Political maneuvering during business process transformation – A pluralist approach

Numerous attempts have been made in the past years in the quench of enhancing organizational performance via business process transformation (BPT). Institutional politics have determined BPT behaviors and after results.  Managers who assume the roles of transformation agents and process uses have used different political perspectives to maneuver BPT initiatives. Focusing on a pluralist methodology, the fixed case study of a firm-wide BPT project presents four business units at the high-tech firm Terma. Four different patterns of BPT politics are applied. They include applying the hammer, struggling to engage, walking the talk and, keeping up appearances.

Business process transformation is the latest route of enhancing business performance through adopting technology and implementing new mechanisms of organizing, managing, and executing work. BPT necessitates one to use IS for transformation reasons, and that reinforces the complex interplay between technology and people related concerns. BPT is a steady improvement and process innovation that entails both radical and incremental change initiatives. Managers need to comprehend and participate in BPT politics to meet their interests and to respond accordingly to stakeholders. Managers should not react passively to political moves but slightly proactively maneuver BPT attempts by considering their intrinsic political nature.

Terma Management System is a comprehensive ISO9001-certified quality system that comprises more than 1,000 development and management processes. The firm has enrolled in numerous process initiatives since its certification in 2003 with limited impacts. The BPT project kicked off in 2005 in the company and founded on CMMI. Its corporate –level aims had two desired outcomes: to bring processes into compliance with CMMI and to reach level 2, where fundamental project management processes are stable and repeatable. The four cases of BPT at Terma included AES, ASY, and RSY. The process maturity at the start and closure of the project in AES increased, and the unit halt just short of being compliant with CMMI level 2. In ASY, the process maturity declined, and the unit did not comply with CMMI level 2. In ISY, its process maturity increased and met with CMMI level 2throughout the project. Finally, RSY had compliance with CMMI level 2 at the start of the project but later at the end, had a decreased process maturity.

AES business unit designs and manufactures aerostructures and engine components for military and commercial aircraft and takes them to systems integrators, the airframes. AES was under institutional restructuring and was faced with many challenges, as the economy was unhealthy, and people lost their lives. Thus, there was a need for social construction role in solving the pre-current disputes. The AES senior VP undertook BPT with an approach to rationalist politics to boost the process maturity of the unit by relying on a cookbook approach and by adapting Terma’s generic processes to the local context. AES managers saw the importance of maneuvering the BPT implementation as it had a substantial impact on AES projects.

The project was a result of general politics founded on the skillful utilization of symbols and language. The AES senior VP used symbols to capacitate the process and influence results.  The fellow workmates accepted and concurred with his decisions.AES managers based their resolutions on vital judgments of the applicability of new processes and their know-how of project managers’ existing strengths and weaknesses.

ASY is a worldwide provider of developed aerospace technology for fighter aircraft, helicopters, and transport aircraft. It aspires to integrate protective aids and systems o prolong pilots’ comprehensive battlefield overview. ASY experienced new commercial opportunities that needed commitment during BPT. Resources were availed to the employees who had complaints regarding their working conditions. The senior VP had to solve this problem by prioritizing and negotiating disputing interests.  Pluralist polities dictated BPT in ASY and never acquired a solution.

Consequently, ASY was unsuccessfully struggling o engage during the whole project. There was a dispute between the ASY goals and the BPT project goals. Variations in powerbases among the stakeholders determined the BPT results at the end. Most project managers were against CMMI and new processes. Rationalist and interpretive politics played throughout the entire project.

ISY is another business unit that provides integrated solutions for managing ground, air, and naval operations through large scale projects for military clients. ISY unit encountered market demands for the substantiation of process maturity. CMMI ideology was the solution and accepted the entire doctrine with no constraints. This was a means to escalate process efficiency and predictability. ISY participation in the BPT was high in terms of priori goal alignment. Both the ISY manager and the training manager offered full support to all project managers personally. ISY was ‘walking the talk.’ Rationalist politics, interpretive politics, and radical influence governed the BPT in ISY. There was limited pluralist politics because there was little need to determine conflicts of interest.

