.pdf

·         http://www.intosaiitaudit.org/muscat/India-Why_EGovernance_Projects_Fail.pdf

Illustrations on Electronics and IT Exports by India

1.     All tables and all figures are displayed in a separate 'Appendix' given below 

2.     All the values are expressed in Crores (1 Crore = 10000000) of Rupees (Indian National Rupee - INR) in Table - 1 and Table -2

3.     Data on Exports of Electronics and IT (Information Technology) sectors are given in Table - 1 (with related visualizations in Figure - 1, Figure - 2, Figure - 3) and Table - 4 (with related visualization in Figure - 7, Figure - 8) 

a.  Export in IT sector is expressed as 'Computer Software' under 'IT & Computer Software' (please refer to Table - 1) 

b.    Exports in Electronics sector has been divided into following five sub-sectors (please refer to Table - 1)

                                                             i.      Consumer Electronics

                                                           ii.      Industrial Electronics

                                                        iii.      Computer Hardware

                                                         iv.      Communication & Broadcast Equipment

                                                           v.      Electronic Components

c.     In general, Electronics and IT exports have consistently grown in the period from 2007-08 to 2012-13 (Illustrated in Figure - 1 and Figure - 2)

d.   In terms of values of trade, exports in IT is quite higher in comparison to exports in Electronics (Illustrated in Figure - 3)

e.   It is observed that only in the year 2009-10, that total exports in Electronics sector was less than that of previous year (please refer to Table - 1)

f.     Export of sub-sector 'Consumer Electronics' shows increase in exported value from 2007-08 to 2009-10 but decrease in exported value from 2009-10 to 2012-13 (Illustrated in Figure - 2)

4.     Above mentioned observations can be summed up as follows:- 

a.   Consistent decrease in Consumer Electronics Exports during 2007-08 and 2009-10 and 

b.     A dip in total Electronics export in 2009-10

5.     Let us look into production in Electronics & IT sectors during the same period 

a.      Data related to Production in Electronics and IT sectors are given in Table - 2 (with corresponding visualizations in Figure - 4, Figure - 5 and Figure - 6) and Table - 5 (with corresponding visualizations in Figure - 9, Figure - 10 and Figure - 11)

b.   Production in IT are given as 'IT Software'; 'IT Software' is expressed in terms of two parameters 'Software for Exports' and 'Domestic Software'  (please refer to Table - 2) 

c.   Production in Electronics sector has been divided into following six sub-sectors (please refer to Table - 2)

                                                             i.      Consumer Electronics

                                                           ii.      Industrial Electronics

                                                        iii.      Computer Hardware

                                                         iv.      Communication & Broadcast Equipment

                                                           v.      Strategic Electronics

                                                         vi.      Electronic Components

d.  It may be noted that available data suggests that India produces products under 'Strategic Electronics' sub-sector, however exports data does not indicate any exports taking place under this sub-sector 

e.      Table - 2 and Table - 5 suggest that even though there has been a decrease in exports of 'Consumer Electronics' sub-sector in last couple of years (as mentioned in point 4 above), production of 'Consumer Electronics' has consistently increased all along 2007-08 through 2012-13

f.   Similarly, even though there has been a dip in total exports in Electronics sector in 2009-10 (refer point 4 above), total produce under Electronics sector in India has consistently increased all along 2007-08 through 2012-13

6.    Thus, comparative data available for production and for export in Electronics Sector appears to be supporting the view that the reason for observed reduction in exports in Electronics sector (as given in point 4(a) and 4(b)) could be due to increased local consumption of Electronic Products (this could be attributed to increase in local demand of electronic products)  

7.  Table - 5 suggests that in the IT sector, there is an increase in production of 'Software for Exports' as well as production of 'Domestic Software'  

8.     Table -3 suggests that production of 'Software for Exports' has been around 80% of Total Software Produce throughout the period 2007-08 to 2012-13

APPENDIX

TABLE - 1

FIGURE - 1

FIGURE - 2

FIGURE - 3

TABLE - 2

TABLE - 3

(Author's Calculations Based on Data in Table - 2)

FIGURE - 4

FIGURE - 5

FIGURE - 6

TABLE- 4 (A)

(Author's Calculations from Data in Table - 1 and Table - 2)

TABLE- 4 (B)

(Highlighting One Exceptionally High Value in TABLE - 4(A))

TABLE- 4 (C)

Removed One Exceptionally High Value in Table - 4 (B) - Used in Fugures Below

FIGURE - 7

FIGURE - 8

TABLE- 5 

(Author's Calculations from Data in Table - 1 and Table - 2)

FIGURE- 9

FIGURE- 10

FIGURE- 11