1. IT and the
changing working
environment
Lesson 1
1
Change, the digital workplace and
disruptive technology
2. Slide 1.2Slide 1.2
Learning outcomes
• After the completion of this session, a student should
understand the core ideas of a changing working
environment by;
– Understanding change from an organisational perspective
– Understanding Sustaining versus Disruptive technology
– Understanding the concept of a digital working environment
– Understanding the idea of disruption and disruptive technology
4. Slide 1.4Slide 1.4
Change over time
CumulativeChange
TIME
Target State
To be
Discovered
State
Current State
Developmental
(incremental) change
Transformative
change
Transitional
(reform) change
5. Slide 1.5Slide 1.5
Types of change - simplified
Scope of Change
Realignment Transformation
Natureofchange
Incremental Adaptation Evolution
Big Bang Reconstruction Revolution
6. Slide 1.6Slide 1.6
Types of organisational change -
simplified
•Employee performance
•Skills, attitude, behaviour
•Enhance manager-
subordinate relationship
•Group cohesion and
employee sense of
achievement
•New technology
•New operating procedures
•New skills
•Overall goals, purpose,
strategy and mission of an
organization
•Organization's hierarchy
•Chain of command
•Management systems
•Job structure
•Administrative procedures
Structural Strategic
PeopleTechnological
7. Slide 1.7Slide 1.7
Innovation as change
IMPACTONTHEMARKET
SUSTAINING
A significant improvement
on a product that aims to
sustain the position in an
existing market
DISRUPTIVE
Technology or new business
model that disrupts the
existing market
INCREMENTAL
Gradual, continuous
improvements on existing
products and services
RADICAL
Technological breakthrough
that transforms industries,
often creates a new
industry.
TECHNOLOGY NEWNESS
Innovation is commonly defined as the "carrying out
of new combinations" that include "the introduction of
new goods, ... new methods of production, ... the
opening of new markets, ... the conquest of new
sources of supply ... and the carrying out of a new
organization of any industry"
8. Slide 1.8Slide 1.8
Sustaining Incremental Innovation
• A sustaining technology / innovation is a technology or innovation
employed to improve a company’s product or service to better meet
their customers’ needs.
• Innovation that doesn’t create new markets or value networks, but
simply grows pre-existing ones
• Sustaining innovations can be:
– evolutionary as it evolved and improved over time
– revolutionary as it creates change
– incremental and gradual as there is / has been development over time
– The distinction is not about the innovation itself but rather what it is used to do.
8
9. Slide 1.9Slide 1.9
Disruptive Radical Innovation
• A disruptive technology / innovation is a technology or
innovation employed to appeal to or even create a new
market.
• Disruptive technologies and innovations are often
characterized (at least at first) by:
– inferior performance because they are still new and unknown
– lack of appeal to established customer base due to newness
– lower profit margins due to low sales volumes and newness
– convenience as it provides several improvements
– appeal to a select group of potential customers (early adopters)
– lower costs associated with improved processes
9
10. Slide 1.10Slide 1.10
IT complexity is rising for more
employees
Movement towards integrated
digital workplace
11. Slide 1.11Slide 1.11
Sustaining Innovation
- The digital workplace….
• …….is the collection of all of the digital tools provided by an organization
to allow its employees to do their jobs.
• ……. is meant to be a virtual equivalent to the physical workplace, which
requires strong planning and management due to its fundamental role in
people’s productivity, engagement and working health.
• ……. consists of a holistic set of tools, platforms and environments for
work, delivered in a coherent, usable and productive way.
• ……. is a modern work environment where employees are more engaged
to make faster decisions and achieve greater results. They are fully
empowered by contextual analytics and mobile technologies, and engage
in online communities to find and disseminate needed information and
foster employee-led innovations.
15. Slide 1.15Slide 1.15
However …… Disruption still happens
• Disruptive Innovation
– a disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value
network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing
established market-leading firms, products, and alliances.
• Disruptive Technology
– Disruptive technology refers to any enhanced or completely new technology that
replaces and disrupts an existing technology, rendering it obsolete. It is designed
to succeed similar technology that is already in use.
– Disruptive technology applies to hardware, software, networks and combined
technologies.
– Because disruptive technology is new, it has certain advantages, enhancements
and functionalities over competitors. For example, cloud computing serves as a
disruptive technology for in-house servers and software solutions. It has slowly
been adopted by organizations and individuals with the main objective of
completely removing traditional computing.
– As an unused, unapplied and untested alternative, it takes time for disruptive
technology to be dominantly deployed, ultimately degenerating existing
technology.
