Go Boldly Where No University Has Gone Before: The Unintended Impact of Technology

Abstract

Institutions of higher education have begun to adopt a broad range of technologies in their quest for administrative improvement. From large-scale ERP through specialty applications to e-business, the introduction of technology has been accompanied by expectations about presumed efficiencies and service enhancements. In fact, technology has forced higher education to confront many of its operating principles: the basic units of the institution, its distinctiveness from other industries, contracts with employees, governance structures, even the balance of power within the institution. Like many other technological innovations in history -- the stirrup, railroads, and radio -- administrative technologies are having unexpected consequences that will transform educational institutions.