Information technology and changes in organizational interfaces

The pervasive influence of information technology (IT) is making the patterns of global competition shift to much more nonlinear dynamics. Under such situation, firms in developing countries (LDCs) face the greater challenge of change, especially the organization transformation. It is said that in this fast changing world, it seems more difficult for LDCs to keep pace with the twin challenges of vigorous global competition and rapid technological change (Hill, 1992). However, it is also a great chance for LDCs to catch up with leading countries for IT is causing a paradigm shift not only in LDCs but also DCs (Wu, 1995). When IT changes in intra-firm´s organizational structure and the information processing between R&D, manufacturing and marketing, it raises important issues for LDC firms to succeed by improving their functional interfaces to make full use of IT. The core competency of organizations will be increasingly founded on the ability to learn, especially for LDCs. This implies that many organizations need to redefine their fundamental purpose and transform from thinking about new products independently, to thinking about the functional interfacing. It is implied that interfacing functional knowledge could effectively help firms to gain core competence in the changing marketplace