Chapter 9 Managers and Their Information Needs

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Chapter 9Managers and TheirInformation Needs
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The Organizational Pyramid

• Many organizations follow pyramid model
• CEO at top
• Small group of senior managers
• Many more lower-level managers
• Clerical and Shop Floor Workers
• No management-level decisions required
• Operational Management
• Comply with general policies
• handed down

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The Organizational Pyramid

• Tactical Management
• Wide-ranging decisions within general directions
  handed down how to do it decisions
• Strategic Management
• Decisions affect entire or large parts of the
  organization what to do decisions

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Characteristics of Information at Different
Managerial Levels

• Data Range
• Amount of data from which information is
  extracted
• Time Span
• How long a period the data covers
• Level of Detail
• Degree to which information is specific

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• Source Internal vs. External
• Internal data collected within the organization
• External data collected from outside sources
• Media, newsletters, government agencies, Internet

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• Structured and Unstructured Data
• Structured data numbers and facts easily stored
  and retrieved
• Unstructured data drawn from meetings,
  conversations, documents, presentations, etc.
• Valuable in managerial decision making

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The Web The Great Equalizer

• Outside information now easier to get
• More free information
• Information available in easy-to-manipulate
  format

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The Nature of Managerial Work

• Planning
• Planning at different levels
• Long-term mission and vision
• Strategic goals
• Tactical objectives
• Most important planning
• activities
• Scheduling
• Budgeting
• Resource allocation

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The Nature of Managerial Work
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The Nature of Managerial Work

• Control
• Managers control activities by comparing plans to
  results.

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The Nature of Managerial Work

• Decision Making
• Both planning and control call for decision
  making
• The higher the level of management
• The less routine the managers activities
• The more decision-making involved

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The Nature of Managerial Work

• Management by Exception
• Managers review only exceptions from expected
  results that are of a certain size or type to
  save time.

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The Nature of Managerial Work

• Leadership
• Managers expected to lead, which requires
• Having a vision and creating confidence in others
• Encouraging and inspiring subordinates
• Initiating activities to make work efficient and
  effective
• Creating new techniques to achieve corporate
  goals
• Presenting a role model for desired behavior
• Taking responsibility for undesired consequences
• Delegating authority

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Organizational Structure

• IT Flattens the Organization
• Eliminates middle managers

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Organizational Structure

• The Matrix Structure
• People report to different supervisors, depending
  on project, product, or location of work
• IT supports matrix structure
• Easier access to cross-functional information

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Characteristics of Effective Information

• Tabular and Graphical Representation
• Certain information better
• presented graphically
• Trends as lines
• Distributions as pie charts
• Performance comparisons
• as bar charts
• Many people prefer tabular
• data for complex problem solving

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Managers and Their Information Systems
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Managers and Their Information Systems

• Transaction-Processing Systems (TPS)
• Capture and process raw materials for information
• Interfaced with applications to provide
  up-to-date information
• Clerical workers use TPS for routine
  responsibilities
• Operation managers use TPS
• for ad-hoc reports

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Managers and Their Information Systems

• Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Expert Systems
  (ES)
• DSS and ES support more complex and nonroutine
  decision-making and problem-solving activities
• Used by middle managers
• as well as senior managers

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Managers and Their Information Systems

• Executive Information Systems (EIS)
• Provide timely, concise information about
  organization to top managers
• Provide internal as well as external information
• Economic indices
• Stock and commodity prices
• Industry trends