Embrace technology by all means, but do not be a robotic manager

By Anderea Morara

The world has been going through rapid changes in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) since the advent of the Information Age in the 1980s or thereabouts.

Due to slow government policy reform and unimaginative tax regimes, the East African region has been bypassed by many countries in the use of computers and allied equipment. Nonetheless, though belatedly, the region now seems to be getting into the bandwagon.

Adopting the philosophy that "All is meant for the best", East Africans can avoid the mistakes of the pioneers while taking advantage of improvements in technology and cost reductions that have taken place in ICT in recent years.

Recent studies indicate that some managers rely too much on the empirical data churned out by computers and often neglect subjective information that could yield insights into human creativity, entrepreneurship, and consensus building — all of which are essential in solving problems.

Many organisations in the region, including governments, are now committing increasing resources to computerised management systems.

The objective is to improve the quality and speed of analysing management information for better decision-making. However, in embracing ICT, we should not abdicate our managerial responsibilities to computers.

People in positions of responsibility often take whatever is spewed from their organisations’ computers as sacrosanct or as an excuse for not being accountable.

That is why supposedly responsible people, have the temerity to excuse their lack of diligence and/or probity to "computer errors."

Unless we judiciously blend the conventional entrepreneurial management practice with probity and the speed of ICT systems, there are bound to be gaps between promise and performance by our industries, government and educational institutions despite increased use of computer information.

‘upgraded’ system

My bank – one of the largest in country – "upgraded" their computer systems recently but service has gone from bad to worse.

It now takes much longer to get your balances; "misposting" of deposits has become more rampant, while most branches are rarely on the networked banking, which was the primary reason for upgrading the system!

More computers per se cannot lead to better performance and more rapid economic growth despite our dreams. Abuse of computers and other ICT facilities is bound to undermine our envisaged growth and development.

Effective use of ICT may be premised on four principles:-

1) Clear delineation of the corporate accounting and planning roles: In the days before computers, it took weeks — even months — to prepare and disseminate financial or operational accounting information.

Plans for the next period were often made before accounting information on the most recent experiences was available to managers. Today computers have facilitated "real-time-on-line planning and control".

Thus, managers’ planning and control decisions are increasingly relying on empirical data processed by computers and much less on human judgements.

assign roles

The trick is to clearly determine where planning ends and corporate accounting starts and assign the roles appropriately.

2) Candid Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategy (internal and external) to reduce information gaps between those who process information, decision makers and other stakeholders.

In many organisations, those authorised to plan, measure and control corporate work processes are often exempted from responsibilities for doing the work while those responsible for doing the work are often exempted from planning for it.

There is therefore a tendency for those who work with computerised systems to become disassociated technologically and bureaucratically from those who work on material and product flows.

For example, prior to computerisation, factory warehouse managers of company XYZ used to meet monthly to decide what quantities and kinds of products each of their plants would produce and ship to each warehouse so that overall production and shipping costs would be minimised.

At the meetings, plant and warehouse managers would negotiate and reach consensus. With computerisation — based on a standard software package — the monthly meetings ceased.

Unfortunately, the package was not properly customised as it did not fully involve the plant and warehouse managers.

Besides, the plant and warehouse managers felt marginalised, since their monthly input was no longer required at the headquarters, not to mention that this change also had a negative impact on their transport and accommodation allowances. In short, the computerisation did not lead to tangible cost savings.

effective support

It is critical that all key stakeholders be involved in system design for ownership and effective support.

3) Balance computer information on all value chains. There has been a tendency to, for example, focus on cash flows while neglecting material and product flows.

4) Incorporate soft indicators — such as creativity/innovation, integrity etc to your performance management system in addition to the objective measures (eg outputs).

Blind faith in computers or just plain recklessness and laziness is taking us into scenarios where management is preoccupied with computerised information while ignoring subjective information and integrity, which are vital for good corporate governance.

The writer is the Executive Director of Capacity Development Africa Ltd. cdasedic@africaonline.co.ke

 

 

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