IS5600 Seminar 1

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IS5600 - Seminar 1

• Global Information Systems

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Before we get to the IS, what is Global and
Globalisation?

• What is the difference between global,
  international, multinational, transnational,
• How global is global?
• Is globalisation really globalisation?
• Can you treat the world as a single
  entity/market?
• Will China conform to the globalisation thesis?
• What about global systems?
• Does this make sense?
• What is your experience?

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Systems

• All organisations operate through systems.
• There are systems for
• Designing products, ordering supplies, tracking
  inventory, manufacturing, finding and looking
  after customers, selling goods, hiring and paying
  employees, creating information for management,
  etc.
• These systems integrate different parts of the
  organisation, locally and globally.

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So
A Information System (IS) is (1974)

• an integrated, user/machine system
• for providing information
• to support
• operations,
• management, and
• decision-making functions
• in an organisation.

(Gordon Davis - 1974)
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Information System Components

• Hardware
• Software
• Communications
• Databases
• Decision models
• Procedures
• Management
• People

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What are Global Information Systems?

• Systems used by single organisations across two
  or more nations?
• Systems used individually by many different
  organisations in many nations around the world?
• What makes Global Information Systems so special,
  important and problematic?

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A Business Perspective of GIS

• A global information system is
• an organisational and management solution,
• based on information technology,
• ... to a challenge posed by the environment
• in an international/global context

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Alternatively

• Globalisation of trade, the emergence of
  information economies, and the growth of the
  Internet have recast the international role of
  IS in business and management.
• The Internet is becoming the foundation for new
  ways of doing business and distributing knowledge
  around the world.
• Suppliers, customers, and intermediaries are
  globally interconnected and interdependent.

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So, what issues are associated with Global
Information Systems?

• Intended functionality of the systems
• Development of the systems
• Strategic Management of the systems
• Cultural issues associated with systems use, or
  embedded in those systems
• E-Commerce
• Virtual Organisations

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Examples of GIS in Use

• Managing accounting information across the world
  HSBC.
• Live in HK, but work anywhere with a boss in
  Shanghai and colleagues around the world whom
  you never meet.
• Tracking FedEx packages.
• Amazon.coms reinvention of the new book industry
• Abebooks.coms reinvention of the 2nd hand book
  industry

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How should IS5600 be different from other (M)IS
courses?

• Where is the global focus?
• What are your global expectations?
• How global is Hong Kong?
• How global is anywhere?
• How global is anyone?
• How global is culture?
• Is global the wrong word to use?

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The Global Flavour

• Studying IS in different contexts
• Analyzing the opportunities for IS with some
  cultural and contextual sensitivity
• Identifying lessons learned in one context that
  may be transferable to other contexts
• This does not only mean US lessons for everyone
  else. Quite the opposite.
• Sharing your own experience of Global IS
• I assume that you have some, otherwise you
  wouldnt be here!

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Key Components of IS5600

• Internet, Web technologies E-commerce
• These are at least superficially global
• Culture
• This varies considerably around the world
• It should influence GIS use
• Strategic management issues
• Including BPR, BSC
• Application areas ESS, GSS, ERP

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IS5600 - Activities

• 3-hour Seminars (not Lectures)
• Background material to read in advance, to be
  referred to as we go along
• Hands-on, minds-on discussion
• Case studies to analyse - and write
• Experiences to recount, share and learn from
• Facilitated knowledge seeking

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Assessment

• 50 - coursework
• An individual case write up based on your own
  Global IS experiences (30)
• 3000-word essay
• Continuous assessment of class contributions
  (20)
• 50 - exam
• Application integration of skills from seminar
  materials, our discussions and your own practical
  experience

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Reading...

• There are no specific GIS textbooks
• IS5600 is a rather unusual course
• So, Ill draw material from a variety of sources
• This book is not bad as they go
• Sprague

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Course Outline

• Week 1 Introduction
• Week 2 E-Commerce Global Perspectives
• Week 3 E-Commerce The Chinese Perspective
• Week 4 Extending the Enterprise ERP SCM
• Week 5 IT Based Organisational Transformation
• Week 6 Public Holiday
• Week 7 - Virtual Teams, Work Organisations

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Course Outline

• Week 8 IS Strategic Planning the Balanced
  Scorecard
• Week 9 Decision Support for Management
• DSS,ESS, KM, Data Mining
• Week 10 Global Systems Development
• Week 11 - Guest Speaker
• Week 12 Ethical, Social Legal Issues
• Week 13 Revision

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Seminar Materials

• Seminar Notes are available on the web at
• http//fabweb.cityu.edu.hk/is5600
• These notes are not comprehensive, i.e. if you
  come to class, you will hear, see and do many
  things that are not visible in the notes.

