Adding to above, today business environments not just comprise of infrastructure and huge buildings, but a highly complex structural object which is a result of intense strategic planning and implementation. Moreover, modern workspaces are both bright and open with enormous amount of talent, illustrating young minds with fresh ideas, which helps generate a sense of freedom, comfort and prosperity at work to motivate employees and encourage them to communication to ensure that they are most performative and innovative. Becker and Sims (2001) describe business environment as geographic sites structured around truth which intend to develop conditions that are both innovative and creative in nature based upon ‘patterns of circulations’.
Moving ahead, the section below will now explain the concept of technology in this era which will then be followed by the explanation of the socio-technical infrastructures.
The Notion of Technology
According to Winner (1980), in this era of fierce competition the biggest provoking idea is the fact that technical artefacts have political features and because of this specific reason, technology is being conceptualised on several ways. The two far off opposite ends highlight two opposing determinisms. Winner (1980) states that the first is the technological based determinism which debates that society is driven by technology and the second thought i.e. social determinism which states that society shapes and develops technology. The second though emphasizes that the society desires and utilizes the technology as per the requirements with technology being nothing on its own. However, both these determinisms were categorised as too rigid and turned challenging. Bijker and Law (1992) have even argued upon heterogeneity and stated that there no more exists true purity. Technical and social links bind together not just occupational groups but also different professions and social groups. Thus, as a result, various alternative perception of technology developed that aim to depict the invisible relation between technology and society. The following two sections will now introduce two main concepts i.e. SCOT (Social Construction of Technology) as well as ANT (Actor Network Theory).
Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)
The theory of Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) comprises of four main aspects i.e. relevant social groups, interpretive flexibility, technological frames and closure/stability. According to the SWOT theory, technology and society both are actors in accordance with the socio-technical relationship. Bijker and Law (1992) also add to it by stating that technology is not just a technical concept but in-fact a heterogeneous creature embodying both comprises and trade-offs. Technology involves psychological, social, and economical in addition to professional constraints and possibilities. Because of this specific reason only interpretive flexibility in artefacts develops as different individuals allocate different meanings to the involved actors and thereby possess an altering view as compared to other groups.
Moreover, Bijker and Law (1992) mention that an artefact or object which may appear to be very simple, indeed is interpreted in different forms by different observers. This also results in the formation of appropriate social groups by individuals with more or less same kind or understanding and interpretations about artefacts that bear similar kind of resemblance and features like profession, gender etc. The notion of conclusion and steadiness comes to picture when a group is formed and some kind of closure is observed in the views and friction occurs to develop stable and a safe group. But it is to be noted that closure may not always be final and new issues could arise anytime resulting in interpretive flexibility (Kline and Pinch, 1999). Further, Orwilkowski (1994) defines interpretation of technology in the form of technical frames inside which different views and perceptions about technical artefacts exist. Orwilkowski (1994) adds here by defining frames as useful organizational realities that act as a platform for understanding and acting accordingly. In other words, frames of reference can be understood as guidelines that help plan, organize and shape different views and interpretations based upon organizational understanding. The analysis and findings chapter will detail the way managers, staff, experts, employees, consumers at Procter & Gamble think in different frames. Moving ahead, the section below now detail and describe the Actor Network Theory (ANT).
