23. Translation of technology

Information technology is often promoted as the solution to most of the information and communication problems that organisations face today. IT is marketed as a technology with a competitive advantage in terms of increasing productivity and communication efficiency, and in facilitating responsiveness. Volkow claims that these assertions are myths, and that use of IT is not enough to improve performance. She argues that the wider national context as well as the specific organisational culture and management hierarchy will have a significant impact on information and communication processes. For example, if development agencies are to benefit from the use of technology in communication, they have to consider to what extent their structures and practices are geared towards handling information itself – quite apart form which technology is used. Similarly, McMaster et al point out that different technological tools will not be perceived and used in the same way across all cultural contexts. Rather, technology has to be ‘translated’ from one context to another in order to take root in a new setting. This would imply that communication will be most successful where time and effort is put into understanding information systems and, secondly, technology is translated and used in an appropriate manner.

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