MIS Chapter 4 – Information Systems management & StrFullscreen Mode
ategy
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Chapter Four: Information Systems Management & Strategy
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter the learner shall be able to;
1. Identify and describe important features of organizations that managers need to know about in order to build and use information systems successfully.
2. Evaluate the impact of information systems on organizations.
3. Assess how information systems support the activities of managers in organizations.
4. Analyze how information systems support various business strategies for competitive advantage.
5. Assess the challenges posed by strategic information systems and management solutions.
4.1. Organizations and Information Systems
Information systems and organizations influences each other. IS are built by managers to serve the interests of the business firm.
The interaction between IT and organization is complex and is influenced by many mediating factors including the organization’s structure, business processes politics, culture, surrounding environment and management decisions
4.2 What Is an Organization?
An organization is a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. This technical definition focuses on three elements of an organization. Capital and labor are primary production factors provided by the environment. The organization (the firm) transforms these inputs into products ” and services in a production function.
An organization is more stable than an informal group (such as a group of friends that meets every Friday for lunch) in terms of longevity and routineness. Organizations are formal legal entities with internal rules and procedures, which must abide by laws. Organizations are also social structures because they are a collection of social elements,
much as a machine has a structure a particular arrangement of valves, cams, shafts, and other parts.
This definition of organizations is powerful and simple, but it is not very descriptive or even predictive of real-world organizations. A more realistic behavioral definition of an, organization is that it is a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution. In this behavioral view of the firm, people who work in organizations develop customary ways of working; they gain attachments to existing relationships; and they make arrangements with subordinates and superiors about how work will be done, the amount of work that will be done, and under what conditions work will be done.
4.3 Common Features of Organizations
All modern organizations have certain characteristics;
- They are bureaucracies with clear-cut divisions of labour and specialization.
- They arrange specialists in a hierarchy of authority in which everyone is accountable to someone and authority is limited to specific actions governed by abstract rules or procedures.
- Rules and procedures create a system of impartial and universal decision making.
- Organizations try to hire and promote employees on the basis of technical qualifications and professionalism.
- Organizations are devoted to the principle of efficiency; maximizing output using limited inputs.
- Others include; business processes organizational culture organizational politics, surrounding environments structure, goals, constituencies and leadership styles.