Actor-Network Theory (ANT)
To begin with, Actor-Network Theory (ANT) comprises of four means of observing techniques which will now be discussed; i.e. as hybrids, writings/ designations, systems and as preferences/authority. An actor-network encompasses and associates collectively both procedural and non-procedural components; individuals are units that obtain significance with respect to others. In this situation, expertise is not unreceptive, rather it is a performer. Moreover, since actors are system- upshots, they get hold of all features from their associations with rest of the entities, as a result generating socio-technological hybrids. However, scripts are put together into techniques to ‘inform us what to carry out’ and arrangements are composed of scripts, therefore, they are procedures or accomplishments, instead of constant links or stagnant arrangements, since it “involves a great deal of effort in order to uphold the ‘enrolment and association’ of scripts” (Calas and Smircich 1999, p663). Monteiro (2000, p4) states that the Actor Network Theory (ANT) is the perception that as soon as the action is completed, there exist several things which impact the way it is carried out; these facets are associated and linked to the action itself and must be believed as so. Consequently, an actor-network is considered to be the act allied jointly with all of its impacting aspects (that are also connected), therefore creating an arrangement. Each and every component of the network, such as social, technological or natural, is actors since they are competent of performing upon one another. In addition to this, Calas and Smircich (1999, p663) assert the fact that ANT has some resemblance with Foucault’s notion i.e. ‘knowledge is power’ as authority associations are created by means of “actants” who carry out the obtainable discussions as well as the procedures. Moving ahead, scripts hold undeniable preferences along with them, instead of others. Using this theory, this study attempts to establish the way Procter & Gamble has developed a socio-technical work network as part of its business strategies. The architecture could be observed as script for which individuals tag along with respect to conduct and comprehension. Actor Network Theory does identify that diverse affiliates of the company would hold distinct preferences, degree of authority and control in the plan and realization phases, therefore going through and comprehending the scripts with different degrees of beliefs.
The analysis section of this dissertation study will be using SCOT and ANT as a tool to explore and understand the way business strategies make use of technology by developing a socio-technical infrastructure.
The SWOT Framework
Considering the fierce competition and market pressure, the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) tool is the most appropriate to determines the internal and external opportunities associated with any project in any work sector. The SWOT analysis is a unique approach which is fabricated around several external and internal environmental situations that can either contribute towards organizational growth or can even result in slowdown or hampering project progress (Houben et al., 1999). Moreover, a number of researches indicate that SWOT Framework is an extremely beneficial approach as along with depicting the current market situation, it also helps discover hidden internal assets and strengths of the firm. Further, it also helps in exploring the most probable dangers and threats for the nearby future along with the business development opportunities in both national and international business market. Hill and Westbrook (1998) further add to it by stating SWOT tool is basically adopted in cases where lots of corporate planning and strategic decision making is involved. This tool is applicable in all sectors in both large and small firms all over the world. The SWOT Tool comprises of a two by two matrix with four components as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Fig. 1 The SWOT Framework
Moving ahead, the paragraphs below will present a brief insight into the two main segments of the SWOT framework i.e. Strength/Weakness Analysis and Opportunity/Threat Analysis.
Strength/Weakness Analysis
According to Hill and Westbrook (1998), the strengths of an organization includes all its valuable assets which can be easily replicated such as tacit knowledge, human resource, strong financial background, good market ranking, up-to-date technology, advanced operations management, socially responsible, innovative, pro-active approaches, modern infrastructure, trained employees, strong customer base etc. All these factors chiefly contribute towards attaining a distinguishing position in the market against the competitors. Whereas on the other hand, weaknesses are basically issues and pitfalls that could in long run turn out to cause damage and ruin the position and image of the firm. Weakness generally comprises of insufficient training, low profit margins, limited output, fluctuating position in market, large number of competitors, lack of domain experts etc.
Opportunity/Threat Analysis
Moving further, Opportunity/Threat Analysis involves the study of external surroundings and forces that can either contribute towards growth of the organization or can even negatively hamper the position and ranking of the organization. Further over the period of years, it has been discovered that if suitable steps and actions are not taken on time, then there even exists possibility of firms going bankrupt. Further, Piercy and Giles (1989) add to it by mentioning that opportunities can exist all over the world and normally involve well earned market position, mergers, strategic ventures, new services and products etc. Whereas threats are conditions such as economic recession, tough market competition, low level of sales, decreased profitability, technological advancements etc which can hamper the overall functioning of the firm.
Research Methodology
Introduction
After having thrown light on the key concepts and terms associated with the study, this section of the research presents and details the research paradigm, approaches and methodologies that will be adopted to gather the research data. The chapter starts with justification of theoretical approach and moves ahead explaining research approaches, paradigm, methodologies such as interview, ethical consideration, challenges encountered as well as alternative approaches.
Justification of Theoretical Approach
A number of researches and scholars have proved that this is the era of globalization and modernization, investing in technology is not enough. According to Carr (2003), the most important task that matters is investing innovatively and differently in technology in order to ensure that it is well aligned with organizational business objectives and strategies. Similarly, this research also attempts to explore the benefits and advantage technology can offer by being part of organizational business strategies. The research in specific has selected the case of Procter & Gamble. The next part of this study will describe the research paradigm that will be adopted to carry on the research.
