Technology and Communication

Technology and Communication

Debra Payton

Indiana Wesleyan University

MGT 518 MSM 194

Bill Burton

02/09/06

Technology and Communication

Communication technology must be used in some form within today's organizations. Companies can no longer function effectively without the use of some type of communication technology. From e-mail, intranet, internet, teleconferencing, cell phones, fax machines, and voice mail, organizations have overcome some of the limits with face-to-face communication. (Eisenberg, Goodall, 2004) In the hospital setting, many forms of communication technology are used. Doctors will fax patient orders to the various departments and medical reports will be faxed to physicians upon completion. Many of the phones within the hospital have voice mail so messages can be left either internally or from outside the organization. Cameron has its own intranet which includes e-mail and separate drives on the network for personal use. The majority of the computers also have internet access which is monitored by Web Sense. Teleconferencing is a form of communication the laboratory is beginning to utilize. It has been used for continuing education and to help answer questions regarding the implementation of the Laboratory Information System.

The most recent addition of communication technology at Cameron Hospital is the use of cell phones among supervisors and departments. I was fascinated with the history of cellular phones. They have been around much longer than I was aware of. The basic concept of cellular phones began in 1947, when researchers looked at crude mobile phones and realized that by using small cells with frequency reuse they could increase the traffic capacity of mobile phones substantially. In 1947, AT&T proposed that the FCC allocate a large number of radio-spectrum frequencies so that widespread mobile telephone service would become feasible and AT&T would have an incentive to research the new technology. The FCC decided to limit the amount of frequencies available in 1947, the limits made only twenty-three phone conversations possible simultaneously in the same service area. The FCC reconsidered its position in 1968, stating "if the technology to build a better mobile service works, we will increase the frequencies allocation, freeing the airwaves for more mobile phones." AT&T and Bell Labs proposed a cellular system to the FCC of many small, low-powered, broadcast towers, each covering a 'cell' a few miles in radius and collectively covering a larger area. Each tower would use only a few of the total frequencies allocated to the system. As the phones traveled across the area, calls would be passed from tower to tower. (Bellis, 2006)

In today's society, time and timekeeping are well-established methods for coordinating social interaction, but we have also started to use the mobile telephone in this context. That is, the mobile telephone has started to change the ways in which we organize and coordinate our everyday lives. As the cell phone becomes ubiquitous, it competes with and it supplements time-based social coordination. In essence, we begin to move away from the parallel interpretation of a common metering system, i.e., time, and replace that with the possibility for direct contact between those who are coordinating their interactions. Instead of relying on a mediating system, cell phones allow for direct contact that is in many cases more interactive and more flexible than time-based coordination. I do not believe the cell phone will replace timekeeping in all situations. However, in the case of small-group interactions, the mobile telephone has made serious impact in the hegemony of time-based coordination. (Ling, 2004)

Cell phones have introduced the ability to call quickly or to "text" to others and change plans when new exigencies arise, using a type of micro-coordination. Thus, at a very basic functional level, mobile telephony allows for a tighter micro-coordination of our social interaction. Many studies have shown that traditional landline telephony is used primarily to carry out instrumental activities, such as coordination. In a macro-analysis of studies done in France, Germany, Japan, Korea,