Unit 7 –Strategic Information Systems

Information Need within an Organization

Session 5

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Module Learning Outcomes

 LO1: Analyse the information requirements of organizations

 LO2 Discuss the types of information systems that are used
within all levels of an organisation
 LO3 Demonstrate the use of an information system to produce
management information
 LO4 Evaluate the effectiveness of strategic information systems

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Levels of Management

 The type of information required by decision makers in a company is

directly related to:
 The level of management decision making
 The amount of structure in the decision situations managers face
 Levels of Management
 Operational level management Strategic Level
management
 Tactical level management
Tactical Level
 Strategic level management Management

Operational Level Management

Figure 1: Levels of Management

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Levels of Management Cont.

 Strategic management
 Prepares strategic plans and policies for the organization.
 Develop overall organizational vision.
 It guides the organization in the right direction towards achieving
the goals and objectives.
 Monitor the strategic performance of the organization and its
overall direction in the competitive business environment.
 Keeping the communication between the enterprise and the
external environment.

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Levels of Management Cont.

 Tactical management
 Middle level management
 Business unit managers in self-directed teams
 Communicate organizational policies from top level management
to lower level.
 Develop short and medium range plans, schedules, budgets ,
specify policies, procedures and business objectives for their sub
units of the company
 Inspiring lower level managers towards better performance

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Levels of Management Cont.

 Operational management
 Operating managers and members of self-directed teams
 Operational managers are responsible for the daily management of
line workers
 Develop short range plans
 Weekly production schedules, Resource allocation plans
 Responsible for training, supervising and directing the operational
employees.
 Prepare periodical reports about the performance of the workers.

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Decision Structures

 Decision maker at different levels of the organization are making

decisions
 Decision structures:
 Structured decisions
 Semi structured decisions
 Unstructured decisions

Figure 1:Decision structures at Different Management Levels

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Structured Decisions

 Structured decisions have a well defined methodology for

finding a solution and have the data to reach a decisions
 Structured decisions are repetitive and routine
 Criteria for choosing is well defined
 Alternatives are clear
 Mainly taken by the operational level mangers

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Unstructured Decisions

 These decisions require judgments, evaluation and insight to

solve the problem.
 Unstructured decisions are new, important and non routine
 No well defined procedures
 Information systems help to make such decisions

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Semi Structured Decisions

 Semi structured Decisions have elements of both structured

and semi structured decisions
 Only part of the decision is clear
 Required combination of standard procedures and individual
judgments
 Mainly taken by the tactical level managers

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Management Structure and Information
Requirements

 The Strategic Level Management

 Requires information from internal and external sources to plan the
long term strategies of the organization.
 Information can be both quantitative and qualitative.
 Supplied in a summarized form, often on an ad-hoc basis.
 Information systems which are developed for strategic level are mainly
responding to corporate business needs.
 Information Systems
 Executive Information Systems
 Experts Systems

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Management Structure and Information
Requirements

 The Tactical level management

 Requires information from the strategic level of management together
with routine and regular quantitative information from the operational
level of management.
 Supplied in summarized form, but detailed enough to allow tactical
planning
 Tactical information is used by middle management (employees) when
managing or planning projects.
 Information Systems
 Management Information systems
 Decision Support Systems

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Management structure and information
requirements cont.

 The operational level of management

 Requires information and instructions from the tactical level of
management.
 Primarily concerned with the day to day performance of tasks
 Most of the information is obtained from internal sources.
 The information must be detailed and precise.
 Information systems
 Payroll Systems
 Ordering Systems
 Employee records Systems

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Characteristics of Information in Different Levels

Figure2: Characteristics of Information in Different Business Levels

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Summary

 Levels of management
 Strategic level Management
 Tactical level management
 Operational level management
 Different decision structures
 Structured decisions -Operational level managers
 Semi-structured decisions -Tactical level managers
 Unstructured decisions- Operational level managers

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