Research Paradigm
To start with, the literature review part illustrated above incontestably established that this research study “is not linked with being unfair or uneasy about the course of proceeds, although, the importance of the enlightenment is grounded on the amount to which it permits others to decipher the event and offers sense to those being pored over” (Darke et al.,1998). Thus, the interpretive paradigm has been considered for this research. Moreover, it is linked with individual acuities and recognizing the propositions. The interpretive paradigm proffers logic to an occurrence based on sense allotted to them by both the candidates and people included in state of affairs (Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991). It gives attention to traditions, conviction and value structures and it is based on the conception of ontology according to which authenticity is predisposed and is viewed as a social upshot generated by people. Furthermore, Darke et al. (1998) asserts that the entire theory of interpretive technique regards people as communal partaker around whose ideals and stances the whole concept works.
Moving ahead, the profound case study that is highlighted by Walsham (1995) as the “method for such interpretive analysis” has been picked for this research study. Case study tries to scrutinize unambiguous world patterns by dissecting the data acquired through several places and methods counting interviews, assessments, opinion polls, documents and material in writing. This research provides the most incomparable backdrop to implement case based research since it embraces interviewing numerous people including top level management, recruits and human resources of various firms. According to Darke et al. (1998) case study is deemed as one of the highly recurrent and utilized research method in the area of information systems in view of the fact that it aids in comprehending the intricacies of inter-associations amongst tactical project supervision and the managerial adjustments, it is most excellent for this study. So, case study presented the most capable way to find out the methodology in which a hardly noticeable and consistent dependent set of connections exists between diverse individuals and actors involved with business strategies and technical operations of an organization. Moving ahead, the section below will now detail the research methodology.
Research Methodology
This research study revolves around both the primary as well as the secondary information. In view of the duration and resource attainability, interview approach for obtaining primary data and several methods for secondary data were accurately chosen. The next sections formerly present a brief outline of the chosen information collection place and then particulars of the interviewing procedure.
Most of the corporations these days go after inimitable and ground-breaking approaches such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Project Management etc with strategic aim to attain long term profitability and sustainable competitive edge over the competitors in the market. Similarly, this study aims to explore the way; one of world’s best consumer goods manufacturers uses technology as part of its business strategies to achieved distinct level of success. The chosen organization provided apt means to deal with the research study questions and there are numerous grounds for picking them. Moreover, being a learner at the university, it was comparatively trouble-free for me to gain access and assemble information than obtaining admittance to an absolutely new firm which engrosses cultural and political barriers. My supervisor had few link ups in these corporations so it happened to be exceptionally straightforward for me to acquire right to use and carry out interviews at Procter & Gamble and analyse usage of technology in their business strategies. In addition, it assisted me to reduce duration and cost. There was almost no travel expense involved as the firms were located in close vicinity to my location. It also facilitated in saving travel duration. Furthermore, all this was assembled with my individual fascination and fervour to investigate the intricacies of the background implicated with the realization of business strategies and operational procedures. It is truism that the entire thing would have never been achievable in the absence of the assistance provided by my supervisor. He aided me to acquire access at different corporations for performing interviews and recommended me plentiful high quality periodicals and editorials so as to assemble the secondary information. The research method was preferred in these circumstances to make out the association and connection that subsist among the various individuals of the firm.
