COMP3115
Information Systems
Session 6: Information Systems Theory and Practice – Part II
Dr. Paul Walcott
Spring 2007/2008
http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/staff/eportfolios/paulwalcott/courses/comp3115/
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Session Objectives
Comprehend the characteristics of an
organisation
 Comprehend the societal and ethical
issues relating to Information Systems
 Compare and Contrast IS and
organisational systems

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Introduction

In the last session we looked at, among
other things:
 System

theory and concepts
For example the work system model
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical and Societal Issues
(O’Brien and Marakas, 2006)


Many ethical responsibilities emerge when
dealing with information technology (IT)
Questions such as the following might be asked:
 Is
IT being used in a way that is harmful, improper or
irresponsible to individuals or the society?
 What are the proper business uses of computers and
the Internet?
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical and Societal Issues
(O’Brien and Marakas, 2006)

The introduction of IT provides both
benefits and detrimental effects:
 For
example, an automated car
manufacturing plant, produces higher quality
cars, however workers lose they jobs as a
result
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
A business professional or
manager therefore needs
to minimise detriments
and maximise benefits
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations

Business Ethics
 There
are a number of ethical questions that
managers must answers.
 The some of the areas of controversy are:
Intellectual property rights
 Customer and employee privacy
 Security of company records
 Workplace safety

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations Cont’d

There are two theories of corporate
responsibility that should be considered:
 Stockholder
theory
 Social contract theory
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Stockholder theory states that
”managers are agents of the
stockholders, and their only ethical
responsibility is to increase the profits
of the business without violating the
law or engaging in fraudulent
practices.”
(O’Brien and Marakas, 2006)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations Cont’d

It is therefore the ethical responsibility of
the firm to ensure that it is managed in a
way that benefits the stakeholders
(including employees and suppliers)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Social contract theory states
that “companies have ethical
responsibilities to all members
of society, which allows
corporations to exist based on
social contracts.”
(O’Brien and Marakas, 2006)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations Cont’d

The social contract theory is based on
two conditions:
1.
The economic satisfaction of consumers and
employees must be enhanced “without
polluting the environment or depleting
natural resources, misusing political power,
or subjecting their employees to
dehumanizing working conditions (O’Brien
and Marakas, 2006).”
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations Cont’d
2.
Fraudulent practices must be avoided;
employees must be respected as human
beings; and practices may not be employed
which negatively impacts any group or
society.
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations Cont’d

Technology ethics needs to be considered when
using any form of IT
 For
example, employers of data entry clerks should
provide regular work breaks to avoid health issues:
hand injuries and CRT exposure

There are four guiding principles:
 Proportionality
 Informed consent
 Justice
 Minimised
risk
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations Cont’d

Proportionality
 The
benefits provided by the technology
should be greater than the risks


More importantly, if there is a less harmful
alternative then this should be selected
Informed consent
 The
risks should be understood and accepted
by affected individuals
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Foundations Cont’d

Justice
 Risks
should be shared by all who benefit; the
risks of those who do not benefit should not
significantly increase

Minimised risk
 Unnecessary
risks should be avoided
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Ethical Guidelines
Some companies employ ethical
guidelines from professional bodies
 One such set of guidelines are the ATTP
Standards of Professional Conduct
(O’Brien and Marakas, 2006, pp. 438)

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Other Social, Legal, Ethical and
Economic Implications

Patterson (2005) provides a useful
discussion of these implications
 See
pp.109-133. Required reading.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/resources/images
/usinginformationint2h_tcm4-221261.pdf

Included in this discussion are:
 Social
implications such as the ease of
access of Information systems and privacy
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Other Social, Legal, Ethical and
Economic Implications Cont’d
 Legal
implications
Data Protection Act
 Computer Misuse Act, and so on.


Note some of these Acts have been enacted in Barbados
http://www.commerce.gov.bb/Legislation/default.asp
 Economic

implications
Jobs – training costs, and so on.
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
In Session 1, we discussed various types
of information systems
 We will be expanding that discussion in
this session

 This
discussion with be based on Section 2 of
Patterson (2005)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d

The different types of information systems fall
within the following organisation levels:
Organisational level Users of IS
Type of IS
Strategic
CEOs and Directors
Executive
Tactical
Middle management
- Decision Support
Systems
- Management IS
Operational
Low level
management and
workers
Data Processing
Systems
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Data Processing Systems (DPS)
 These systems are also refered to as
transaction processing systems because
they deal with daily transactions
 These systems were first developed in the
1940s and 1950s
 Replaced
manual clerical procedures
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Data Processing Systems (DPS)
 The IT requirements of these systems can
be as simple as a desktop computer
 Or
may be a mini or mainframe computer with
dumb terminals
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Management Information Systems (MIS)
 A MIS converts internal and external data into
information which is transmitted to and used by
managers who make decisions or create plans
 “MIS produce reports for managers interested in
historic trends on a weekly, monthly or yearly
basis (Patterson, 2005).”
 The
information in these reports provide answers to
routine questions, for example week sales reports
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Management Information Systems (MIS)
 These systems do not employ complicated
mathematical models, rather summaries
and comparisons
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Decision Support Systems (DSS)
 These systems “provide information and
models in a form to help tactical and
strategic decision making (Patterson,
2005).”
 DSS
are useful for adhoc decision making
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Decision Support Systems (DSS)
 These systems integrate company data;
business rules, analytical tools and
models; and a simple user interface
 Managers use these systems to make a
decision based on a set of alternatives
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Executive Information Systems (EIS)
 Senior managers use these systems to make
strategic and tactical decisions
 These
systems track, filter and compress data; and
analyse and compare information to determine trends
 Use graphic visualisations to help interpret the data

