The Impact of Information Technology on Organizational Flexibility

This paper argues that information technology can have a significant impacton organizational flexibility. Information technology (IT) contributes to flexibilityby 1) changing the nature of organization boundaries and the time at which worktakes place and 2) altering the nature and pace of work. IT also has importantsecond and third order impacts on organizations and industries. The paper presentsexamples to illustrate the impact of information technology on two industries andthree companies. The paper concludes that management should consider the use ofinformation technology to increase flexibility and should predict the higher orderimpact of their actions on the organization and their industry