Two Black Ships to Open Japan : Impacts on Individuals and Organizations

抄録

Two black ships are here to open Japan. They are the Cloud Computing (CC) and the Crowd Sourcing (CS). The CC&CS will drastically change the way organizations conduct business and the way people work. In this paper, opportunities and threats associated with the CC&CS are discussed. Internal organizational resources have been considered to be assets and the source of organizational power. However, with the diffusion of the CC&CS, many internal organizational resources will become liabilities and costs which will further reduce the flexibility of organizations. A modern business environment is characterized by the fast-moving economy and the diversified preference of customers. Organizations without flexibility will have difficult time surviving in such environment. On the other hand, small-medium-sized corporations with little internal organizational resources can take advantages of the CC&CS and will be able to compete with large organizations. As for individual workers, working for a large organization is no longer the guarantee of lifetime employment. Also the wage rate will be determined by the CS market, not by employers. In the age of CC&CS, therefore, both organizations and individuals will be required to compete by their market values, not by vested rights and brand names.