People as Technology

Chapter 3 introduces the concept of people as technology and describes technology development and people development within organizations. The relative value of people and technology is situational. Thus, competitive advantage and value are created from employee and technology development and the appropriate interaction of employee and technology within the organization. This chapter explores how these development initiatives may or may not relate to one another. The purpose of this chapter is to (1) examine some challenges of management to recognize similarities and differences between people and technology development, and (2) to leverage similarities and differences to create strategic advantage for the organization.