Businesses need to make money - for their owners and for their shareholders - by providing goods and services of a quality and at a price that consumers will purchase. To do this they must operate within the law, which covers much of their actions - financial, employment, product liability, etc. They also have to be competitive in order to survive. If a competitor is using computers, robots or cyberspace to do 'better' in any way, then one is almost forced to adopt these technologies, or see the business die.
Businesses come and go, are bought and sold, expand and contract. The business
world is in a constant state of flux, and the advent of cyberspace is greatly
increasing the rate of change. However, businesses are important for people:
customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders. Businesses are parts of one
or more local communities, countries and the global economy. Cyberspace extends
the reach and speed of business networking, and hence the impact of business
practices on people. Although this book is not specifically concerned with the
way in which cyberspace affects the way a business works - many others have
written about that - it does need to consider the way in which this new technology
might have an impact on working people and their communities.
Globalization is having a major effect on product markets and international businesses. Single companies span the planet. Corporate intranets speed internal communications within an organization, while video conferencing enhances professional contacts right round the world without the need for exhausting and expensive physical travel. Remote access (e.g. by email, telephone, Internet and fax) makes it possible for those who happen to be away from their place of work to keep in detailed contact with their base. Call centres handle customer services from any part of the country or indeed the world, speedily and efficiently. And when cyberspace spans the world, it also spans the time zones. A business need never sleep, since it will have wide-awake workers or competitors somewhere.
Globalization can lead to:
Cyberspace did not cause globalization - there have been many other influences
at work - but it certainly sustained its growth, and influences its nature.
Information technology enables goods and services to be delivered direct to
the customer, with deliveries on a just-in-time basis from the manufacturer
to an online distributor. This offers real advantages to many businesses, but
it has, after all, been here for some years. The really big new change is the
development of electronic retail commerce, and that will have many effects on
our society. For example, if shopping via the Internet is adopted on a large
scale, the future of town centres and other retailing activities might be placed
in even greater jeopardy than they already are, for unlike shopping malls, cyber-shopping
does not need planning consent! So there is a danger that it will accentuate
the problems of inner city deprivation.
Information and communication technology has accentuated changes in the organization of businesses that were already occurring. For example, the traditional hierarchical structures within an organization, with clearly defined career progression, are rapidly being replaced by flatter management structures, while networking and team-working, with local devolved decision-making, have become the new, normal style in the workplace. These changes have been of great advantage to the professional worker. They can exploit the benefits of cyberspace, because it can make their work more interesting and more rewarding. This is because their work revolves around their knowledge, skills and access to information, which are then combined to enable them to make judgements and decisions more readily.
One of the key skills of professional groups is 'networking' (in the traditional sense of making contact with others), for which the flexibility and speed of email is ideal. It is no coincidence that electronic mail had its origin in the universities. The ability to 'talk' to one another, to share ideas and concepts, is central to development in all professional areas. Combine email with the web to provide information access, and you have many professionals' dream method of working. Without the restriction of time zones or space for reaching people or information - no closed libraries, no failure to reach someone because they are asleep or away - they work more effectively.
Others have found many opportunities from the coming of cyberspace; they can work from home or from a 'tele-cottage', and are thus enabled to live in rural communities or look after their children at home more easily. But different skills are required; new technical skills and the capability to work away from colleagues and the discipline of the workplace.
As with so many changes, while some benefit, others may lose out through loss of work opportunities. They will require particular support and the opportunity to acquire new skills. But there is another factor at work: the accelerating pace of change in the technologies which support cyberspace, and the expanding range of possibilities for business in cyberspace, may well diminish the need for a stable workforce. More work will be contract driven, and may be performed by freelance consultants. So even the skilled IT professional working on short-term contracts may experience real difficulties over, for example, home mortgages, which are often structured around the expectation of long-term employment. The lack of security may also make it harder to keep local friends and stable schooling for the children. So as work communities become less important, other communities will become more important, and the Church is one such community, indeed the largest voluntary community in any Western country.