In this section the benefits of the interviewing method would be given a detailed description. According to Fontana & Frey (1998 as cited in Denizin & Lincoln, 2008), interviewing approach is among most widespread and dominant way to attempt and comprehend our colleague human beings”. It is an approach which applies to almost all methods. Throughout the research, several people including recruits, employees, high level management were interviewed so as to discover different business methods being pursued with the manner they have done good to the firm. Every part of the interview was recorded via a MP3 recorder and completely transcribed for examination. Interviewing facilitated a lot in coming up with maximum essential data with reference to human perceptive that may have been otherwise difficult to uncover in secondary writings or other additional resources. Moreover, considering the interpretive case analysis, interviews present a researcher with the likelihood to “get admittance to the elucidations that the people hold regarding the procedures that have or are proceeding, and the beliefs and standpoints of themselves as well as other accomplices” (Walsham, 1995). Additionally, the interviews are fragmented into three categories i.e. Unstructured, Semi-structured and lastly, Structured. As, the aim of this study was to obtain answers for unchanged questions from group of individuals implicated in unlike tasks, all the interview type selected was structured. The structured interviews are forcefully characterized and tag along repetitive plan. But, the two interviews conducted with the recruits were to some degree semi-structured also. The interview questions were compactly outlined and revolved around a semi-recurring schedule. Apart from this, the semi-structured interviews aid in gathering highly emphasized and broader information highlighting the interviewee perspective instead of precise short one liner. Furthermore, passive examination can have been opted as an optional or an added paradigm along with interviews but in view of the small three months research time, only interviewing technique for collecting data was chosen.
After having discusses the research approach and methodology, the dissertation now moves ahead to detail the ethical concerns that have been taken into consideration during the study.
Ethical considerations
According to Blaxter et al. (1996), ethical concerns and issues which are concerned about the confidentiality and privacy form part of every research activity. Ethical issues for this piece of dissertation study involved making all the process and procedures transparent related to interviews along with ensuring that the interviews were well aware of the entire technique. Further, no interview question had a social, political or religious element linked to it and all recordings were made after the prior approval of the interviews. In addition to this, Maylor (2006) concept of acknowledging others work was taken into consideration. It was made sure that appropriate citation and references was done as per the set university plagiarism guidelines. Besides being politically and socially correct, the study encountered a number of challenges which are listed in the following section.
Challenges Encountered
It is truism that overall the research study managed to collect a significant amount of qualitative data but this success is associated with a number of challenges that appeared right from stage one itself. First of all, the biggest challenge occurred at the time of selection of the research topic. I had particular interest in researching something related to technology but since our programme focused more on strategy and management, I was not permitted to select a core technical topic. However, with bit of brainstorming and researching, I finally managed to decide a topic which was mix of technology and strategy. The topic was also quite liked by my supervisor but then the challenge occurred as I wanted this research to be a mix of primary and secondary. The organization which I had selected is Procter & Gamble and it was not a difficult task to gather secondary data as their existed vast amount of literature and previous research studies. However, the main challenge occurred at the time of collecting primary data as it required gaining access into the organization and interviewing staff and management. But, my supervisor really helped me at this stage and because of his valuable contacts and links; I was able to get access to the required resources. But this was not the end of difficulties. The next problem occurred at the time of interviewing. Most of the staff members were on leave or holidays as it was vacation time because of which the entire study had to wait. This situation was tackled by effective application of project planning and time scheduling technique (Refer Appendix C for Activity Plan).
As a concluding remark, it can be clearly stated that overall the study was a great success but could have been a lot better if the period of study was little longer than three months. After this, the section below provides an insight into the alternative research approach.
Alternative Approach
The entire discussion highlighted above unmistakably uncovered each and every phase of the case study approach which had been considered for this research. However, it is always a healthy deliberation to think about an alternative and evaluate the two before authenticating.
The ethnographic analysis is perceived to be the most wide-ranging research paradigm that permits the explorer to acquire “several- faced knowledge about the individuals, the corporation, and the all-embracing structure in which they perform their actions” (Myers, 1999). Besides, ethnography is considered to be somewhat connected with the case study but at the same time there do exist prominent peculiarities also. For exemplar, ethnographic research is directed towards on a larger part of time and includes advanced examiner association. According to Lewis (1985 as cited in Myers, 1999), ethnographers contain submerging their own selves in the lives of the distinct people they scrutinize”. Moreover, taking into consideration the diverse facets of ethnographic research, it was not considered appropriate for this particular research for the reason being the short time span of three months which is practically laughable to congregate and look over large amount of quality facts. Additionally, it is also not practicable to acquire huge amount of information simply by holding interviews. However, several other approaches such as impervious interpretations, questionnaires etc should be executed along with interviews. Although, as Myers (1999) stresses that as an ethnographer “scrutinizes what actually people are executing and what they proclaim they are executing”, he persistently espouses a superior and attentive acquaintance related to the research background. Hence, ethnographic research goes well with PhD assessment that is performed for more than the period of three to four years and investigates is capable enough of linking himself or herself entirely to pull together data from plentiful means. But inopportunely, like rest of the investigation paradigms, ethnography encompasses few downsides as well. It confines the ethnographer to explore only one association but in contrast in case study, a client is proficient of being involved and associated with more than one research site through the medium of interviews etc.
