INFO3 - Topic 2 - Information and Systems

Information needs in organisations
1. Different organisations have different information needs
  1. commercial organisations:
    1. good or services bought and sold to make a profit. Examples of commercial companies incluse retailers, wholesalers, banks, insurance companies etc.
    2. Mainly driven by the need to make profit
  2. Industrial organisations:
    1. to manufacture products products or process raw materials or be involved in construction. The main thing here is that theyall produce a product or material that can be sold to make a profit
    2. examples of industrial companies are car manufacturers, house builders, chemical manuifacturers and quarries
  3. Public service organisations:
    1. To provide goods and services from public funds. Producing a profit is not an aim of these companies although in some cases taxes are colected which are then used for purposes such as building roads, schools, hospitals etc.
    2. examples of these organisations are HMRC, hospitals, schools, police service, armed forces, etc.
2. The scale of organisations
  1. small
    1. generally informal structures
    2. Usually confined to a single site
    3. between 1-50 employeed
  2. medium
    1. between 50-500 employees
    2. Uses informal structure
    3. Uses WANs and LANs
  3. large
    1. 500 or more employees
    2. can involve lots of seperate companies/organisations
    3. examples include banks, car manufacturers, large retail retail multiples, etc
  4. Nature and management style
    1. autocratic
      1. clear authority, all decisions are made by senior managers, very little decision making is made lower down + workers are always told what to do => they do not work on their own initiative. information tends to flow from the top of the company downwards BUT staff are demotivated as they don't feel involved in the organisation
    2. paternalistic
      1. senior managers have the authority but decisions tend to be made in the employees interests rather than the businesses interests. Managementtend to explain their decisions to emplyees
    3. democratic
      1. employees take part in the decision making process so that nobody can complain if the decisions are bad. This is helpful as different people in the organisationf will see the project from a different perspective BUT this means the process will be slowed down
    4. laissez-faire
      1. least formal and staff are expected to manage their own areas, ALL staff are at the same level, this is good for partnership organisations such as solicitors and lawyers as there is very little communication between staff
The information needs of different levels of tasks
1. strategic
  1. strategic tasks are completed by staff at the top of the company or organisation (ie managers and chief executives). these tasks would include making decision on the overall direction of the company
  2. examples of strategic tasks would be: decisions regarding expansion into new markets, decisions about the introduction of new products and services
2. tactical
  1. completed by managers and they look at how to achieve the objectives that the directors and chief executives set. they also make decisions using operational information (for example, if a product is not seeling well they need to decide what to do with it
3. operational tasks
  1. routine day to day tasks that keep the business functioning. The majority of operational tasks deal with the transactions that take place when running an organisation
  2. for example, operational tasks would include, paying wages, ordering stock, paying for stock etc.

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INFO3 - Topic 2 - Information and Systems

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	Created by kyracairns96 over 10 years ago