Communication and Information Technology Management

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Communication and Information Technology
Management
Chapter
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Information and the Managers Job

• Data
• Raw, unsummarized, and unanalyzed facts.
• Information
• Data that is organized in a meaningful fashion

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Attributes of Useful Information
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Information Systems and Technology

• Information Technology the means by which
  information is acquired, organized, stored,
  manipulated, and transmitted

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What is Information Technology?

• Management Information System An information
  system that managers plan and design to provide
  themselves with the specific information they need

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Information and Decisions

• Most of management is about making decisions
• To make effective decisions, managers need
  information, both from inside and outside the
  organization

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Information and Control

• Managers achieve control by
• establishing measurable goals
• measuring actual performance
• compare actual performance with goals
• take any corrective action
• Managers must have information to achieve control
  over any organizational activity

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Communication and Management

• Communication
• The sharing of information between two or more
  individuals or groups to reach a common
  understanding.

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Communication and Management

• Importance of Good Communication
• Increased efficiency in new technologies and
  skills
• Improved quality of products and services
• Increased responsiveness to customers
• More innovation through communication

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The Communication Process
Figure 13.2
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Verbal Nonverbal Communication

• Verbal Communication
• The encoding of messages into words, either
  written or spoken
• Nonverbal
• The encoding of messages by means of facial
  expressions, body language, and styles of dress.

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The Dangers of Ineffective Communication

• Managers and their subordinates can become
  effective communicators by
• Selecting an appropriate medium for each
  messagethere is no one best medium.
• Considering information richness
• A medium with high richness can carry much more
  information to aid understanding.

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Information Richness

• The amount of information that a communication
  medium can carry
• The extent to which the medium enables the sender
  and receiver to reach a common understanding

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Communication Media

• Face-to-Face
• Has highest information richness.
• Can take advantage of verbal and nonverbal
  signals.
• Provides for instant feedback.
• Spoken Communication Electronically Transmitted
• Has the second highest information richness.
• Telephone conversations are information rich with
  tone of voice, senders emphasis, and quick
  feedback, but provide no visual nonverbal cues.

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Communication Media

• Personally Addressed Written Communication
• Has a lower richness than the verbal forms of
  communication, but still is directed at a given
  person.
• Excellent media for complex messages requesting
  follow-up actions by receiver
• Impersonal Written Communication
• Has the lowest information richness.
• Good for messages to many receivers where little
  or feedback is expected (e.g., newsletters,
  reports)

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Information Overload

• A superabundance of information that increases
  the likelihood that important information is
  ignored or overlooked and tangential information
  receives attention

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The Information Technology Revolution

• Computer Networks
• Networking
• The exchange of information through a group or
  network of interlinked computers
• Servers are powerful computers that relay
  information to client computers connected on a
  Local Area Network (LAN).

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Types of Information Systems

• Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
• Systems designed to handle large volumes of
  routine transactions.
• First computer-based information systems handling
  billing, payroll, and supplier payments.
• Operations Information Systems (OIS)
• Systems that gather, organize, and summarize
  comprehensive data in a form of value to
  managers.
• Can help managers with non-routine decisions such
  as customer service and productivity.

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Types of Information Systems

• Decision Support Systems (DSS)
• An interactive computer-based management
  information system with model-building capability
  that managers can use when they must make
  non-routine decisions

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Types of Information Systems

• Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence
• Employ human knowledge captured in a computer to
  solve problems that ordinarily require human
  expertise.
• Uses artificial Intelligence to recognize,
  formulate, solve problems, and learn from
  experience.

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Limitations of Information Systems

• Loss of the Human Element
• Information systems cannot present all kinds of
  information accurately.
• Thick information, which is rich in meaning and
  not quantifiable, is best suited to human
  analysis.
• Information systems should support face-to-face
  communication, and not be expected to replace it