Instructions:
1. Project Assignment Outline
"Decision level of the business organisation - A Case Study"
A typical hierarchical business will have three (3) broad levels of organizational decision-making from the top to the bottom. Each organizational level exhibits different information requirements characteristics in terms of the decision timeframes, certainty, risk, responsiveness, information structure and application of technology. These decision-making levels are characterized by information systems that are different in design and composition because of the level-specific goals of the information systems at each level of the hierarchy. The decision-making levels are highly significant in terms of system thinking, since the purpose of processing data is to produce information for decision making.
1. Discuss the nature and type of information required at each level of decision making within a typical organization hierarchy.
Link this to the various Information systems used by organizations such as Transaction Processing, Management Information and Executive Decision Support systems.
Hints
1: operational information
a. Lower level management
b. Transactional processing system (TPS)
c. Day-today operations or activities
d. Leger entries or journal entries
e. Follow established policy or guidelines
f. Easy decision
g. Structured decision/programme decision
h. Operation information is required in decision such as credit granting
2: Tactical information
i. Middle level management
j. Management information system(MIS)
k. Decision support system(DSS)
l. Semi-structured decision
3: Strategic information
m. Top level management or highest level of management
n. Decision support system
o. Executive information system
p. Future oriented
q. Understand decision non-programming decision
r. Ill-defined and difficult decision
s. It contains many variables
t. Strategies: information is required in decision such as merger or acquisition
2. Consider and suggest three possible information sources that could be used to provide data and information for decision making.
Consider how such sources of information may be extracted from the environment and how reliable these information sources are.
Internet sources e.g. Stock level or inventory level, database -required by the lower level management - more for operation
External sources e.g. economics outlook of a country - required by the highest level of management - more for planning purpose
Primary sources of information
Secondary sources of information
Tertiary sources of information(Anon., n.d.)
3. What are the desired qualities of information at each level of the organizational hierarchy?
Discuss the granularity aspects of information for the different levels of management in an organization.
Qualitative characteristics of information - information has qualities and it depends on
1. Accurate - freedom of errors
2. Complete - nothing should be omitted
3. Relevance - level of management
4. Reliable
5. Detailed
6. Summarised
7. Timeliness - information has time values - information that is current, the values increase. On the other hand, information that is older, the values decrease.
4. Are these desirable characteristics different at each level or are there any common desirable characteristics?
What is the significance of detailed versus consolidated data to management at the different levels of management?
|
S. NO
|
Qualitative characteristic of information
|
Lower level (operational)
|
Middle level(Tactical)
|
Top level (strategic level)
|
|
1
|
Accurate information
|
High
|
Medium
|
low
|
|
2
|
Real-time information
|
High
|
Medium
|
Low
|
|
3
|
Historical information
|
Low
|
Medium
|
high
|
|
4
|
Planning information
|
Low
|
Medium
|
high
|
|
5
|
Operational information
|
High
|
Medium
|
Low
|
|
6
|
Summarised information
|
Low
|
Medium
|
High
|
|
7
|
Detailed information
|
High
|
Medium
|
Low
|
|
8
|
Current information
|
High
|
Medium
|
Low
|
|
9
|
|
|
|
|
|
10
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5. How would you define the importance of decision making at each level of organizational hierarchy?
Discuss the impact of decision making at the various levels (top, middle-, supervisory-levels).
|
|
S. NO
|
Type of decision
|
Lower level (operational)
|
Middle level(Tactical)
|
Top level (strategic level)
|
|
|
1
|
Structured decision
|
High
|
Medium
|
Low
|
|
|
2
|
Programmed decision
|
|
Medium
|
|
|
|
3
|
Unstructured decision
|
|
Medium
|
|
|
|
4
|
Non- programmed decision
|
|
Medium
|
|
|
|
5
|
Ill-defined decision
|
|
Medium
|
|
|
|
6
|
Decision that follow established guidelines or policy
|
|
Medium
|
|
|
|
7
|
Decision that contain many variables
|
|
Medium
|
|
|
|
8
|
Easy to make decision
|
|
Medium
|
|
|
|
9
|
Difficult decision
|
|
|
|
|
|
10
|
Planning decision
|
|
|
|
|
11
|
Control decision
|
|
|
|
|
12
|
Operation decision
|
|
|
|
The assignment should be presented as a short informal report, of around 2000 words in length. Do not forget page numbers, title, your name, and the quality of the presentation of the assignment. The report should be well referenced and formatted in accordance with the Harvard Referencing system.
Note: Each section does not need to be long, but it does need to demonstrate that you are acquainted with your chosen organization's business, and have thought about how it works.
On the other hand, you are not expected to be an expert on the business - most of the information that you will need to complete this assignment will be found through a combination of looking carefully at your chosen organizations' websites, lecture notes, textbooks and journal articles).