Gunilla Bradley
Interplay ICT - Humans - Society

1. BACKGROUND

1.1.Introduction

ICT is defined according to the more and m ore common view i e the integration of computer technology, telecommunication technology, and media. The convergence of these technologies interact deeply with the individual, the present organizational structures and the society as a whole. During the latest years research in informatics emphasises crossdisciplinary approaches. The development, introduction, use, and evaluation of modern information and communication, knowledge from the social and behavioral sciences are becoming more recognised and are directly integrated. Leading universities are working towards integration of the many disciplines in IT universities and IT faculties.(I will use both IT and ICT in the text below).

In Figure 1 is an overview of or a graphical summary of my main research interests. As a background (Section 1) I will elaborate on some of these issues thereby commenting ICT and relation to:

• work organisations (1.2)
• human communication (1.3)
• stress (1.4)
• allocation issues - knowledge transfer - global villages (1.5).

I will address future research under section 2 "Theoretical models revisited" and section 3 under:

• Focus on some major psychosocial processes (3.1)
• Focus on Psychosocial Life Environment (3.2)
• Focus on syntheses (3.3).

1. 2. Continuos changes are occurring in organizational design and management in the Net Era

What is now happening with work content and work organization? We have achieved more flexible work processes regarding both the professional role itself and leadership. Further the professional role, the learning role and the role of citizen are becoming more and more integrated. Repetitive jobs and physically strenuous jobs, including routine work, disappear and a total upgrading of qualifications has occurred. In parallel the organization is flattened out. The type of organizational structure, which has become more and more common, is networks. Together with two doctoral students I am carrying out a research project about the psychosocial and organizational aspects of networking. In an international perspective more work tasks are becoming similar because software programs are sold world-wide and the work tasks are carried out in a more similar way.

An old lace cloth is to my mind an excellent model for how the world might work, what social systems, organisations, and official authorities will look like in the future. The lace in figure 2 was actually crocheted by my grandmother. The network era has arrived and seems to be here to stay. It is possible to crochet all the time, each new loop (computer) is connected to another through the same yarn (tele). The distribution of power is now possible in a quite a deep sense, competence is transferred to the periphery, out to the line. The hierarchical structures of companies mirrored industrialization and the industrial technology during the mainframe period of the computerization era. What characteristics does the network organization have and how are people affected by this new structure? Some examples:

• Direct communication between the various levels of the organization
• Barriers between idea and execution are disappearing
• Reallocation of power in the organization
• Continuous change of structure and roles
• Openness to the surrounding world.

How does the workforce in the flexible company function?

There is core workforce at the centre where permanent full time employees with a wide range of employment rights and benefits. The other growing is called the peripheral work force They consist of part time staff, self employed consultants, sub-contracted and out sourced workers, and temporary and agency employees. Some of these "knowledge workers" are key resources, others are exchangeable. Through the network organisational structure they might have very strong position in the company through their expertise or social contact, but this is invisible. Power is invisible … it has no dress is not reflected in the same extent in properties, gadgets tied to leadership. One common trait is however that the peripheral workers are so called free agents, they take care of their own security, competence development, and personal marketing. They are very loosely, if at all, tied into the welfare system. They are strong when health and good times are present, but are in a high risk situation when health and family relations are taking away their energy and motivation.

Hence more and more we get the type of organic organizational structures, with a focus on flexible work processes including dynamic networks for capital and human resources (compare net work organizations above). Economical systems are being created where the present limits more and more are dissolved. Advanced IT support is applied for various forms of collaboration. More and more individuals function as self governing company units. We can reflect over the following issues:

Regarding the organizational context of the present age, we can think and reflect on the following issues ("Reality Facet" and its "Typical Nature" in Barnatt 1997)

• What is the main achievement focus? We are focusing various forms of ingenuity at the present, that is the materialisation of technological wonders. More and more of achievement focus is turning over to raw imagination and the value of ideas and fantasy.