RSY is another business unit that deals with providing radar systems for surveillance applications, to a national market. Competing social creations of the BPT project subsisted.  RSY senior VP and implementation manager had conflicting interests.  Interpretive politics dominated the RSY’s BPT attempts.  The participants continued to ‘keep up appearances’ by showing commitment but never tried to attain BPT aims. Also, there were battling goals and interests as a result of pluralist politics. RSY sustained a socially created image of full commitment to the BPT project but only implemented limited BPT processes in a few projects. The misunderstanding between RSY and the corporate level brought about the failure to prioritize, communicate, and resolve disputes. The RSY senior VP claimed that the BPT project had minimal benefits and disputed with RSY benefits.  There was no unity between the project managers and the RSY implementation manager.  Differences in powerbases flanked by Terma’s BPT manager and RSY stakeholders made the stratagem futile. The BPT manager did not intensify the conflict and use his power and corporate authorization as a response to tackle the lack of goal compliance, notwithstanding the espoused support for the overarching BPT goal. He depended on the assessments to spot constraints and lack of execution progress.

Policy discourses of IT and patient-centered care.

Information Technology is significant in the upgrading of healthcare worldwide. It has a positive impact on transforming healthcare from organizational-centric to patient-centered (PCC). An analysis of England’s health policy between 1989 and 2013 was conducted. The state aimed at making healthcare patient center and embraced IT to the achievement of the goal. For the whole transformation to patient-centered care, the needs and wants of patients had to be identified and planned into IT- capacitated services. Upgrading healthcare is vital and necessary because of the expensive costs and changing requirements in the healthcare industry.

IT is proposed in many countries and academic works as it has clinical, financial benefits and enables new ways of care delivery. Policies are essential for the comprehension of the roles of IT in the modification of healthcare. Healthcare is majorly provided by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, making policy vital. The systems and strategies primarily determine NHS ethos, priorities, and formations. The plan is modifying the healthcare field and IT field in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries.  IT and PCC discourses interrelated with other discussions. The design of IT entails interconnected judgments about the organization of work and technology.

Processes of change shape and are shaped by technology. PCC postulates that negotiations between doctors and patients are vital and would contribute to positive health results and economic profits.PCC necessitates the restructuring of services regarding patients care plans that need amendments to the whole organization of work. Patients are regarded as a resource that can be utilized to minimize costs and enhance quality. Managerial PCC endeavors to amalgamate information technology in the care chain in the belief that web-portals, distributed records, and online access accommodate interrelations between patients and health medics by providing adequate info, patient engagement, and mutual feedback.

Strategic actions in a platform context

Social media platforms need to have unique and comprehensive strategic activities in response to cybercrimes and breach of trust that may arise. The best strategy must be assimilated in diverse conditions following regulatory demands, user engagements, and foreign pressures. The internet is constructed on the foundation of services and programs that facilitates a user to acquire specific info from a platform. The case study of Facebook presents a breach of trust that happened when Cambridge Analytica attained user date from 87 million Facebook accounts and tried to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. The user trust was dishonored and raised the essence of considering key strategic concerns confronting Facebook executives and the company’s ever-present platform.

There were uproars from the media and Facebook users during the first six months of 2018 following the breach of trust incidence.  Facebook users were concerned about their user privacy intrusion by a third party. The Cambridge Analytica company had innovated data mining that connected Facebook data to personal email and phone numbers. The obtained data was later used to discover individuals based on their political party and voting preferences. Equipped with that data, the British company allegedly constructed targeted campaign messaging in a trial o influence the 2016 U.S presidential election in support of their ideal candidate.

Facebook founder, Zuckerburg had to set up strategic actions to sustain the remarkable user society Facebook. He innovated substantial advertising revenues by aiming at personalized ads that are important to every user. This mode of advertising has proved to be a profitable business design. This business model relies on consumers to sign up on the platform and keep engaged with it. Facebook relies on the potential to take the data that users give concerning their preferences to create an explicit knowledge base for every user. Social media platforms should take clear strategies. Developers should be given a chance to use the Application Programming Interface (API). Open policies are aimed at developing the whole activity related to the social media platforms and building the user community and not directly gaining profits from the service.  A clear strategy is intended to make the market size more prominent, while a closed strategy is focused on competing harshly for a more significant market share. Facebook has used this open strategy and has had an impact on its stock price.

“There is a growing interdependence between a firm’s ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals.”

“To fully understand information systems, you must understand the broader organization, management, and information technology dimensions of systems and their power to provide solutions to challenges and problems in the business environment.”

