informational needs of organizations in an information society

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Management Information Systems

Informational Needs of Organizations in an Information Society:Competing with ISJerry FjermestadCopyright 1998-1999

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Informational Needs of OrganizationsIntroductionThe Information Society& Knowledge WorkDemands on Organizationsin an Informational SocietyInformational Responsesto the New Environment

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Informational Needs of OrganizationsCapabilities ofInformation SystemsDevelopment of Organizational ComputingThe Mission ofInformation SystemsA Model ofOrganizational MIS

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Introduction

Information technology is becoming ubiquitous (omnipresent), everywhere at the same time, affecting:

the way companies do businessthe way they growthe way they compete the way government agencies, etc provide servicesthe way the employees conduct their work

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The Information Society& Knowledge Work

Information Society:an advanced form of the industrial societya postindustrial societywhere most of the people in the economy handle information

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A. History Zwass, 1992 Figure 2.1 1957- the beginning of the information era the number of info workers passed the number of industrial workers.

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A. History 1960's- only 9 of the 27 computer were earning their keep1964- first word processor1970- first faxThe information sector of the economy grew from 17% in 1950 to 58% in 1980The industrial segment went from 65% to 27%

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B. The classic Infrastructure Business computing (Data processing): reported to the organization controller: applications- accounting, payroll, and billingTelecommunications: Mostly controlled by outside vendors low visibility of the technology, and low importance.

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B. The classic Infrastructure Office support: Mailrooms, typing pools, reproduction centers, records management. Generally, these functions were out of sight of the mainstream organizational functionalities (finance, marketing, etc.)General office ware: typewriters, answering machines, copiers were controlled by general budget.

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C. Pressure for Integration:1. spending had grown large that scattered management no longer satisfies basic corporate accountability principles2. Technological barriers between the various information tools were rapidly dissolving3. Many office technologies became computerized

Private branch exchanges (PBX's)photo copiersmultiple tasking of office tools

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C. Pressure for Integration:4. Networking which is eliminating barriers around traditional domains (bailiwicks).However, since the four main types of information services had a separate childhood it has been difficult to integrate

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D. What is Knowledge Work?Knowledge workers deal with information (abstractions) rather than concrete objectsKnowledge workers DO NOT produce anythingKnowledge workers DO NOT exert "physical" effortAre today's machine operators knowledge workers?Are MIS professional knowledge workers?

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Demands on Organizationsin an Informational Society

A. Demands of Continuing InnovationGlobal economiesOperational environment is turbulent & complexA highly dynamic information society requires constant innovation- products and servicesOrganizations change to adapt to these demandsMIS must FACILITATE change not stop it

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B. Changes in the environment- Information roleChanges in the economic environment causes business to reexamine their strategy: they must compete in order to be successful or survive.

The changing Market placeThe economic turbulence has altered the structures of many organizations. IT contributes to this:

information moves fasterQuality: As defined by the customer

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Environment: Consumer computing:Deregulation: Airlines, banking, telecommunicationsCrossing industry boundaries: Sears- retail, brokerage, mortgage, information (prodigy)Traditional customers switching: Big bank customer find other means for financing (Sears, the brokerage houses)Organizations by passing the local phone companies and going directly to long distance networks.

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From Huber 1984:Multi-Nationals:

Foreign Competition:Global Production:

New Product and service cycles are shorting:Increase in available knowledge

journals, corporate communications

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Growth of complexity: numerosity, diversity and interdependence

Numerosity: growing world population and industrial revolution (an interaction)Diversity is caused by specialization (people & organizations wanting to succeed)

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Interdependence: The revolution in the infrastructure-Transportation CommunicationAn organizations FOCUSED specialization

Increase Turbulence: caused by telecommunication speedsZ Figure 2.2

Huber (1984) suggests that in order for organizations to succeed they must be compatible with the environment. This was the way the Indian lived before the settlers of the 1700's

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Informational Responsesto the New Environment

Organizational design be based on the decision making paradigm: decision making is central to the organization

Organizational design for knowledge work in general and decision making in particularContinuous product and process innovations through information & information systemsConstant internal company renewal supported by information systems

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Explicit mechanisms for acquisition and targeted distribution of external informationProtection form information overload

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A. Organizational design for knowledge workSystems to support individuals and GROUPSSpecialists and distributed work/workersconsultants (internal & external) headquarters and field offices, etc.

