BU415 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Middle Management, Decision-Making, Business Process
Document Summary
Categorizing systems: hierarchical perspective, functional perspective, process perspective. Hierarchical perspective: decision making and activities in organizations occur at different levels. Individuals: different responsibilities, make different decisions, do different activities, having the correct info is important. Today"s hierarchy: adoption of flatter hierarchies between front-line operations and strategic decision-making, empowerment. Limitation: difficult to neatly separate info systems into clear cut categories. Functional perspective: systems are designed to support specific needs of individuals in the same functional area. Limitations of functional and hierarchical perspectives: lack of integration of separate systems, leading to: redundancy and inefficiency. Towards a process view: business process reengineering, business processes are inherently cross-functional, bpr seeks to break down the organizational silos, bpr: analyze and redesign processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Bpr risks: high risk of failure, very expensive to implement, significant downsizing and layoffs, radical 3rd order change.