Discuss whether or not each of the six case studies provides empirical support for the above two claims.  

There is a growing interdependence between a firm’s ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve organizational goals. The short and long term vision of a company relies on the capability of its systems. Developing new products, escalating market share, becoming a low-cost producer, and increasing employee productivity depends mainly on the kind and quality of information systems in the firm. The appreciative of this relationship is of more benefit to a manager. Managers should know how information systems can help their businesses to be more competitive, beneficial, and efficient. Information technologies and methods are modernizing the functioning of companies, markets, and industries.

Modifications in rules, business processes, and strategies necessitate alterations in software, databases, hardware, and telecommunications.  A firm’s systems govern the limits of the firm. IT is a vital tool for achieving considerable benefits in productivity. Investing in IT reaps the increased productivity of firms. Innovations need to be connected with IT. For instance, Terma Company business units had to incorporate business process transformation with politics that were profoundly influenced and maneuvered by the managers. Investing in IT benefits a company with strategic opportunities and advantages.  Realizing new business opportunities, developing new products and services is every firm’s goal. Thus, IT offers the avenue for the achievement of corporate goals.

To achieve success, investment in IT must go along with significant changes in business processes and modifications in management behavior, attitudes, and culture. These changes, when absent, investment in IT can be futile. For instance, Facebook has accelerated its revenues through advertisements. The information system represents a combination of organization, management, and technology component. Information systems are the base for operating businesses. It increases productivity and industrial survival, improved decision making, competitive gain, and operational merit, thus vital for a firm to work.

Additionally, information systems assist managers and employees in scrutinizing constraints, create new projects, and visualize intricate subjects. They integrate a comprehension of the management and institutional and technical dimensions of systems. The organization dimensions of information systems include the firm’s hierarchy, culture, business processes, political interest groups, and functional specialists. The U.K NHS policy discourse is the best example. The method of centering healthcare on a patient requires that all stakeholders are involved in this project as well as a good comprehension of the technology and its functionalism to make the project successful.

2. Business processes

Which specific business processes and management activities in the “business information value chain” (Fig.1-7 of the text) comprise the focus of the IT efforts in each of the six firms/business units? (Be sure to independently research and study “business processes” in detail from extraneous sources before answering this question-go beyond the textbook figure; as it depicts only a few generic examples of business processes.)

For each firm/business unit, do the business processes and management activities you identified above seem to be well supported by its information processing activities? Explain your reasoning

Each business firm has an information value chain in which raw data is analytically obtained and then modified through stages that enrich value to that info. The cost of an information system and its judgments to invest in other information systems is resolved by the extent to which the system will contribute to better organization choices, higher organization profits, and proficient business processes. The value chain management goal is to identify areas of potential innovation. Business process management activities can be categorized as design, execution and optimization, monitoring, and modeling.

The business processes that involve data management, supply chain management, project management, and purchaser engagement in figure 1-7 comprise the IT efforts in the Facebook case study and the U.K NHS case study project. The government incorporated policy discourses and engaged stakeholders in the healthcare field to transform fully into patient-centered care. Additionally, the ISY, AES, RSY, and ASY business units in Terma Company present these business processes in IT modification processes aimed at enhancing the functionality of the company and rocket profits.

The management actions entail the process on the plan, coordinate, control, model, and resolution-making in Figure 1-7. The Terma company data processing activities do not well present these business processes. Organizational politics affected behaviors and results in each business unit. Thus the firm’s objectives of bringing processes into compliance with CMMI and reach the level to where fundamental project management processes are stable and repeatable were not accomplished as desired in the planning stage.

3. Which “strategic business objectives” of information systems are evident in each case study? Discuss.

Business companies invest heavily in information systems to accomplish six strategic business objectives: new products, services, and business models, operational merit, survival, competitive benefit, improved decision making, and customer and supply relationship.  In functional merit, firms struggle to enhance the efficiency of their operations in an aim to attain higher benefits. IS and technology are vital tools available to managers for acquiring high measures of efficiency and productivity in commercial functioning and administration conduct. For instance, in Terma Company, the ASY business unit. ASY was struggling to engage as it had bumped into new market opportunities that demanded attention during the BPT.

