Assignment: Participating in IT Decisions
Assignment: Participating in IT Decisions
The general manager, who, after all, is charged with ensuring that company resources are used effectively, must guarantee that the company’s IS support its organizational systems and that changes made in one system are reflected in the other. For example, a company that plans to allow employees to work remotely needs an information system strategy compatible with its organizational strategy.Desktop PCs located within the corporate office aren’t the right solution for a telecommuting organization. Instead, laptop computers or tablets with applications that are accessible online anywhere and anytime and networks that facilitate information sharing are needed. Employees may want to use tablets or smart phones remotely, too, and those entail a different set of IS processes. If the orga- nization allows the purchase of only desktop PCs and builds systems accessible from desks within the office, the telecommuting program is doomed to failure.
Skills Needed to Participate Effectively in Information Technology Decisions Participating in IT decisions means bringing a clear set of skills to the table. All managers are asked to take on tasks that require different skills at different times. Those tasks can be divided into three types: visionary tasks, or those that provide leadership and direction for the group; informational/interpersonal tasks, or those that provide information and knowledge the group needs to be successful; and structural tasks, those that organize the group. Figure I-2 lists basic skills required of managers who wish to participate successfully in key IT decisions. Not only does this list emphasize understanding, organizing, planning, and solving the business needs of the organization, but also it is an excellent checklist for all managers’ professional growth. But that decision also means that employees can’t access social networking sites that may be useful for collaboration or other Web‐based appli- cations that may offer functionality to make the business more efficient.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