EIS utilise data from:
 External
events (for example new tax laws)
 Internal events, for example MIS and DSS systems
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Expert Systems
 Utilise knowledge of human experts to
draw inferences
 It comprises of a knowledge base,
inference engine and a user interface
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Expert Systems
 The knowledge base stores facts, rules and
information
 The inference engine “interprets the rules and
facts using backwards and forward chaining to
find solutions to user queries.”
 The user interface allows users to enter
knowledge and query the system
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
IS and Organisational Systems
Cont’d
Expert Systems
 These systems are used in organisations
to capture knowledge
 Provide
expertise at any time (since humans
are not always available)
 Generate solutions to complicated problems
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Organisational Management
Systems Concepts

Four useful concepts:
 Speed
of processing computers; processor and
storage device speed
 Accuracy. How accurate is the information
 Volume. The number transactions the system can
handle
 Efficiency is a combination of speed, accuracy and
volume of data processed

number of accurate transactions per minute
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
“The interaction between information technology
and organizations is very complex and is
influenced by a great many mediating factors,
including the organization’s structure, standard
operating procedures, politics, culture,
surrounding environment and management
decisions.”
(Laudon and Laudon, 2005)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d
Before implementing an IS in an
organisation, the nature of the
organisation must be understood
 So what is an organisation?

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
“An organisation is a stable,
formal social structure that
takes resources from the
environment and processes
them to produce outputs.”
(Laudon and Laudon, 2005)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

In an organisation:
 Capital
and labour are provided by the
environment
 The organisation produces products and
services
 The products and services are consumed by
the environment in exchange for more inputs
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

Since an organisation is a legal entity it is
more stable than a group of people formed
for a given purpose
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
The behavioural definition of an
organisation is “a collection of rights,
privileges, obligations and
responsibilities that are delicately
balanced over a period of time through
conflict and conflict resolution.”
(Laudon and Laudon, 2005)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

People in organisations therefore:
 Develop
ways of working
 Determine how work will be done
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

These definitions of organisations imply
that the introduction of a new information
system is not merely a technical exercise
 Rather,
it will affect the rights, privileges,
obligations and responsibilities of individuals

This undoubtedly will affect the balance of the
organisation
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

According to Weber (cited in Laudon and
Laudon, 2005), orgainsations are
bureaucratic in nature
 Most
efficient form of an organsation
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

Organisations therefore typically have the
following structure:
 Clear
division of labour and specialisations
 Employees are organised in a hierarchy
where everyone reports to someone else
 A set of rules (standard operating procedures)
governs all actions
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d



Decision making therefore should be impartial
since they are based on a set of predefined
rules
Employees are hired based on their skills and
competencies rather than based on who they
know
The efficiency of an organisation is maximised
 Maximising
output using limited input
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

Standard operating procedures (SOP),
which are developed over time, describe:
 Organisation
rules, practices and procedures
 SOP result from operational efficiency
Business processes are developed from
SOP
 Changing SOP is difficult and may require
production to be stopped temporarily

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

Two additional factors that affect the
introduction of information systems that
change goals, people, procedures and
productivity are:
 Organisational
politics
 Organisational culture
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d
Organisational Politics
 People
in organisations are different
 These difference often “result in political
struggle, competition, and conflict within every
organisation (Laudon and Laudon, 2005).”
 This political opposition may prevent an IS
from being introduced, or being used
effectively
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d
Organisational Cultural
 “…
is this set of fundamental assumptions about what
products the organization should produce, how it
should produce them, where, and for whom (Laudon
and Laudon, 2005).”
 This is a unifying force
 Promotes understanding and agreement
 Resistance will result if an IS threatens to change the
culture
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

Some of the unique features of an
organisation include:
 The

type of organisation
e.g entrepreneurial versus professional
bureaucracy (knowledge-based organisation;
goods & services depend on expertise and
knowledge of professionals; dominated by
department heads)

A law firm of school system is an example
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

Unique features of an organisation include:
 Environment

resources are drawn and product and services are sold in
this environment; organisations must adapt to their
environment quickly
 Goals
 Leadership
 Technology
used
 Business processes
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d
Organisations must make decisions about
the “technical and organisational
configuration of systems (Laudon and
Laudon, 2005).”
 Also, they must decide who will build and
maintain the IS

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
“The formal organizational unit or
function responsible for technology
services is called the information
systems department;” and is
responsible for the hardware,
software, networks and data of the
organisation.
(Laudon and Laudon, 2005)
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

The Information systems department
comprises of:
 Programmers
 Systems
analysts
 IS managers
 External specialist, e.g. security

The information systems department may
be headed by the chief information officer
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Role of IT and People Using IS
Cont’d

The function of each of these roles should
be very familiar to the reader
 since
these roles were discussed at length in
the software engineering course
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
Conclusion

In this session:
 Ethical
theories, responsibilities and
guidelines were discussed
 Different types of information systems
described, and
 The structure of an organisation analysed
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus
References
Laudon, Kenneth, C., Jane, P. Laudon. 2005. Essentials of Management
Information Systems: Management the Digital Firm. 6th Edition. Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall
O’Brien, James, A., George, M., Marakas. 2006. Management Information
Systems. 7th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Patterson, Alan. 2005. Information Systems: Using Information. Learning +
Teaching Scotland. Available online at
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/resources/images/usinginformationint2h_tcm4221261.pdf
© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill Campus