There are many challenges for information technology to stay on the same advancing technology curves we have experienced over the last fifty years. We expect discipline-specific experts to focus on these. Instead, in this section we focus on the critical challenges that arise at the intersection of information processing and worker effectiveness.
A key research challenge is to quantitatively evaluate, to the extent possible, the physiological, psychological, sociological, and economic impact of new information technology in the workspace. In quantitative terms, what has been its impact on individual and group effectiveness? A sound and scientific experimental design is needed. A critical research need is to determine the appropriate metrics of "effectiveness," for that which cannot be measured cannot be improved. Simply performing a task faster, as opposed to better, is not sufficient.
A good example of the weakness of existing productivity measures is illustrated as following. Desktop publishing and laser printing make it possible for the average author to produce attractive looking output. Previously, an author would write and edit a document by hand, giving it to a secretarial pool for initial typing and subsequent retyping. Revisions were infrequent because of the time lag associated with producing a new version. Today, revisions are frequent, and while some authors may spend too much time tweaking the formatting, the general perception of authors is that desktop published has dramatically improved both the content and the form of documents, even if the technology has not substantially reduced the time for their production. Understanding how to value the technology's contribution to the final work product is a critical research challenge.
Another key challenge is to determine how building systems should be designed to support the information technology-enabled workplace. The ways in which information technology can enable new and more effective building automation systems must be explored. For example, an opportunity exists in which advanced distributed information technology could significantly improve the capabilities of existing building control and monitoring systems. Examples include distributed environmental conditioning, distributed sensors, and distributed controllers at attractive costs made possible by advances in information technology.
Another important area of investigation is how building systems infrastructures can be designed to support the dynamic, reconfigurable workplaces enabled by information technology and demanded by new organizational styles. Examples include relocatable, scalable, integrated, and "plug and play" structures for lighting, environmental conditioning, and wiring. Such systems could also insure that buildings could be incrementally upgraded and revitalized, thereby providing an alternative to building obsolescence. Conversely, high technology can actually allow a return to natural conditioning technologies more appealing to human needs. For example, advanced controls technologies can allow buildings to use more natural environmental conditioning methods, such as openable windows and fresh air ventilation. Smart control systems can ensure that an office with an open window will not generate increased energy costs by insuring that it will not be heated or cooled by the building's environmental systems.
The impact of information technology and physical spaces design on group effectiveness is only partially understood. Methodologies borrowed from the social sciences are needed to develop rigorous and reproducible experiments to discover the elements of these technologies that lead to enhanced group effectiveness.
While more work has been performed to investigate the impact of information technology on individual worker effectiveness, our understanding of the effect of physical space and control on worker productivity remains limited. As pointed out in Section 4.1, the true productivity boost brought about by information technology has yet to be correctly measured and successfully evaluated. Physical spaces, and with them the implications for privacy, the amount of space, the connotations of rank and territoriality, access to windows, individual control of the environment, ergonomics, lighting quality, thermal and air quality, and staff support all have implications for worker effectiveness, but are little understood.
To better direct the research community towards areas of greatest impact, whether in terms of the potential number of workers affected or the economic importance of their work, an in depth census of the existing workforce, their kinds of jobs, their access to information technology and the nature of their physical workspaces, would be of enormous value. An understanding of the long term trends, both in terms of information technology and physical environment, would also provide an important resource for the research community.
Last Updated by Randy H. Katz, 22 January 1997