• How are human beings involved in the labour market? The present member status is to "be employed". Workers have been paid for their time in fulfilling organisational roles. In the future we will see more of so called "free agents" or portfolio individuals. People, especially among long term educated persons, realise that "right in time" and "right competence" are asked for. They feel that they have to handle their own resources and competence themselves and carry their own welfare portfolio.

• How is knowledge managed? Today there are many ways, there are a multi channel issue (work of mouth, writing, and audio visual, electronic). In the future one talks about meta channels e g meta media of virtual reality (VR) and controlled reality environments, e g environments that we manipulate and manage in VR.

• What is the geographical span? At present our work life is based on national and international trade which will be more and more without limits in the future and undertake global forms. Electronic commerce and electronic market places are creating a strong change factor behind the structure of work life, The geographical space in the future is both global and beyond.

There are problems combined with these trends. The book "The Global Trap" discusses the risk with an 80/20 society, where 20 % of the population is occupied with work and 80 % is out of the labour market. The authors are describing the trap constructed through the global convergence of economy, politics, media and environments.

Personally I would see a renaissance of a strong emphasis on jobs and tasks which require human unique competencies and which can not be replaced by ICT. I am thinking of work tasks in care of elderly people, children and school. ICT and school has been changing a lot during the last few years. The roles of teachers and students have changed but the need for pedagogical trained persons seem to have increased.

I have summarised some of my critical reflections: All the responsibility is put on the individual. The individual

• loses permanent employment
• has to manage his/her own competence development
• has to market himself/herself
• expected to take on "any" job and "swallow" job enlargement
• expected to be creative – with little compensation
• is a "unit" on a competitive market.

Suddenly the individual competes as an alone person with e. G. South Koreas labour force. Is this the freedom from paid work in a traditional sense? In my perspective we all need a basic security as citizens. Should our school system prepare for fostering "free agents" or portfolio individuals? Should school and learning prepare young people for handling proactive to the unhealthy development and fostering individuals that creatively can contribute to a better world?

1. 3. Networking - Psychosocial Communication becomes key issue

There is a change taking place in the structure and quantity of the contacts and collaboration between people in work life, in private life e. g. in the residence area, and in the community as a whole. Electronic networks, electronic subcultures and electronic communities are emerging in work and private life with various functions.

If technology is used in a proper way it can give us more time for human contacts, but in many cases it has produced the opposite effect. Many people are working at a computer screen the whole day and only interacting with the computer, they do not meet living human beings. The dialogue between people is running the risk of getting thinner. However a new world is opening itself when we think in terms of the virtual company, the virtual classroom and the virtual living room. It seems like these new opportunities provide us with an insight into the value of meeting in person, its importance for listening, for trust, and emotional support and safety. It is important that the emotional development can find its place. Sometimes people can hide behind the computer screen, avoid conflicts, or avoid difficult meetings with other persons. There are experiences that in the long run could contribute to personal growth and development. Children and young persons may lose an important time in their identity development if they are exposed too early and too intensely to electronic communication.

However the feeling of belonging established when meeting in person can be facilitated, become ennobled with the support of electronic communication. Electronic meetings can also be deepened by following up contacts in the form of meetings in person. This ought to be an important goal. "Electronic solitude", that is structural loneliness forced upon a person and which exists today, has to be prevented in the ICT society, or at least combated and counteracted.

We have got quite new collaborative structures, possibilities for a deepening of democracy as well as international understanding. Today there are real prerequisites for peace.

Communication between people with an increased use of ICT makes it clear for us that communication has different purposes: It has a knowledge function, a social function, a control function and, not at least, an expressive function.

Qualitative aspects of communication e.g. trust, confidence, interest, listening, and emotional engagement will be more essential. New dimensions in the quality of communication will occur.

1. 4. Stress - With ICT our tempo is increasing

Our perception of time and space is changing. New opportunities for flexible work (telework), to work and learn independent of location, have changed our perception of space. Our requirements of ourselves regarding pace and tempo are becoming higher all the time – there is a change in the level of expectations (aspiration). An adaptation to the machine occurs. One gets affected by the pace of the machine in an unconscious way. The words "slowly" and "fast" have got quite new meanings. The same is valid for the words "close" and "far away".