16. Slide 1.16Slide 1.16
Disruptive Technology
Market
(Disruptive –vs- Sustaining)
PRODUCT
(Incremental–vs-Radical)
RADICAL SUSTAINING
A significant improvement on a
product in an old market
RADICALLY DISRUPTIVE
Sales arguments are
fundamentally changed through
new innovations
INCREMENTALLY SUSTAINING
Constant steady progression that
happens in every business
INCREMENTALLY DISRUPTIVE
May incremental improvements
that eventually lead to a market
disruption
17. Slide 1.17Slide 1.17
Disruptive technology
and disruptive innovation trends
Only going to cover some of the following:
– Mobile-first to AI first
– Personalisation and customisation
– Growth in the “as-a-service” model
– Voice based virtual assistance
– Moving to Industry 4.0 (sensor integration, complete automation, IoT and AI
integration and connectivity)
– Blockchain – cryptocurrency and transaction transparency
– Prescriptive Analytics
– Gene Sequencing
– Convergence
– Commercial drones and Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
– Digital Twins
– Virtual reality, spatial computing and augmented reality
18. Slide 1.18Slide 1.18
Mobile-first to AI-first
• Companies are demonstrating a willingness to use AI and
related tools like machine learning to automate processes,
reduce administrative tasks, and collect and organize data.
• Understanding vast amounts of information is vital in the age
of mass data, and AI is proving to be a highly effective
solution.
19. Slide 1.19Slide 1.19
Personalisation & Customisation
• In consumer goods, life sciences, aviation and
financial services in particular, businesses will
continue to personalize products and services to
satisfy individual consumer needs without unduly
increasing costs or waste.
• This will positively impact end to end supply
chains, data flows and encourage capital
investments. Personalization has become a key
customer requirement that companies need to
offer in order to remain competitive.
20. Slide 1.20Slide 1.20
Voice based virtual assistants
become ubiquitous
• The wide uptake of home based and virtual assistants like
Alexa and Google Home have built confidence in
conversational interfaces, familiarizing consumers with a
seamless way of interacting with tech.
• Amazon and Google have taken prime position between
brand and customer, capitalizing on conversational
convenience.
21. Slide 1.21Slide 1.21
Industry 4.0
• The installation of smart sensors and the application of data analytics will deliver further steps
towards the factory of the future.
• The wider use of automated processes powered by AI, advanced robotics, and Internet of Things
(IoT) connectivity will contribute to Industry 4.0.
• Otherwise known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Industry 4.0 promises a more connected
world in which machines carry out mundane tasks.
• Many companies, such as Amazon and Tesla, have taken tangible steps to implement this in
automated warehouses and automated factories.
22. Slide 1.22Slide 1.22
Convergence
• As emerging technology and new business models transform
sectors, the lines are blurring between what were previously
seen as distinctly different industries.
• The convergence of industries opens up huge opportunities
for organizations to evolve, offering new products and
services to their customer bases.
• Automotive companies, for example, are investing in ride
sharing apps as they look to reinvent themselves as mobility
solutions, and banks are working to evolve alongside
consumer needs.
23. Slide 1.23Slide 1.23
Commercial drones and UAV
• Moving beyond the hobbyist
and warfare applications,
commercial drone use has
begun to grow across a wide
range of industry sectors.
• Drones are a relatively cost
effective solution for surveying
physical processes, whether
they are happening on a
construction site, in a field, or
to aid security control in urban
centers.
24. Slide 1.24Slide 1.24
Digital twins
• A digital twin could be used to
simulate a piece of complex
machinery, for example,
predicting how it will respond
in certain scenarios and how
best to optimize performance.
• Digital twins will provide
businesses with the ability to
respond to changes, improve
operations and add value to
the Internet of Things.
A digital twin is a simulation model that updates and
changes in accordance with real world assets to enable
better decision making and improve understanding of
the state of systems.
25. Slide 1.25Slide 1.25
Increased work complexity
- Impact on work (1)
• Cognitive competence
– Increase complexity at work requires greater cognitive
competence
– Continuous development required from employees
– Promotion of different ways of thinking between teams
• Social and interactive competence
– Increase teamwork and collaboration
– Critical importance of relationship development and working
– Focus on learning and growth
26. Slide 1.26Slide 1.26
Increased work complexity
- Impact on work (2)
• The new "psychological contract" between
employees and employers
– Corporate indifference versus growing need for participation
– Reduced loyalty and commitment
– Increased time burden – more time working
– Flexible work arrangements
• Changes in process and place
– Increased use of teams and cross unit work
– Greater use of dispersed work groups
– Continual reorganization and reconstruction
– Reduced costs / more efficient space use
– Improved quality of work life and attraction of new workers
27. Slide 1.27Slide 1.27
Review questions
• How has work changed over time between the industrial age and the
digital age?
• How does change occur over time?
• What is the difference between transformative and transitional change?
• What are the different types of general change?
• When it comes to organizational change, what types of structural,
strategic, technological and people changes do organizations
experience?
• What different types of innovation changes do we find and how does it
relate to technological change?
• What is sustaining or incremental innovation?
• What is disruptive or radical innovation?
28. Slide 1.28Slide 1.28
Review questions
• What is the relationship between markets and technological innovation?
• What role does the digital workplace play as a sustaining innovation?
• What is the scope and focus of the digital workplace?
• When referring to the framework for the establishing a digital workplace,
what is the main focus areas?
• What are some of the critical information structures that is needed for a
workplace to be considered a digital workplace?
• What is disruption, disruptive innovation and disruptive technology?
• What is the relationship between the market and related products and
different types of disruptive technologies?
• What are some of the possible disruptive innovations and technologies that
are currently growing in interest and popularity?
• What impact does all of the changes brought on by sustain and disruptive
technology has on the working environment?
