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Over the last sixty years of business activity, there has been new ways and means of
conducting business through something we call technology. Technology is the
advancement and use of electronic devices and other high-tech equipment to produce and
progress knowledge into the future. Advancements in technology have affected
management leadership in many ways over the last sixty years. New technology has
altered leaders consciousness, language, and the way they view their organization.
Technological advancements have made things easier for those in management leadership
roles. But as with anything, there are positive and negative aspects of technology on
leadership. Some of the positive aspects of technology are: the availability and use of
wireless networking, collaboration tools, digital video, handheld devices, and
videoconferencing. On the other hand, the negative aspects of technology are: it offers less
privacy, it allows for less interaction with others, and it runs a high risk of contact with
viruses.
On the more positive side, wireless networking allows leaders to share resources with their
team operating by means of wireless media, such as microwaves, cellular technology, and
radio frequencies. Wireless networking is paving the way for technology integration
around the world. The use of collaboration tools allows ongoing conversations among
leaders, their subordinates, board members, and community members. Professional
development is one area where collaboration can have an enormous impact on
management leadership. When leaders can casually share new approaches and practices
with each other through a technology connection to their workplace, both leaders and their
team will benefit. One way of doing this is to create an Internet mailing list where they can
share questions, problems, solutions, successful techniques, and less successful techniques.
The Internet is enabling digital video to achieve professional-quality and two-way
interaction. This will be one of the rare cases where management leadership will be
leading a technological shift in society as a whole. Hand-held devices are high-tech
gadgets, now more powerful than early Windows or Macintosh machines. Handheld
devices offer more versatility than full-size computers and are much more portable than
the alternative personal device, the laptop. For leaders especially, this take-along
advantage lets them develop a feeling of ownership, as the device is ever-present and ready
to take on the current task. In addition, many of the newest handheld models can be
wirelessly networked, which means leaders can send and receive e-mail and surf the Web
without having to "synch up" to a computer. Video-conferencing is a three-dimensional,
