Objective
To ensure that Information Systems (IS) support an organization's goals, IS strategy must align with:
1. Business Strategy
2. Organizational Strategy
The focus is on coordinating IS strategy with three core components of organizational strategy:
1. Organizational Design – decision rights, formal reporting relationships, informal networks.
2. Management Control Systems – planning, data, performance evaluation, incentives.
3. Organizational Culture – values and cultural context (local/national).
Organizational Variables
These variables influence how IS interacts with organizational design:
Organizational Design Variables
• Decision Rights: Who has the authority to make, approve, implement, and control decisions.
• Business Processes: Ordered tasks to achieve business goals.
• Formal Reporting Relationships: Structures for coordination among units.
• Informal Networks: Non-formal channels for communication and information flow.
Control Variables
• Data: Collected and stored information.
• Planning: Direction-setting processes.
• Performance Measurement & Evaluation: Metrics to assess and improve performance.
• Incentives: Rewards (monetary/non-monetary) to influence behavior.
Cultural Variables
• Values: Beliefs (explicit or implicit) that shape decisions and actions.
• Locus: Cultural span (local, national, regional).
Real-World Examples
• Diamond Technology Partners: Consultants use laptops for constant intranet connectivity, supporting fluid,
adaptable work.
• Mrs. Fields: IS automates baking/planning tasks, enabling staff to focus on sales.
Conclusion: IS is fundamental to business operations, enabling effective use of human, capital,
and material resources.
Information Age Organizations
Based on predictions by 3 Harvard professors in 1988 – confirmed by reality.
Key Characteristics
1. Organizational Structure
• Blending benefits of large and small scale.
• Flexible, dynamic structures.
• Centralized & decentralized controls coexist.
• Project- and process-oriented focus.
2. Human Resources
• Skilled, autonomous, transient workforce.
• Engaging environment.
• Shared, rotating management roles.
• Contribution-based compensation.
3. Management Processes
• Clear understanding of decision-making.
• Decoupled control and reporting.
• IS support creativity and preserve corporate knowledge.
IS and Organizational Design
• Organizations must be structured effectively to meet goals.
• IS helps facilitate communication and workflow.
• IS must be integrated with organizational structure:
o Formal Structures (e.g., decision rights, reporting lines)
o Informal Networks (e.g., social or interest-based relationships)
Organizational Structures
Four major types, each with distinct characteristics and IS needs (Figures 3.3 & 3.4):
1. Hierarchical
• Bureaucratic, multiple levels of management.
• Centralized decision-making.
• IS supports info flow through structured layers.
• Best for stable, certain environments.
2. Flat
• Centralized decision-making but fewer layers.
• Employees perform multiple roles; fast response to change.
• IS used to offload routine work and ensure communication.
• Best for unstable, uncertain environments.
3. Matrix
• Employees report to multiple managers (functional + project).
• Promotes integration across dimensions.
• IS helps share info and reduce complexity.
• Often fails due to overwhelming information demands.
4. Networked
• Emphasizes flexible, communication-based coordination.
• Uses IS to replace rigid hierarchy.
• Encourages creativity, cross-functional coordination.
• Best for unstable, uncertain environments.
T-Form Organizations
(Technology-based organizations)
• Extension of the networked structure.
• Leverage IT for:
o Electronic linking
o Automated workflows
o Self-service portals
o E-customer/supplier interaction
• Decentralized decision-making via IS.
IS and Management Control Systems
Controls = the second managerial lever (besides organizational design).
What is Management Control?
• Ensures alignment of plans, activities, evaluations, and rewards with business goals.
• IS transforms control mechanisms and how planning, monitoring, and rewards are conducted.
Roles of IS in Control
1. Data Collection: Real-time tracking of performance.
2. Evaluation: Comparing actual vs. planned performance.
3. Communication: Fast, efficient flow of critical info.
Activities in Management Control
• Monitoring: Track progress and quality.
• Evaluating: Compare to standards or history.
• Feedback: Provide performance results to responsible parties.
• Compensation: Determine pay based on performance.
• Rewarding: Offer bonuses, recognition for excellence.
IT’s Impact on Managerial Functions
• Monitor: New tracking systems and behavioral insights.
• Evaluate: Easier modeling and assessment.
• Feedback: Rapid, digital methods.
• Compensate/Reward: Support for team evaluations and complex compensation formulas.
• Control: IS is critical in industrial and service processes for collecting and moving information.
يعن أمل جديد وفرصة نبدأ من أول وجديد
يوم جديد ي
الل جاي
الل فات ونركز يف ي
ننىس ي
هتغي كل حاجة
ر الل
يمكن تكون دي البداية ي
وربنا دايما معانا
)(كتاب
ي بيبدل األحوال ويفتح لينا أبواب عمرها ما كانت عل البال