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The Changing Work EnvironmentBusiness Teams:Anytime Anyplace information:Outsourcing:The Demise of the hierarchy: a vertical chain of command

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Attributes of a hierarchy employees at the bottom, with only enough training and feedback to perform one type of jobsupervisors allocate the work among these subordinatessupervisors perform training, do discipline, provide rewards Professionals and staff are supervised but have more responsibility and autonomyManagers and executives coordinate

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Problems with a hierarchyCannot respond quickly to changeA growing concern for human "capital:" Human resources are the true competitive edge, companies must learn how to treat their employeesLess Middle Management (The on going effort of the recession); the key is to install IT to fill the gapITNew self managed groups

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Problems with a hierarchy (con’t)The baby boom generation is now the out-placed generationA coming labor shortagefewer young are entering the job marketless talent to choose frombenefits: less discrimination based on sex, age, race poor and disadvantaged will be given training

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B. Product & Process InnovationsFederal Express & UPS are both in the shipping and INFORMATION businessIS helps companies to understand & control their processes and thus their products

Many factories have gone from a single large run to many smaller runs.

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C. Renewal- RE-ENGINEERINGAdaptability & flexibilityIS architecture must accommodate this responsiveness

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D. Acquiring and Distributing informationBoundary spanning activities: Two modelsContinuous and probingDaft & Weick Model

Intrusiveness: Active and PassiveAnalyzability:

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E. Protection from OverloadReduce cognitive overloadMagic number 7 + - 2 bitsElectronic filters to replace the Human filtersExpert systemsSystems designed for cognitive style

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E. Protection from Overload (con’t)Bembasat & Taylor Cognitive factors

Processing large amounts of data or complex data or both Improve by

deficiencies: corrected through training replace with another personlimitations: use decision aids- flowcharts, table, graphs, etc

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E. Protection from Overload (con’t)probabilistic events:provide a way for decision to judge the likelihood of the event better- examples of past decisions and results; what-if capabilities; Decompose the problemenvironmental complexity:decompositionmatch the decision maker with the environmentaggregate informationprovide flexibilityprovide help (people, or other resources)

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E. Protection from Overload (con’t)Cognitive style: The process by which individual process, organize and change information during decision makinginput ---> Process ----> Output

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E. Protection from Overload (con’t)information gatheringinformation evaluation

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E. Protection from Overload (con’t)Information gathering: relates to perceptual processes by which the mind organizes verbal & visual stimuli

perceptive- focus on relationships among data items and generalize about the environmentreceptive- focus on detail & attempt to derive specific knowledge about the environment from available data

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E. Protection from Overload (con’t)Information evaluation: the sequence by which the individual analyzes the data

systematic (analytic)- structured deductive approachintuitive (heuristic)- trial and error, use non-verbal cues- require a rich media

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Capabilities ofInformation Systems

1. Fast, accurate, with large storage capacity, rapid site communication2. Instantaneous access of/to information

Organizational memory Transparent to the user

3. Means of coordinationinternal: decision makers; project teamsexternal: buyers/ sellers; customers/suppliers

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4. Boundary spanning: IOS, EDI5. Decision Support: "THE ANSWER"

structured decisionsUnstructured decisions

6. Normalization of organizational practicestandardization of proceduresconnectivity

7. Differentiation of Products or Services

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8. Modeling: Forecasting and Planning systems9. Production Control

CIM, CNC, MRP II, Etc.

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Development of Organizational Computing

A. 1950's to 1970'sData processing EFFICIENCY

B. 1970's Time sharingThe birth of the "USER"EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS

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C. TodayMainframe on the deskLAN'sEFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS, SATISFACTION, USABILITY

Z Fig 3.5 to fig 3.8

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D. The Technology Environment1. Hardware:

In the 1960's the main concerns were: machine efficiency and tracking new technologyBatch processing was dominate 1975's processing power began to move out of the central site. The rise of the interdepartmental mini computer1980's the PC was bornTHUS a major tend was born: the movement of hardware and processing power to the users.

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D. The Technology Environment (con’t)2. Software:

1960's emphasis on transaction processing (highly structured) 1970's life cycle development methods and software engineering.1980's user involvement, prototyping1975's the software industry started to mature, thus purchasing software of the self became an option1970's the birth of Decision Support Systems (DSS) Semi-structured problem solving

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D. The Technology Environment (con’t)3. Data:

From file management to database management (1960's)1970's the data dictionary1980's distributed database management

4. Communication:1960's on-line time sharing systems1970's public and intra-company data networks1980's the concept of information technology

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The Mission ofInformation Systems

Paradigm shifts:Transaction Processing: in the early days the measure was: Paperwork factory such as

payroll, accounts payable, product shippedproductivity-percentages of up time,throughput (transactions per day)lines of code written per time period (day or week)

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MIS: Reports for management by exception, and summary"the right information at the right time"

Today: To improve the performance of people in organization through the use of information technology

Effectiveness: Information to the right person at the right time to make a (the) decision

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From Data Processing to MIS to Information Systems (IT) to ID

Efficiency Efficiency EfficiencyEffectiveness Effectiveness

SatisfactionUsability

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