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The Interconnected, Integrated Nature of Change
Technological Change
Business and Government Environment
Organisational Issues
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Technological Change

• Local Area Networks (LANs) to Wide Area Networks
  (WANs) to Wireless Networks
• Internet, Intranets, Extranets Portals
• From personal computing to collaborative
  computing to virtual computing
• Face-to-face to Distributed (with audio- and
  video-conferencing)
• Electronic commerce
• E-everything

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The Arrival of the Ubiquitous Web

• 1997
• 0.01
• 0.001
• 6
• 7
• 2
• 4
• 1
• 10
• 19
• 7.9
• 1.8

2000 1.3 0.5 21 39 33 19 15 42 45 52 6.1
2002 3.6 ??? 44 55 57 39 28 52 59 60 9.6
2005/7 7.9 3.6 61 67.2 59.8 57 42.3 62.3 68.5 70.7
14.6

• CN
• IN
• JP
• AU
• UK
• DE
• FR
• FI
• US
• HK
• All

Source http//www.nua.ie http//www.internetworl
dstats.com
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But, it is not just how many

• It is more a matter of what do they do online
• And, what is available for them?
• Also, is it dial up or broadband
• Is it for buying, browsing, playing, surfing,
  working or paying their taxes?

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Organisational Issues

• Telecommuting and remote work
• Teamwork
• Elimination of communication layers in
  organisations
• Outsourcing
• 24 hour round the clock work
• E-work and Virtual work

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Business and Government Environment

• Increased pressure on productivity
• Global competitive challenge
• Lack of isolation in business dealings
• Reduction of cycle time
• Interconnected nature of world events
• Ever increasing rate of change
• E-everything

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Challenge

• Independently, each of these areas presents
  challenges to organisations.
• Collectively they present even more challenges.
• Considering the interconnectivity
  interdependence between areas, we see that the
  situation is very complex.

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• Technology and Globalisation are rapidly
  transforming not only the way we work, but also
  the way we think about work.

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• Tomorrows (today's?) fragmented, geographically
  dispersed workplace a place or a space ?

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Culture

• Patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting
• Behaviour styles
• Negotiating techniques
• Protocol
• Business practices
• Cultural misunderstandings can threaten or even
  destroy your efforts in a foreign country

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Understanding Culture

• is not just about observing.
• the same behaviour can have different meanings
  and different behaviours can have the same
  meaning Schneider Barsoux, 1997
• Why do people behave in this way?
• What are their values/beliefs?

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What is Culture?
HUMAN NATURE universal to laugh to cry
CULTURE group level construct When is it
appropriate to laugh? to cry? Where is it
appropriate to laugh? to cry? way of life
passed down from one generation to the next
through education and experience Concise
Columbia Encyclopedia collective programming of
the mind Geert Hofstede
PERSONALITY individual each of us laughs / cries
at different times / places
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Iceberg Model of Culture
Behaviour
Attitudes
Assumptions
Values
Beliefs
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Culture Above the Surface

• Greetings
• How should you greet someone?
• kiss, bow or shake hands
• Does it depend on who they are?
• Dress
• What is appropriate attire at work? at a funeral?
• Punctuality
• What does it mean to be on time?
• How quickly should you reply to an e-mail?
• Gift giving
• Should you give gifts to business associates?
• What should you give?
• Corporate Logos
• What projects the right image?

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Culture Below the Surface

• Attitudes
• I cant live without a cell phone
• Assumptions
• Only boys can become engineers
• Values
• My family is more important than my job
• Beliefs
• My purpose in life is

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Colours in Different Culturesadapted from Russo
Boor (1993) How fluent is your interface?
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Corporate Logos
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Culture and Workplace Issues

• Global transfer of IS applications (across
  cultures) is problematic at best.
• Few researchers have investigated these issues -
  probing the iceberg.
• Most textbooks assume a monocultural (and
  ethnocentric) perspective
• If it works for us, itll work for them.
• They are human arent they?!

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Culture and Workplace Issues

• Limited understanding of why failures occur
  beyond the generic culture explanation.
• Descriptions of successful global IS stories
  but little in the way of detailed understanding.
• Few empirically-tested prescriptions or
  experiences.

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And IS5600?

• We will investigate these global and cultural
  issues in much more detail
• We will seek to elicit the critical success
  factors
• Using a variety of international/global cases,
  experiences and situations