Discussion and Findings
Introduction
After having presented above the associated relevant literature as well as the key methodologies and research approaches, this chapter of the research study depicts the overall findings and analysis of the chosen case using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Framework, SCOT (Social Construction of Technology) Framework as well as ANT (Actor Network Theory) Framework.
Case Discussion and Analysis
Background of Procter and Gamble
To start with, Procter & Gamble is an American organization located in Cincinnati (Ohio), which produces an extensive variety of consumer products. The Procter & Gamble organization (P&G) is considered to be one of the biggest producers of consumer products. The chief manufacturer of household goods in the U. S., the company has business in more than 80 nations located throughout the globe and sells its about 300 brands in around 160 distinct nations. Moreover, about half of the organization’s profits are obtained from overseas operations. The portfolio of the company takes in number of products such as Ariel, Pantene, Actonel, Tide, Bounty, Charmin, Head & Shoulders, Wella , Olay, Pampers and Pringles. However, dedicated to continuing as the renowned producer in its marketplaces, the company is one amongst the most forceful vendors and is the biggest promoter globally. Additionally, a lot of modernizations that are nowadays widespread procedures in corporate America such as widespread marketplace investigation, the brand-supervision structure, and worker revenue-sharing plans were initially fabricated at Procter & Gamble.
Moving ahead, a family- managed soap and Candle Corporation of 1837 at present provides recruitment prospects to over 138,000 people located in more than 80 nations globally. The organization having 171 years of record is directed by continuous modernization. “We put in extra in modernization and promoting assistance as compared to rest of the consumer goods organizations” (Lafley, A. G., Chairman of the Board and chief Executive Officer, P&G). The planned objective of this particular company is to perk up sales intensification and by this means making sure long-standing accomplishment. And with the purpose to realize the above stated targets, it lays high emphasis on comprehending client’s desires, labelling and improvement. Having aim of establishing around $4 billion business during the period of one year, tagging along skunk tasks including internal R&D, acquirements and careful improvement proved to be inadequate. Furthermore, it’s correct to say that the discover-it-ourselves approach together with worldwide investigation provisions and appointing and getting hold of the unsurpassed ability of the globe went quite well till the year 2000 but carrying on elevated degrees of best line augmentation turned out to be a great challenge at present. For over the period of 170 years, Proctor &Gamble (P&G) company’s brands and products have affected and enhanced customers’ living standard. It is highly believed by the company that their people and products are their biggest possessions, and collectively, they are an incredible strength that could easily build up an impression that is of great importance (Huston & Sakkab, 2006).
In addition to this, the exceptional managerial arrangement provides the worldwide scale advantages of a worldwide organization and the domestic concentration to be pertinent for customers in somewhere around 180 nations where their products are put for sale. Their business configuration puts forward the outline that makes possible for them to utilize the advantages of a worldwide company with pace and effectiveness. Their comprehensive functions keep them connected with their neighbouring societies. And also their well-built supremacy procedures make sure that they carry out their tasks with unswervingly high principles and uprightness. The paragraph below will now explain the ‘Connect and Develop’ strategy of Procter & Gamble.
The Connect and Develop Strategy
Primarily, facilitating infrastructure fabricates and offers grounds for fresh business as well as application (Ciborra, 2000). It may possibly consist of induction of an online structure or innovative methods of utilizing the facts. The subsequent case study precisely outlines the way through which Procter & Gamble has constructed a business strategy infrastructure that looks for facts outside prior to putting in straightforwardly.
