Management Information Systems unit I assessment and DQ question

MBA 5401, Management Information Systems 1 Cou rse Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to: 1. Summarize the complexities of information technology practices. 1.1 Describe the relationship between information technology practices and current business challenges. 1.2 Define how newer innovations in information technology have affected different functions within organizations. 1.3 Explain an organization’s ability to use Information Technology to achieve strategic goals. 2. Describe the role of the information technology professional within an organization. 7. Evaluate the driving ethical issues of information systems. 7.1 Explain the internal ethical considerations with regards to an organization’s data collection and employees. 7.2 Describe the external ethical issues concerning current practices involving customers, data collection, and data mining. 7.3 Describe how new technolog y trends may cause potential ethical dilemmas. Reading Assignment Chapter 1: Informat ion Systems in Global Business Today Chapter 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems Unit Lesson Information Technology Why is information technology so complex? Take a look at technology in its smallest form. Does it seem daunting or complex? For example, a simple website asks you to input information: your name, address, phone number, and so on. That information is stored in a record database somewher e. Simple, right? What if you consider the information stored by Amazon or some other major organization; what happens to your data is much more complex. A large retailer will store the input in multiple databases as operational information. That information is processed likely in different ways and turned into an output, and then the information is scrubbed. It may be stored in data warehouses for data mining purposes. Marketing decisions are made based on your sales information. Information syste ms provide the information that businesses need to be strategic in its practices. Managers need that information to be strategic with regards to decision making. Information systems help operations to be more efficient, and they help all facets of business to be better, faster, and more effective. Computer systems years ago were much more simplistic as well. Most organizations had large mainframe computers. Transactions were processed in batches at night. Today, there is a demand for instant, real -time inf ormation. In the past, systems did not talk to each other. You might have to go to three or four different systems to look up customer information. Today, there is a demand for integration across all systems. In the past, applications were platform specifi c (e.g., Unix, Windows, etc.). Now, there is a demand for applications that run on any platform. In the past, the best tool for making decisions might be an Excel spreadsheet. Now, there are expert systems that emulate the decision -making ability of humans . UNIT I STUDY GUIDE Information Systems Practice in Organizations MBA 5401, Management Information Systems 2 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title Consider this: Where do you see the future of information technology? How much faster can it possibly get? How much more complex can systems be? The IT Professional There are many different positions within an organization’s IT department. An IT profe ssional could be a  network administrator,  database administrator,  server administrator,  security engineer,  server administrator,  help desk technician,  software developer,  business analyst, or  web developer. IT management could be a department manager (s uch as the manager of software development) or upper management (such as the director of IT infrastructure, chief security officer, chief technology officer, or chief information officer). These are just a few of the many IT positions that exist. We all kn ow that IT professionals need technical expertise in whatever area they are employed in their organization. In smaller shops, some IT professionals need expertise in multiple areas. This expertise comes from training, practice, and certification tests, to name a few examples. Each position has a long list of responsibilities, but what other roles do IT profes sionals play in organizations? Customer service: Many times the IT professional has to interact with users or vendors. Users may not understand the ex act nature of the problem, so the IT professional has to have patience and the ability to bridge the gap between business needs and technical needs. For example, the business analyst will work very closely to help define the users’ needs so that those requ irements can be translated into a technical design document for the software developers. The IT professional needs technical knowledge and business knowledge as well. Problem -solving: IT professionals are problem solvers. For example, a database administr ator might be contacted because the database log files are filling up. The database administrator will have to weigh all of the options and determine the best solution for the problem. Evaluator: Many times, the IT person will need to evaluate different p roducts. They need to understand the requirements, test the product’s functionality, and either make a decision to buy or provide pertinent information to a decision maker. Security guard: In this context, the IT professional must be cognizant of many areas of security. It is not enough, for example, for the database administrator to keep the databases secure. He or she must consider security concerns for all areas of the business. Consid er this: The position of chief security officer is a relatively new one. It was created to answer the new and growing potential risks in IT. What other positions may be created based on the changing environment of IT? What About Ethical Issues in IT? As Laudon and Laudon (2015) note, “ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors” (p. 126). The fact is, information systems open the door for many opportunities to make ethical choices — probably as many, if not more, than any other area in business. Why is this statement true? Think about it. IT professionals will likely have access to information more than anyone else in the organization. Information such as empl oyee information, customer information, and sales transactions are stored in database tables. A human resources representative will have access to employee information. A salesperson or customer service representative will have access to sales information or basic customer information. An accounts receivable person will have access to customer financial information. MBA 5401, Management Information Systems 3 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title Who has access to ALL of this information? Some IT professionals will. Additionally, many organizations have personal usage rules regarding the personal use of company web, Internet, and email assets. This usually means that organizations will have applications that log usage into databases. Most of the time, employees’ actual email text is stored as well. Managers can request reports if they fee l an employee is abusing the usage rules, but who has access to this data at any given time? Some IT professionals will. Who should have access to this information? Can you imagine what would happen if anyone could access all of this information? Imagine the non -ethical, disgruntled employee who was passed over for a promotion accessing the web logs and seeing their newly promoted co -worker who is married and has been researching dating websites. There is a lot of trust placed in IT professionals to house and manage all kinds of sensitive information and not abuse it themselves. This is where the basics of ethics for IT professionals starts. Even within IT, there are access controls that limit what can be done to the data. In other words, most IT professio nals could not delete their web logs. This is all part of having good security policies, which we will discuss later. Even if you, as an IT professional, accidentally view confidential or sensitive information, you have to know what your ethical responsib ility is with regards to that information. Should you inform management that you saw that information? Another example might be knowing company financial information. It is unethical and potentially illegal to use that information for your own financial ga in. This unit does a great job covering many of the ethical considerations for IT personnel. However, there is always more to consider, so most organizations have ethics training for just this purpose. Reference Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm [VitalSource Bookshelf version] (14t h ed.). Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780133898309/ Suggested Reading The following article brings some interesting reading about ethical issues in information systems which correlates to issues in present day issues and is further discussed in the textbook reading and the lesson lecture. You are highly encouraged to view this information. In order to access the resource below, you must first log into the myCSU Student Portal and access the Business Source Complete database within the CSU Online Library. Laurence, M. & Goujon, P. (2012, January). Identification and governance of emerging ethical issues in Information Systems : Empirical and theoretical presuppositions. Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Management & Evaluation, p. 195 -202. Learning Activities (Non -Graded) Create a seven to ten PowerPoint slide presentation on the current state of information systems in our world today. You may use various sources including your textbook and the CSU Online Libra ry. Be sure to cite all sources used in a reference slide with proper APA formatting. The cover and reference slides do not count in the length requirement. You may also use the slide notes function. Be sure to describe the following in your presentation:  Three new trends in information systems  The challenges of managing information systems as there is continual change in technology  The function of the dimensions of information systems  The different forms of information technology  Proper APA formatting of citations and references MBA 5401, Management Information Systems 4 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title As this is a non -graded activity, this work cannot be uploaded to Blackboard. If you would like your professor’s feedback on your work, send this document to them in an email with a note that you would like to receive feedback on your non -graded activity.