MBA 669Special Topics: IT-enabled organizational Forms
Dave [email protected] (email)
http://www.davesalisbury.com/ (web site)
This Week’s Fun Stuff
Codification of knowledge, expertise and procedures
IT and the control of information/decision-making
IT and the standardization and homogenization of organizations and industries
Issues surrounding the codification of expertise and decision-making
IS&TInvestment Profit
Revenue
Costs
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Why We Invest in IS&T
ManagementSupport & Decision
Systems
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IT and locus of control
Some cases used to push decision-making to lower levels
Some cases used to get control What is the effect of advanced IT
in organizations? Liberating or constraining? Autonomy or top-down control?
Isomorphism and homogenization
Infrastructure Standards Systems Codified procedures
Simon & the rational person
Humans can be rational actors, their rationality is bounded by their limitations
Humans tend to satisfice, or settle on the first acceptable option, rather optimizing
Information stored in computers can increase human rationality if accessible when needed
The central problem is not how to organize to produce efficiently, but how to organize to make decisions (i.e. process information)
IT provides assistance to...
Communicate and/or distribute knowledge
Collaborate with other workers Routinize procedures Capture and codify knowledge Create knowledge
Two key issues
Uncertainty Lack of information
Ambiguity Lack of structure
Online analytical processing
Enables interactive examination/manipulation of detailed & consolidated data from many perspectives
Analyze complex relationships to discover patterns, trends, and exception conditions in real time
Consolidation The aggregation of data. From simple roll-ups to complex groupings of
interrelated data Drill-Down
Display detail data that comprise consolidated data Slicing and Dicing
The ability to look at the database from different viewpoints.
When performed along a time axis, helps analyze trends and find patterns
Decision support systems
What If-AnalysisWhat If-Analysis
Sensitivity AnalysisSensitivity Analysis
Goal-Seeking AnalysisGoal-Seeking Analysis
Optimization AnalysisOptimization Analysis
ImportantDecision SupportSystemsAnalytical Models
ImportantDecision SupportSystemsAnalytical Models
Data mining for decision support
Software analyzes vast amounts of data
Attempts to discover patterns, trends, & correlations
May perform regression, decision tree, neural network, cluster detection, or market basket analysis
Models as decision making aids
A model (in decision making) is a simplified representation of reality.
The benefits of modeling in decision making are: Cost of virtual experimentation is much
lower Simulated compression of time. Manipulating the model is much easier The cost of mistakes are much lower Modeling for “what-ifs” Analysis and comparison of a large number
alternatives Models enhance and reinforce learning
Artificial intelligence
CognitiveScience
Applications
CognitiveScience
Applications
ArtificialIntelligenceArtificial
Intelligence
RoboticsApplications
RoboticsApplications
NaturalInterface
Applications
NaturalInterface
Applications
•Expert Systems•Fuzzy Logic•Genetic Algorithms•Neural Networks
•Visual Perceptions•Locomotion•Navigation•Tactility
•Natural Language•Speech Recognition•Multisensory Interface•Virtual Reality
AI application areas in business
Neural NetworksNeural Networks
Fuzzy Logic SystemsFuzzy Logic Systems
Virtual RealityVirtual Reality
Expert SystemsExpert Systems
AI ApplicationAreas inBusiness
AI ApplicationAreas inBusiness
Intelligent AgentsIntelligent Agents
Genetic AlgorithmsGenetic Algorithms
Expert systems
The Expert SystemThe Expert System
KnowledgeBase
User Workstation
ExpertAdvice
UserInterfacePrograms
UserInterfacePrograms
InferenceEngine
Program
InferenceEngine
Program
Expert System DevelopmentExpert System Development
Workstation
KnowledgeEngineering
KnowledgeAcquisition
Program
KnowledgeAcquisition
Program
Expert and/orKnowledge Engineer
Expert system applications
Decision ManagementDecision Management
Diagnostic/TroubleshootingDiagnostic/Troubleshooting
Maintenance/SchedulingMaintenance/Scheduling
Design/ConfigurationDesign/Configuration
Selection/ClassificationSelection/ClassificationMajor ApplicationCategoriesof Expert Systems
Process Monitoring/ControlProcess Monitoring/Control
Why have expert systems?
Standardize procedures and their application throughout organization
Share codified procedures more readily
Protect against loss of expertise Preserve expertise for more
important tasks Replace expertise with systems
Codification & leveraging processes
Focus on business processes rather than divisions or functions
Processes tend to cross divisions and functions
IT as enabler of process focus Choosing what goes to people and
what goes to IT Re-engineering focus
Standardization
Standardization as diminishing freedom or as enhancing reliability?
Does structure constrain or enable? What impact does it have on
codification of knowledge (see more on this Tuesday)?
Good or bad? Why or why not?
Widespread analytics
Heavy use of modeling and optimization routines
Enterprise approach (can’t be piecemeal to get the big benefits)
Ever more sophisticated tools Again, most of this was not doable until
the advent of sophisticated IT Still need to apply expertise, experience
and intuition
Diffusion of responsibility
The “myth” of technology neutrality that enables blame to be passed “The computer did it” “That’s what the model came up with” “The computer requires it”
Use of technology implies control by technology At once empowered and dominated Dependent on it to complete tasks
Lost expertise
Codification detaches knowledge from context
Experts are no longer so, and considered expendable
Technology replaces bodies This effect is moving up the
corporate ladder Lack of flexibility in applying the
rules
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