Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin Chapter 13 Communication and Information Technology Management

13-2 Learning Objectives Differentiate between data and information, list the attributes of useful information, and describe three reasons why managers must have access to information to perform their tasks and roles effectively Explain why effective communication-the sharing of information-helps an organization gain a competitive advantage and describe the communication process

13-3 Learning Objectives Define information richness, and describe the information richness of communication media available to managers Differentiate among four kinds of management information systems

13-4 Information and the Manager’s Job Data: Raw, unsummarized, and unanalyzed facts Information: Data that are organized in a meaningful fashion

13-5 Figure Factors Affecting the Usefulness of Information

13-6 What is Information Technology? Information technology: The set of methods or techniques for acquiring, organizing, storing, manipulating, and transmitting information Management information system: A specific form of IT that managers utilize to generate the specific, detailed information they need to perform their roles effectively

13-7 Question What type of information system do managers plan and design to provide themselves with the specific information they need? A. Decision Support System B. Management Information System C. Employee Decision Matrix D. Management Support System

13-8 Information and Decisions Most of management is about making decisions To make effective decisions, managers need information both from inside the organization and from external stakeholders

13-9 Information and Control To achieve control over any organizational activity, managers must have information Management information systems are used to control all divisional and functional operations

13-10 Information and Coordination Coordinating department and divisional activities to achieve organizational goals is another basic task of management To deal with global coordination problems, managers have been adopting sophisticated computer-based information systems

13-11 Communication, Information and Management Communication: The sharing of information between two or more individuals or groups to reach a common understanding

13-12 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

13-13 Figure The Communication Process

13-14 Question Which part of the communication process interprets and tries to make sense of a message? A. Messaging B. Decoding C. Encoding D. Feedback

13-15 The Communication Process Verbal communication: The encoding of messages into words, either written or spoken Nonverbal communication: The encoding of messages by means of facial expressions, body language, and styles of dress

13-16 The Dangers of Ineffective Communication When managers and other members of an organization are ineffective communicators, organizational performance suffers, and any competitive advantage the organization might have is likely to be lost Poor communication sometimes can be downright dangerous and even lead to tragic and unnecessary loss of human life

13-17 Information Richness and Communication Media Information richness: The amount of information that a communication medium can carry and the extent to which the medium enables the sender and receiver to reach a common understanding

13-18 Figure The Information Richness of Communication Media

13-19 Information Richness and Communication Media Face-to-face communication Has highest information richness Can take advantage of verbal communication and nonverbal signals Provides for instant feedback Management by wandering around: A face-to-face communication technique in which a manager walks around a work area and talks informally with employees about issues and concerns

13-20 Information Richness and Communication Media Spoken communication electronically transmitted: Has the second highest information richness Telephone conversations are information rich with tone of voice, sender’s emphasis, and quick feedback - but provide no visual nonverbal cues

13-21 Information Richness and 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

13-22 Information Richness and Communication Media Impersonal written communication: Has the lowest information richness. Good for messages to many receivers where little or feedback is expected (e.g., newsletters, reports) Information overload: A superabundance of information that increases the likelihood that important information is ignored or overlooked and tangential information receives attention

13-23 Advances in Information Technology Product life cycle: The way demand for a product changes in a predictable pattern over time

13-24 Figure A Product Life Cycle

13-25 Figure A Four-Tier Information System with Cloud Computing

13-26 Figure Four Computer-Based Management Information Systems

13-27 The Organizational Hierarchy: The Traditional Information System Traditionally, managers have used the organizational hierarchy as the main system for gathering information necessary to make decisions and coordinate and control activities

13-28 The Organizational Hierarchy: The Traditional Information System Several drawbacks Can take a long time for information to travel up the hierarchy and for decisions to travel back down Information distortion: Changes in meaning that occur as information passes through a series of senders and receivers As an organization grows larger, its hierarchy lengthens and this tall structure can make the hierarchy a very expensive information system

13-29 Limitations of Information Systems A vital human element of communication may be lost Very rich information is required to coordinate and control an enterprise and to make informed decisions, far beyond that which can be quantified and aggregated The importance of information richness is a strong argument in favor of using electronic communication to support face-to-face communication, not to replace it

13-30 Question Which of the following management information systems gathers, organizes, and summarizes comprehensive data in a form that managers can use in their nonroutine coordinating, controlling, and decision-making tasks? A. Transaction-processing system B. Operations information system C. Decision support system D. Expert system