Improved decision making strategic business objective is apparent in the case study of U.K National Health Service whereby the healthcare managers used real-time data to identify the needs and desires of patients and that assisted in decision-making process whereby they resorted to making healthcare services patient-centered, for the benefit of the citizens at large. Moreover, this strategy is also presented in the Facebook case study, whereby the adverts that the users receive are fetched from a search in their tastes and preferences. Then revenue is generated from the advertisers of the platform. The RSY business unit also presents this strategic business objective. The Corporate manager in the BPT implementation depended on evaluations to pinpoint challenges and lack of execution progress.

Survival as a strategic business objective is manifested in Terma Company ISY business unit, where it encountered market demands for evidence of process maturity, and it had to assimilate CMMI as a means and an end. The business unit embraced the defense industry’s maturity discourse and accepted the CMMI plan with no objections at all. Another example is the AES business unit in Terma Company that was through the process of organizational streamlining. At the same time, the economy was unstable but had to advance the unit’s process maturity and had to accept BPT as a resolution to all its constraints to keep running.

4. What kinds of ethical issues (refer to chapter 4) are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that persons, acting as free moral agents, use to make decisions to safeguard their character. Information systems stir ethical issues because they construct situations for profound social change. Current digital technologies have generated new forms of ethical dilemmas. Business ethics guards the conduct of a businessman while conducting business by observing righteousness in his commercial operations. In the case study of Facebook, Zuckerburg admitted that he was responsible for what happened on the social platform. He had not put preventive measures to third parties that would mine data from Facebook. This illustrates failed ethical judgment. The Facebook organization did not protect information rights and obligations. Progress in data analysis techniques enabled Analytica Cambridge to mine data from personal accounts, heightening ethical issues bone of contention.

In the Terma Company, all the business units had ethical-political issues that influenced the BPT project’s success. Rationalist, interpretive, radical, and pluralist politics maneuvered the BPT implementation. In the case study of U.K.’ national health service: IT and PCC discourses in policy, computing power doubles every 18 months technology trend raises the ethical issue in that the health centers will rely on computer systems or vital operations and will lead to vulnerability of systems failure. Firms can analyze the enormous quantity of data collected on individuals to create profiles of individual characters. Thus community surveillance on health trends can be obtained.

There exist managerial dilemmas between the social consideration and profit consideration that calls for a review of ethical issues. In Terma Company, ASY business unit, there was overstretching of resources, causing the workers to complain about poor working conditions and stress. There was a struggle at the project level where CMMI was viewed by the project managers to add administrative burdens and detract attention. Furthermore, in all the four business units of Terma Company, there existed ethical issues between the firm’s aim to reach a trade-off between pursuing its social expectations and economic goals. This documents the politics that dominated the BPT processes in all the business units as there were critical ethical concerns.

5. Which types of e-commerce (refer to B2C, B2B, C2C, G2C, G2B, etc., in Chapter 10), if any, are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

B2C – Business to Consumer. This electronic commerce entails retailing products and services to individual customers. This model vends its products directly to a consumer. The RSY business unit in Terma Company uses this model and reaches its consumers directly. It provides radar systems for surveillance applications and targets the civilian market.

B2B – Business to Business e-commerce. This electronic commerce involves the sales of goods and services among businesses. The b2b business model sells its products to an intermediate buyer who then sells the product to the final consumer. The ISY business unit provides its products through large scale projects for military customers. Thus if an individual military consumer needed a product, they would vend it from a retail outlet and not directly from the company. The retailer purchases wholesale from the business unit and on large quantities. The ASY is a global provider of its products. Thus it sells through large scale quantities and supplies other retail outlets.

C2C – Consumer to Consumer. This electronic commerce involves customers selling directly to consumers. The website may or might not charge the consumer for its services. Another customer may decide to buy the product of the first customer by viewing the post/ advertisement on the website. The Facebook case study generates revenue from advertising.  Facebook sells advertising that is highly customized based on the specific likes of each user.

G2C-Government to Citizen, This is electronic commerce activities performed between the government and its general public, including providing services and information and also paying taxes.  It has the aim of minimizing the average time that a citizen spends engaging in various government services.  The U.K government intends to transform healthcare by offering electronic health records, e-prescribing systems, and making healthcare patient-centered.