There is a basic level of stress in our technological environments in large cities. It used to be entitled "technostress", a phenomenon on the societal level. Technostress is a totally accelerated tempo, which to a large extent is a result of effectiveness and efficiency.(Maybe technology fits better into a societal structure on the macro level, where small-scaleness, closeness to the environment, to nature, to the woods, lakes, and the sea exist. One could talk about overstimulation, often in the big cities, and understimulation, often in rural areas, as promoting stress. This could be balanced.)

The phenomenon called ICT stress can be characterized by too much or too little of various aspects or areas e.g. workload, information, contact with people, flexibility, opportunities for development, training. Perhaps we could even revise plans for a "society of moderation"?

There is reasons to talk about "internet stress". Certain ICT stress is related to the fact that we have an increased dependency on computers and networks and that the technology is functioning well. We have got a super network with Internet, which nowadays dominates electronic communication in business and private life. Stress phenomena in the Internet world are information overload, contact overload, requirements on availability, lack of organizational filters, hard to separate "noise" from essentials, changing level of expectations, and changed perception of time and space in general. The phenomenon called ICT stress can be characterized by too much or too little of various aspects or areas e.g. workload, information, contact with people, flexibility, opportunities for development, training. Perhaps we could even revise plans for a "society of moderation"?

The allocation issue and ICT have come to the fore

Twenty-five years ago, at a time when ICT was entitled EDP (electronic data processing), I used to close my speeches by arguing that computerization is really an issue of allocation. It has very much to do with allocating the so-called "good life".

Allocation of:

• Work and leisure time
• Citizens’ services (paid/unpaid)
• Production and reproduction

Allocation between cities and rural areas

Allocation of profit between

• Sectors within a country
• Industrialized countries
• Industrialized countries and the third world.

Both physical power/strength (muscular) and "thought power" are being replaced. However the size of the part of human life that is work – what we today entitle work – doesn’t seem to have diminished. We have achieved a subdivision which has created one group that is overworked and one group that is shut out from the workforce. This is not necessary. More and more people could have access to a good life. The allocation question and ICT are per se an important research problem. Furthermore ICT can support the so-called "weak" in the society, those people who have various kinds of handicap, linguistic, physical, or intellectual.

Transfer/growth of knowledge and influence is an ongoing and deep process

What we call "knowledge transfer" is an important phenomenon in the present and future knowledge society. This is valid for transfer urban-rural, Sweden-Europe, centre-periphery, and globally.

The technology is now used to transfer knowledge, which was earlier concentrated to experts, out to people, and they become strengthened both in their professional role and their roles as citizens. Learning in itself is changing, we can now be co-workers and colleagues when shaping new knowledge. Distance tuition (education) is becoming more and more common. The teacher’s role and the student’s role are also changing, and we are learning more and more together.

Hence IT involves a transfer of power connected with knowledge. A decomposition of the traditional hierarchical structure is occurring. There is an embryo for renewal. Long distance work, distance tuition, and long distance services already provide new prerequisites for the role of regions.

The issue of knowledge has attracted much attention over the years - from the intensive and emotional AI debate - expert systems - knowledge based system - to the softer period of learning organisation, business reengineering, creative organisations. Information Management is now Knowledge Management - maybe due to the more sophisticated technology mix. We will probably reach Creativity Management, Fantasy Management, Trust Management in the future. In 1988 I was performing together with Peter Holm, doctoral student at DSV, Stockholm, a project on the psychosocial and organisational aspects of introducing and using KBS. Three front line companies in Sweden were intensively analyzed and compared with companies in Silicon Valley. Today there is a place for a follow up due to the new era of technology. The same questions are more relevant today. However more of interest for me is the creation, transfer, and management of knowledge in the society as a whole as a bases for reallocation of power, influence and deepening of democracy.

