Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy
* Identify and describe important features of organizations that managers need to know about in order to build and use information systems successfully. * Evaluate the impact of information systems on organizations. * Demonstrate how Porter’s competitive forces model and the value chain model help businesses use information systems for competitive advantage. * Demonstrate how information systems help businesses use synergies, core competencies, and network-based strategies to achieve competitive advantage. * Assess the challenges posed by strategic information systems and management solutions Will the New US Airways Be Able to Fly?
* Problem: Intense competition and environmental changes. * Solutions: Revising business processes and integrating them with information systems and culture could increase sales and reduce costs. * Selecting appropriate systems and technology eliminates redundant systems. * Demonstrates IT’s role in supporting improved business processes. * Illustrates the benefits of integrating information systems in the face of interdependence of environment, culture, process, strategy, and systems. Organizations and Information Systems
* Information technology and organizations influence one another * Complex relationship influenced by organization’s structure, business processes, politics, culture, environment, and management decisions The Two-Way Relationship between Organizations and Information Technology This complex two-way relationship is mediated by many factors, not the least of which are the decisions made—or not made—by managers. Other factors mediating the relationship include the organizational culture, structure, politics, business processes, and environment.
* What is an organization?
* Technical definition:
* Stable, formal social structure that takes resources from environment and processes to produce outputs. * A formal legal entity with internal rules and procedures, as well as a social structure * Behavioral definition:
* A collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution The Technical Microeconomic Definition of the Organization
In the microeconomic definition of organizations, capital and labor (the primary production factors provided by the environment) are transformed by the firm through the production process into products and services (outputs to the environment). The products and services are consumed by the environment, which supplies additional capital and labor as inputs in the feedback loop.
The Behavioral View of Organizations
The behavioral view of organizations emphasizes group relationships, values, and structures.
* Features of organizations
* All modern organizations share some characteristics, such as: * Use of hierarchical structure
* Accountability, authority in system of impartial decision-making * Adherence to principle of efficiency
* Other features include: Routines and business processes and organizational politics, culture, environments and structures * Routines and business processes
* Routines (standard operating procedures)
* Precise rules, procedures, and practices developed to cope with virtually all expected situations * Business processes: Collections of routines
* Business firm: Collection of business processes
Routines, Business Processes, and Firms
All organizations are composed of individual routines and behaviors, a collection of which make up a business process. A collection of business processes make up the business firm. New information system applications require that individual routines and business processes change to achieve high levels...