G2B-Government to business is a business model that refers to the government providing services and information to business organizations. The government uses this model website to approach business associations. These websites support tenders, auctions, and application submission functionalities. The U.K National Health Service organizations such as primary care practices are categorized into Trusts. The Trusts applied for fund holder status, granting them semi-autonomy from the central management of the NHS.

Political maneuvering during business process transformation – A pluralist approach

Numerous attempts have been made in the past years in the quench of enhancing organizational performance via business process transformation (BPT). Institutional politics have determined BPT behaviors and after results.  Managers who assume the roles of transformation agents and process uses have used different political perspectives to maneuver BPT initiatives. Focusing on a pluralist methodology, the fixed case study of a firm-wide BPT project presents four business units at the high-tech firm Terma. Four different patterns of BPT politics are applied. They include applying the hammer, struggling to engage, walking the talk and, keeping up appearances.

Business process transformation is the latest route of enhancing business performance through adopting technology and implementing new mechanisms of organizing, managing, and executing work. BPT necessitates one to use IS for transformation reasons, and that reinforces the complex interplay between technology and people related concerns. BPT is a steady improvement and process innovation that entails both radical and incremental change initiatives. Managers need to comprehend and participate in BPT politics to meet their interests and to respond accordingly to stakeholders. Managers should not react passively to political moves but slightly proactively maneuver BPT attempts by considering their intrinsic political nature.

Terma Management System is a comprehensive ISO9001-certified quality system that comprises more than 1,000 development and management processes. The firm has enrolled in numerous process initiatives since its certification in 2003 with limited impacts. The BPT project kicked off in 2005 in the company and founded on CMMI. Its corporate –level aims had two desired outcomes: to bring processes into compliance with CMMI and to reach level 2, where fundamental project management processes are stable and repeatable. The four cases of BPT at Terma included AES, ASY, and RSY. The process maturity at the start and closure of the project in AES increased, and the unit halt just short of being compliant with CMMI level 2. In ASY, the process maturity declined, and the unit did not comply with CMMI level 2. In ISY, its process maturity increased and met with CMMI level 2throughout the project. Finally, RSY had compliance with CMMI level 2 at the start of the project but later at the end, had a decreased process maturity.

AES business unit designs and manufactures aerostructures and engine components for military and commercial aircraft and takes them to systems integrators, the airframes. AES was under institutional restructuring and was faced with many challenges, as the economy was unhealthy, and people lost their lives. Thus, there was a need for social construction role in solving the pre-current disputes. The AES senior VP undertook BPT with an approach to rationalist politics to boost the process maturity of the unit by relying on a cookbook approach and by adapting Terma’s generic processes to the local context. AES managers saw the importance of maneuvering the BPT implementation as it had a substantial impact on AES projects.

The project was a result of general politics founded on the skillful utilization of symbols and language. The AES senior VP used symbols to capacitate the process and influence results.  The fellow workmates accepted and concurred with his decisions.AES managers based their resolutions on vital judgments of the applicability of new processes and their know-how of project managers’ existing strengths and weaknesses.

ASY is a worldwide provider of developed aerospace technology for fighter aircraft, helicopters, and transport aircraft. It aspires to integrate protective aids and systems o prolong pilots’ comprehensive battlefield overview. ASY experienced new commercial opportunities that needed commitment during BPT. Resources were availed to the employees who had complaints regarding their working conditions. The senior VP had to solve this problem by prioritizing and negotiating disputing interests.  Pluralist polities dictated BPT in ASY and never acquired a solution.

Consequently, ASY was unsuccessfully struggling o engage during the whole project. There was a dispute between the ASY goals and the BPT project goals. Variations in powerbases among the stakeholders determined the BPT results at the end. Most project managers were against CMMI and new processes. Rationalist and interpretive politics played throughout the entire project.

ISY is another business unit that provides integrated solutions for managing ground, air, and naval operations through large scale projects for military clients. ISY unit encountered market demands for the substantiation of process maturity. CMMI ideology was the solution and accepted the entire doctrine with no constraints. This was a means to escalate process efficiency and predictability. ISY participation in the BPT was high in terms of priori goal alignment. Both the ISY manager and the training manager offered full support to all project managers personally. ISY was ‘walking the talk.’ Rationalist politics, interpretive politics, and radical influence governed the BPT in ISY. There was limited pluralist politics because there was little need to determine conflicts of interest.