Global Villages

I think it is desirable if we as researchers leave our "ivory towers" and try to influence society more directly. I devoted three years to get my small home village in the south of Sweden to start to flourish again with IT. The project originally was entitled "Computers in the Bakery" (CiB) and consisted of both an action research with various development projects and a more descriptive and analytical part (Bradley 1998). There are efforts in this direction taking place within the EU RAM programs, but there should be more of an open and scientific debate on this type of efforts of redistribution of knowledge and power in Europe.

This type of research is expected to contribute to our knowledge about how societal factors and information technology should be co-designed. This is crucial when the convergence of computer technology, telecommunication technology, and media is taking place in order to shape desirable conditions for the individual in his/her professional role and role as citizens and in international contacts.

Learning in networks is the guiding principle of transferring experiences from research in the rural community, my home village in the south of Sweden to a suburban community (Kista in Swedish Silicon Valley where part of the Royal Institute of Technology is located, my former affiliation). Further these experiences are transferred to a rural village in the north of Sweden. The village is situated close to Mid Sweden University (my present affiliation) which is a network university with a guiding principle to apply flexible learning in networks. We are in a thrilling change process in the new era of computerization and networks in integration, both as researchers and part of the change process.

2. THEORETICAL MODELS REVISITED

The research program on "Computer technology and work environment" (RAM-program) was an interdisciplinary research program initiated and led by Bradley at Stockholm University 1974 – 1988. A theoretical framework was developed by Bradley (Taylor & Francis 1989). The framework included two theoretical models, one more general and one model where the concepts and their interrelationship were specified. The models were empirically tested in three big work organisations in Sweden, representing three main historical periods of computer technology.

The work environment has been considered in terms of the following perspectives:

• three levels of analyses (individual, organisational, societal)
• objective and subjective work environments,
• interplay between levels
• interplay between objective and subjective work environments
• interplay between working life and private life
• a life cycle perspective.

The interaction between technology and social change and the conceptual framework might be more applicable in the future. However the graphical representations in the models need to be changed. Below I propose a superimposed model reflecting today´s psychosocial life environment.

Figure 1

These are some comments as point of departure:

• Convergence of computer technology, teletechnology and media (IT or ICT in Europe). The integration of the technologies is a technological source for far reaching and deep impact on society, organization and individual. Further ICT is speeding up and enforcing the internationalization and globalization of economy, trade, science and culture. ICT can also empower the individual in her capacity to learn, influence and take an active role in the change process.
• Work Life (Professional Role) and Private Life (Private Role) and Citizen´s Role converge.
• Work Environment and Home Environment are converging and become Life Environment
• Effects on the Individual (to the right in the figure) become more multi facetted and complex.
• Technology, Norms and Values and Labor Market - interact in the globalization process.
• Focus on the Psychosocial environment (Nordic approach) and classic dimensions in the psychosocial environment (Influence/power, work content, reward systems, identification with the organization etc).

Some additional comments:

• New emphasis on certain dimensions in the environment
• Objective and subjective environments converge - not so clear limits.
• New dimensions are appearing in the objective and subjective environment - not possible to identify so far. Openness for unforeseen implications is required

Within informatics a discussion of focus is taking place:

• Both analysis and design need to address not only the work process and management connected to the sphere of production life but also people´s life environment
• Not only professional roles but our roles as citizens and private persons are crucial
• Community research in a broad sense comes to the fore
• Analysis and Design of ICT and societal systems both on a local level and globally. The labor market parties in the Nordic countries used to play a role in system develop and in research in informatics and ICT related disciplines. A renewal of the structures within these organizations is needed. There is a need for new actors at a deeper and broader integration of ICT in the society (children, elderly, consumers organizations).

"Systems design, societal design, regional planning, organizational design, role design", which could all be represented by converging circles, are crucial in the emerging IT related disciplines. Of course more traditional fields like architecture, industrial design, graphic design will be involved.