In order to struggle against the challenge, the company initiated a new strategy to modernization i.e. Connect and Develop paradigm in 2000 that concentrates on exploring superior concepts and facts outside and carrying them in so as to improve and get the most out of internal abilities. The business stratagem behind this particular paradigm was to influence improvement possessions of goods, individuals and assets present outwardly and using it to their, production, internal R&D labs, procuring and promoting abilities to generate superior and inexpensive goods sooner. This business approach lays emphasis on initially recognizing chief ten customer wants. This is carried out to ensure that goods gratify consumers and eventually result in amplified level of sales. This is tagged along by recognition of alike goods or applicable techniques already leading in the marketplace. Further, scrutinizing the way in which an expertise acquirement in one section may influence goods in other sections. The basis behind this tactic is undoubtedly networking. Apart from fixing to exposed networking organizations such as Ninesigma and InnoCentive, the Proctor & Gamble (P&G) company possess expertise industrialists and vendors located throughout the globe. They perform an important part by discovering the elucidation to P&G’s in-house setback in the exterior world. As a result, by constructing this type of infrastructure the company has achieved the preferred sustainability and stable top-line development and decrease in savings in know-how. “By switching to Connect and Develop paradigm the company’s R&D efficiency has gone up by around 60% and their modernization accomplishment rate has approximately doubled” (Huston, L. & Sakkab, N., 2000, p.3). The Procter & Gamble (P&G) highlights the manner in which adopting to new and unique ways of leveraging from technology can help formulate better business strategies as well as improve organizational profitability. The MNC has developed a complex socio-technical infrastructure to meet its business goals. Moving ahead, more light will be thrown in the Case Analysis section where P&G is studied using SCOT and ANT Theory.
The SWOT Analysis of Procter & Gamble
After having thrown light on the background of the selected organization, the following lines present SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of the Procter & Gamble based upon the data gathered from interviews and previous researches.
Strengths
To start with, there are a number of strengths associated with Procter and Gamble Co. (P&G) such as innovative administration, gross Margin accounts to around fifteen times the entire industry standard, the company is recognized as one amongst the most excellent marketers throughout the globe, it encompasses an expanded brand portfolio (i.e. it includes over 300 distinct brands) and it is compactly incorporated with the leading and prevalent vendors in the United States as well as cover the entire world. Other strengths include continuous product modernization and improvement, brilliant administration, allocation networks all over the globe, makes available a large variety of products in each and every group together with more than single make and lastly, keeps hold of powerful bargaining associations with vendors.
Weaknesses
One of the major weaknesses allied with the company is the fact that top brands these days are losing industry portion and staying at the back in online media existence & headship. Other weaknesses like unwillingness to produce private brand goods for its retail clients, time-consuming progression, intense ethnicity, considers product output only, spreading out for brands is quite restricted and incremented promotional expenditure to carry on healthy trade.
Opportunities
Apart from this, opportunities allied with the company include health and beauty products for men, amplifying ecological objectives for the year 2012, bringing into play online social networks, going green and manufacturing products that are eco-friendly. However, other opportunities like take advantage of online media, dissociating from brands which don't get along well with the organization’s long-standing objectives, up-and-coming markets, fresh acquirement prospects, selling straightforwardly to customers, intend for enhanced good experience and prospects for augmenting profit levels by enhancing output and efficiency.
Threats
Furthermore, several threats associated with the company comprises of alternate labels that are comparatively cheaper in cost, individual brand development, hold back in customer expenditure in the United States & throughout the world, chief challengers intensifying their product range by means of acquirements. Other threats like increment in the price of raw items, product rate as well as the currency exchange rate put an incredible stress on the business and lastly, Intensification of policies.
The figure below illustrates the SWOT analysis of Procter & Gamble in the form of a diagram.
Fig. 2 The SWOT Analysis of P&G
Case Findings
The section above presented the research findings as well as explaining Procter & Gamble’s unique approach i.e. Connect and Develop. The organization has formulated a very strong and invisible network that focuses on search of talent globally based upon changing consumer needs. The organizational strategically first explores the top needs of the consumers and then using technology such as internet, social media, network, email etc locates experts, individuals in different corners of the world who can help develop these products. By doing this, company not just cuts down the production cost as development is not done from scratch but also possesses best human resources, remain up-to-date as well as meet its business goals and objectives.
The following paragraphs will now explain the working of Procter & Gamble Co. in terms of SCOT (Social Construction of Technology) and ANT (Actor Network Theory) Framework.
Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)
As per the SCOT theory, there exist several different actors in the socio-technical network prevailing at Procter & Gamble. Technology such as internet, email, socio media, and digital media etc is dependent on employees and staff members of the organization who use it to fulfil their objectives. And in turn, technology gets embedded within the firm in accordance with the way it is shaped by the staff members. Further, staff depends on technology to meet their objective of searching talent all across the globe and then developing the product desired by the customers.
Actor Network Theory (ANT)
In terms of Actor Network Theory, P&G “Connect & Develop” business strategy can be perceived as a complex network composed of several human, non-human, technical as well as non-technical actors and stakeholders that constantly interact and communicate with each other to meet global objectives of the firm. By usage of science and technology and mixing it with the social characters of the firm, P&G achieves its objective of searching talent worldwide based upon the consumer needs and desires. The network is not just invisible but highly dependent and absence of even a single element leads to disturbance.
Conclusion
Key Findings and Recommendations
This research study has successfully managed to meet its objective and address the research questions i.e. To explore the carious approaches adopted by Procter & Gamble worldwide to explore the benefit of technology in business strategies and secondly, to understand the benefit of socio-technology linkage in better embedment of technology in the organizations and society.
The unique approach i.e. “Connect and Develop” existing at Procter & Gamble has been discussed and analysed and the way it connects the organization with the world outside forming a highly independent socio-technical network which work with technology such as internet, networking as base.
Limitations
Primarily, the research study encountered several obstacles ever since the setting down of the organizational intend till putting in order interviews. We will start with alliance project and then go to the next level i.e. arranging interviews. Taking into consideration the disposition of the theme, it was agreed to go for a managerial plan and perform analysis on the basis of primary and secondary data than just drawing presumption merely founded on secondary facts acquired from books and periodicals. In the company of my supervisor, I winded up opting for the way technology can help formulate better business strategies. Next, the job was to make a decision related to the best apt corporations for this study and where the utmost downsides happened. At first, it was an immense challenge to go for the proper organization such as is in retail, finance etc. However, I finally manage to decide upon Procter & Gamble. Moreover, the obstacles not just finished at this point of time, owing to the holiday period, a good number of the recruits and high level employees were out on holidays. My study was affected greatly as everything got postponed. Thus, the firm had very few workers functioning who were too engaged in the work and it happened to be truly hard for me to obtain their agreement for interviews. Nevertheless, my supervisor assisted me to great extent regarding this and even arranged some interview sessions for me with the intention to smooth out the entire process. The second issue encountered by me was chiefly because of inadequate admittance to academic information on the internet. In the starting, I couldn’t access each and every online periodical available on the web as they were available just for paid members. Further, this matter was solved early as I obtained right to use them via my friends account.
Last of all, the challenges faced by me were mainly short term and thus, got solved straight away. However, the research could have been executed in a much enhanced manner if the length of the overall venture would have been somewhat more than the time span of three months.
Future Research Options
Besides facing a number of challenges, this dissertation study has successfully managed to address the research objectives and explore the way Procter & Gamble has developed a socio-technical infrastructure using technology as part of its business strategies. As an extension to this study, in future research can be carried out to explore the way technology gets absorbed within an organization through the medium of IT Trainings. Additionally, a comparative study between the role of technology in academic versus non-academic institutions.
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Appendix
Appendix A: References
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Appendix B: Interview Questions
Interview with Staff members and Management at Procter & Gamble
- Could you please something about the background of your organization?
- What all products does P&G manufacture?
- Why does P&G just believe in manufacturing consumer beauty related products and not anything else?
- Do you believe in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
- Has P&G taken any CSR objective such as going eco-friendly, protection environment, saving paper etc?
- What all technology is used within the firm?
- What all mechanisms do you follow to make sure that the technology gets well absorbed within the firm?
- What do you mean by socio-technological network?
- How do you maintain socio-technical network?
- What all actors and stakeholders comprise of socio-technical network at P&G?
- What is Connect & Develop?
- What are its aim and objective?
- How do you use it to meet organizational objectives?
- Is there any other initiative besides Connect & Develop?
Appendix C: Activity Plan