RSY is another business unit that deals with providing radar systems for surveillance applications, to a national market. Competing social creations of the BPT project subsisted.  RSY senior VP and implementation manager had conflicting interests.  Interpretive politics dominated the RSY’s BPT attempts.  The participants continued to ‘keep up appearances’ by showing commitment but never tried to attain BPT aims. Also, there were battling goals and interests as a result of pluralist politics. RSY sustained a socially created image of full commitment to the BPT project but only implemented limited BPT processes in a few projects. The misunderstanding between RSY and the corporate level brought about the failure to prioritize, communicate, and resolve disputes. The RSY senior VP claimed that the BPT project had minimal benefits and disputed with RSY benefits.  There was no unity between the project managers and the RSY implementation manager.  Differences in powerbases flanked by Terma’s BPT manager and RSY stakeholders made the stratagem futile. The BPT manager did not intensify the conflict and use his power and corporate authorization as a response to tackle the lack of goal compliance, notwithstanding the espoused support for the overarching BPT goal. He depended on the assessments to spot constraints and lack of execution progress.

Policy discourses of IT and patient-centered care.

Information Technology is significant in the upgrading of healthcare worldwide. It has a positive impact on transforming healthcare from organizational-centric to patient-centered (PCC). An analysis of England’s health policy between 1989 and 2013 was conducted. The state aimed at making healthcare patient center and embraced IT to the achievement of the goal. For the whole transformation to patient-centered care, the needs and wants of patients had to be identified and planned into IT- capacitated services. Upgrading healthcare is vital and necessary because of the expensive costs and changing requirements in the healthcare industry.

IT is proposed in many countries and academic works as it has clinical, financial benefits and enables new ways of care delivery. Policies are essential for the comprehension of the roles of IT in the modification of healthcare. Healthcare is majorly provided by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, making policy vital. The systems and strategies primarily determine NHS ethos, priorities, and formations. The plan is modifying the healthcare field and IT field in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries.  IT and PCC discourses interrelated with other discussions. The design of IT entails interconnected judgments about the organization of work and technology.

Processes of change shape and are shaped by technology. PCC postulates that negotiations between doctors and patients are vital and would contribute to positive health results and economic profits.PCC necessitates the restructuring of services regarding patients care plans that need amendments to the whole organization of work. Patients are regarded as a resource that can be utilized to minimize costs and enhance quality. Managerial PCC endeavors to amalgamate information technology in the care chain in the belief that web-portals, distributed records, and online access accommodate interrelations between patients and health medics by providing adequate info, patient engagement, and mutual feedback.

Strategic actions in a platform context

Social media platforms need to have unique and comprehensive strategic activities in response to cybercrimes and breach of trust that may arise. The best strategy must be assimilated in diverse conditions following regulatory demands, user engagements, and foreign pressures. The internet is constructed on the foundation of services and programs that facilitates a user to acquire specific info from a platform. The case study of Facebook presents a breach of trust that happened when Cambridge Analytica attained user date from 87 million Facebook accounts and tried to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. The user trust was dishonored and raised the essence of considering key strategic concerns confronting Facebook executives and the company’s ever-present platform.

There were uproars from the media and Facebook users during the first six months of 2018 following the breach of trust incidence.  Facebook users were concerned about their user privacy intrusion by a third party. The Cambridge Analytica company had innovated data mining that connected Facebook data to personal email and phone numbers. The obtained data was later used to discover individuals based on their political party and voting preferences. Equipped with that data, the British company allegedly constructed targeted campaign messaging in a trial o influence the 2016 U.S presidential election in support of their ideal candidate.

Facebook founder, Zuckerburg had to set up strategic actions to sustain the remarkable user society Facebook. He innovated substantial advertising revenues by aiming at personalized ads that are important to every user. This mode of advertising has proved to be a profitable business design. This business model relies on consumers to sign up on the platform and keep engaged with it. Facebook relies on the potential to take the data that users give concerning their preferences to create an explicit knowledge base for every user. Social media platforms should take clear strategies. Developers should be given a chance to use the Application Programming Interface (API). Open policies are aimed at developing the whole activity related to the social media platforms and building the user community and not directly gaining profits from the service.  A clear strategy is intended to make the market size more prominent, while a closed strategy is focused on competing harshly for a more significant market share. Facebook has used this open strategy and has had an impact on its stock price.