3. RESEARCH

 3. 1 Focus on some major psychosocial processes

One way to summarise the discussion on the IT society and the individual are the following five major concerns. They could be formulated as problem areas or viewed as research questions. But by now there are reasons to start up normative research which later on could be discussed across wider cultures. It concerns the classic question: Is research value-free?

Integration or Isolation (Human-human communication)

Do IT networks increase the quality and variety of social interactions, or do limits on social contacts via IT lead to higher levels of isolation and social disintegration?

Normatively: ICT should contribute to an enrichment in the social contact between people and should be used to prevent social isolation and facilitate integration.

Life content; autonomy/self-determination versus ... control)

Can enhancement in wireless and mobile IT systems permit greater autonomy and discretion in work, or are employees more subject to work pressures and job stress? Flexible work/telecommuting and electronic performance monitoring are important to consider.

Normatively: ICT should contribute to a greater autonomy for the individual and prevent stress reactions.

Life content; Control or Freedom is a classic issue regarding privacy - integrity.

ICT Stress Overstimulation or understimulation - Technostress

Normatively: ICT should facilitate information access for all and support individual learning, but at the same time prohibit various kinds of overload information overload, contact overload.

Our bases for identity

Are electronic interactions via IT networks leading to disintegration of the self and to the development of cultures of artificial personalities, or do the exchange of social contacts without physical constraints allow for greater understanding of the underlying characteristics of humanity?

Normatively: ICT should contribute to developing true human qualities and be used to provide time for people to develop themselves as humane beings.

3. 2 Focus on Psychosocial Life Environment/Quality of Life and Wellbeing

In my contacts with mass media I have on occasion dared to go back to the books I have authored, primarily Computers and the Psychosocial Work Environment (Taylor & Francis) published in Swedish 11 years ago. I have to say that the research questions that I proposed as important for the future are still highly relevant today and maybe more important than 10 years ago. Why? I think that when we have been living in a society deeply and broadly affected by the new technology, it might be harder to identify both risks and opportunities. A new generation is here, which has grown up in the digital environment. There are reasons today to go back to classics in research, e.g. there are no more work environments in the traditional sense, they are dissolving, but phenomena identified in e.g. the work life research, where Scandinavia during many years was very active, have to be reviewed with a new perspective. How are human needs of influence, belonging and meaning met in the new structures?

I will give some examples of desirable research focusing the Individual. How is ICT changing our

• identity and self perception
• social competence
• creativity
• integrity
• trust
• balance between emotional and rational components
• balance between female and male
• involvement and alienation.

Home of the Future - new ICT environment in focus: At the development of "Home of the Future" there is a growing market for all kinds of gadgets, desirable or not. We need to analyse and design the good home, when our roles are integrating. What is a home? "Working from home" or "Homing from work" (due to the fact that we virtually can be at home wherever we are) are concepts that we play with in a newly initiated research program. We started with the help of the Swedish Trade Office in LA to understand what are the trends in the area, not to copy but to reflect upon. There is room for a deeper reflection, Scandinavia could contribute. Our research project "Home of the Future" encompasses many departments of Mid Sweden University as well as paper industry and electronic industry. Industries like construction/building furniture etc are potential collaborative partners too.

3. 3. Focus on syntheses

We need to focus within European research on syntheses and on issues related to welfare and qualify of life ... a few worn-out words maybe. The so-called Scandinavian model has been very much criticized after the fall of the iron curtain ... but there is room for a renewal. I think there is a need for normative research in the next step where we place human welfare and life quality for all as crucial societal goals. Some main areas for research would be to study; ICT and various cultures, ICT and democratic processes, human life roles in the ICT society, leadership on a governmental level as well as in organizations, at work and in school, human to human interaction, analyses of life styles and values, new organizational models of work and life in general.

LIST OF REFERENCE

To be added in next version

Gunilla Bradley

Umeå University/Mid-Sweden University

Thematic platform: Suggestions for research activities (Mogens Kuhn Pedersen)