Management, 8e Schermerhorn Chapter 7

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Management, 8eSchermerhornChapter 7

• Instructor Dr. Robert Kenmore
• Zarb School of Business
• Hofstra University

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Organization of the Text Management (8th
Edition) by Schermerhorn
PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5
Introducing Management Context Mission Organi
zation Leadership

• The Dynamic New Workplace
• Management Past to Present
• Ethical Behavior Social Responsibility

• Environment, Organizational Culture, and
  Diversity
• Global Dimensions of Management
• Entrepreneur-ship Small Business

• Information Decision Making
• Planning Controlling
• Strategic Management

• Organizing
• Organizational Design Processes
• Human Resource Management

• Leading
• Motivation Theory Practice
• Individual Behavior Performance
• Teams Teamwork
• Communi-cation Interpersonal Skills
• Change Leadership

Exam 2
Exam 1
Exam 3
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Reflections

• When does transparency and accountability
  encroach on the legitimate need for secrecy and
  propriety?

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Chapter 7Information and Decision Making

• How is information technology changing the
  workplace?
• What are the current directions in information
  systems?
• Why are knowledge management and organizational
  learning important?
• How is information used for decision making?
• How do managers make decisions?

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How is information technology changing the
workplace?

• Information technology
• The combination of computer hardware, software,
  networks, and databases that allow information to
  be shared, stored, and manipulated.

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How is information technology changing the
workplace?

• Progressive organizations
• Are responding to the growing importance of
  information technology with specialized
  organizational units headed by a chief knowledge
  officer or chief information officer.
• Use information technology to compete more
  effectively in uncertain environments.

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How is information technology changing the
workplace?

• Intraorganizational implications of using
  information technology
• Facilitation of communication and information
  sharing.
• Flattening of organizational structures.
• Faster decision making.
• Increased coordination and control.
• Structural flexibility.

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How is information technology changing the
workplace?

• Extra-organizational implications of using
  information technology
• Helps organizations take care of customers.
• Helps organizations work well with resource
  suppliers.
• Helps build and manage relationships with
  strategic partners.

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Schermerhorn/Management, 7e Chapter 7, Figure
03-01
Figure 7-1 Information technology is breaking
barriers and changing organizations.
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What are the current directions in information
systems?

• Useful information shares the following
  characteristics
• Timeliness
• Quality
• Completeness
• Relevance
• Understandability

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What are the current directions in information
systems?

• Information needs of organizations
• Information exchanges with the external
  environment
• Gather intelligence information
• Provide public information
• Internal information exchanges
• Top management
• Middle management
• First level of management

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x
Schermerhorn/Management, 7e Chapter 7, Figure
03-02
Figure 7-2 External and internal information
needs of organizations.
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What are the current directions in information
systems?

• Information systems success factors
• Technical quality of the system
• Participation and involvement of users in systems
  design
• Management support of the system as a strategic
  asset as well as a tactical tool

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What are the current directions in information
systems?

• Management information systems
• Use information technology to meet the
  information needs of managers in making
  decisions.
• Advantages of appropriate MIS utilization
• Planning
• Organizing
• Leading
• Controlling

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Why are knowledge management and organizational
learning important?

• Knowledge management
• Processes through which organizations develop,
  organize, and share knowledge to achieve
  competitive advantage.
• Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)
• Energizes learning processes
• Manages organizations intellectual assets
• Learning requires opportunity for
  correction/application to present itself and may
  differ based on repetitive activity/error versus
  one-time only

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Why are knowledge management and organizational
learning important?

• Core ingredients of learning organizations
• Mental models
• Personal mastery
• Systems thinking
• Shared vision
• Team learning

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Instructors Slide on Knowledge Management
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How is information used for decision making?

• A problem is
• The difference between an actual and a desired
  situation.
• Performance deficiency
• Performance opportunity
• Problem solving is
• The process of identifying a discrepancy and
  taking action.
• A decision is
• A choice among alternative course of action.

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How is information used for decision making?

• Crisis decision making
• A crisis involves an unexpected problem that can
  lead to disaster if not resolved quickly and
  appropriately.
• An extreme type of nonprogrammed decision must be
  made.
• Crisis management may be the ultimate test of
  problem-solving capabilities.
• Proactive managers develop basic contingency
  plans for dealing with likely crisis situations.

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How is information used for decision making?

• Decision conditions
• Certain environments
• Offer sufficient information about action
  alternatives and their outcomes.
• Risk environments
• Lack complete information about action
  alternatives and their outcomes.
• Uncertain environments
• Information is so poor that probabilities cannot
  be assigned to likely outcomes of known action
  alternatives.

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Schermerhorn/Management, 7e Chapter 7, Figure
03-04
Figure 7-4 Three environments for managerial
decision making and problem solving.
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How is information used for decision making?

• How managers approach decisions
• Problem avoiders
• Inactive in decision making
• Problem solvers
• Reactive in gathering information and solving
  problems
• Problem seekers
• Proactive in anticipating problems before they
  occur

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How is information used for decision making?

• How managers approach decisions
• Systematic thinking
• Approaching problems in a rational, step-by-step,
  and analytical fashion.
• Intuitive thinking
• Approaching problems in a flexible and
  spontaneous fashion.
• Multidimensional thinking
• Applying both intuitive and systematic thinking

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How is information used for decision making?

• How managers approach decisions
• Strategic opportunism
• The ability to remain focused on long-term
  objectives while being flexible enough to resolve
  short-term challenges in a timely manner.

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How do managers make decisions?

• Five-step decision-making process
• Identify and define the problem.
• Generate and evaluate possible solutions.
• Choose a preferred solution and conduct ethics
  double check.
• Implement the solution.
• Evaluate results.

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Schermerhorn/Management, 7e Chapter 7, Figure
03-05
Figure 7-5 Steps in decision making and problem
solving.
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How do managers make decisions?

• Step 1identify and define the problem
• Problem symptoms signal a performance deficiency
  or opportunity.
• Problem finding focuses on identifying
  performance gaps and their causes.
• Avoid the following
• Defining the problem too broadly or too narrowly.
• Focusing on symptoms instead of causes.
• Choosing the wrong problem.

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How do managers make decisions?

• Step 2generate and evaluate possible solutions
• Avoid the following
• Selecting a particular solution too quickly.
• Choosing a convenient alternative that may have
  damaging side effects.
• Criteria for evaluating alternatives
• Benefits
• Costs
• Timeliness affects A. B.
• Acceptability affects C.
• Ethical soundness affects D.

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How do managers make decisions?

• Step 3choose a solution and conduct the ethics
  double check
• Question 1 How will I feel about this if my
  family finds out?
• Question 2 How will I feel about this if it is
  printed in the local newspaper?

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DOUBLE-CHECKFOR ETHICAL DECISIONS

• Question 1 How will I feel about this
• if my family finds out?
• Question 2 How will I feel about this
• if it is printed in the local newspaper?

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How do managers make decisions?

• Step 4implement the solution
• Establish appropriate action plans.
• Managers need to have willingness and ability to
  implement action plans.
• Avoid lack-of-participation error.

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How do managers make decisions?

• Step 5evaluate results
• Involves comparing actual and desired results.
• Positive and negative consequences of chosen
  course of action should be examined.
• If actual results fall short of desired results,
  return to earlier steps in the decision-making
  process.

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How do managers make decisions?

• Escalating commitment
• The tendency to increase effort and apply more
  resources to a course of action that is not
  working.
• Ways to avoid the escalation trap
• Set advance limits.
• Make your own decisions.
• Carefully determine why you are continuing a
  course of action.
• Reminds yourself of the costs.
• Watch for escalation tendencies.
• Accept the notion of sunk costs

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How do managers make decisions?

• Advantages of group decision making
• Greater amounts of information, knowledge, and
  expertise
• More action alternatives are considered
• Greater understanding and acceptance of outcomes
• Increased commitment to final plans

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How do managers make decisions?

• Disadvantages of group decision making
• Pressure to conform
• Minority domination
• Decision making takes longer

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Schermerhorn/Management, 7e Chapter 7, Figure
03-06
Instructors note not on exam
Figure 7-6 Classical, behavioral, and judgmental
heuristics approaches in decision making.