“There is a growing interdependence between a firm’s ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals.”

“To fully understand information systems, you must understand the broader organization, management, and information technology dimensions of systems and their power to provide solutions to challenges and problems in the business environment.”

Discuss whether or not each of the six case studies provides empirical support for the above two claims.  

There is a growing interdependence between a firm’s ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve organizational goals. The short and long term vision of a company relies on the capability of its systems. Developing new products, escalating market share, becoming a low-cost producer, and increasing employee productivity depends mainly on the kind and quality of information systems in the firm. The appreciative of this relationship is of more benefit to a manager. Managers should know how information systems can help their businesses to be more competitive, beneficial, and efficient. Information technologies and methods are modernizing the functioning of companies, markets, and industries.

Modifications in rules, business processes, and strategies necessitate alterations in software, databases, hardware, and telecommunications.  A firm’s systems govern the limits of the firm. IT is a vital tool for achieving considerable benefits in productivity. Investing in IT reaps the increased productivity of firms. Innovations need to be connected with IT. For instance, Terma Company business units had to incorporate business process transformation with politics that were profoundly influenced and maneuvered by the managers. Investing in IT benefits a company with strategic opportunities and advantages.  Realizing new business opportunities, developing new products and services is every firm’s goal. Thus, IT offers the avenue for the achievement of corporate goals.

To achieve success, investment in IT must go along with significant changes in business processes and modifications in management behavior, attitudes, and culture. These changes, when absent, investment in IT can be futile. For instance, Facebook has accelerated its revenues through advertisements. The information system represents a combination of organization, management, and technology component. Information systems are the base for operating businesses. It increases productivity and industrial survival, improved decision making, competitive gain, and operational merit, thus vital for a firm to work.

Additionally, information systems assist managers and employees in scrutinizing constraints, create new projects, and visualize intricate subjects. They integrate a comprehension of the management and institutional and technical dimensions of systems. The organization dimensions of information systems include the firm’s hierarchy, culture, business processes, political interest groups, and functional specialists. The U.K NHS policy discourse is the best example. The method of centering healthcare on a patient requires that all stakeholders are involved in this project as well as a good comprehension of the technology and its functionalism to make the project successful.

2. Business processes

Which specific business processes and management activities in the “business information value chain” (Fig.1-7 of the text) comprise the focus of the IT efforts in each of the six firms/business units? (Be sure to independently research and study “business processes” in detail from extraneous sources before answering this question-go beyond the textbook figure; as it depicts only a few generic examples of business processes.)

For each firm/business unit, do the business processes and management activities you identified above seem to be well supported by its information processing activities? Explain your reasoning

Each business firm has an information value chain in which raw data is analytically obtained and then modified through stages that enrich value to that info. The cost of an information system and its judgments to invest in other information systems is resolved by the extent to which the system will contribute to better organization choices, higher organization profits, and proficient business processes. The value chain management goal is to identify areas of potential innovation. Business process management activities can be categorized as design, execution and optimization, monitoring, and modeling.

The business processes that involve data management, supply chain management, project management, and purchaser engagement in figure 1-7 comprise the IT efforts in the Facebook case study and the U.K NHS case study project. The government incorporated policy discourses and engaged stakeholders in the healthcare field to transform fully into patient-centered care. Additionally, the ISY, AES, RSY, and ASY business units in Terma Company present these business processes in IT modification processes aimed at enhancing the functionality of the company and rocket profits.

The management actions entail the process on the plan, coordinate, control, model, and resolution-making in Figure 1-7. The Terma company data processing activities do not well present these business processes. Organizational politics affected behaviors and results in each business unit. Thus the firm’s objectives of bringing processes into compliance with CMMI and reach the level to where fundamental project management processes are stable and repeatable were not accomplished as desired in the planning stage.

3. Which “strategic business objectives” of information systems are evident in each case study? Discuss.

Business companies invest heavily in information systems to accomplish six strategic business objectives: new products, services, and business models, operational merit, survival, competitive benefit, improved decision making, and customer and supply relationship.  In functional merit, firms struggle to enhance the efficiency of their operations in an aim to attain higher benefits. IS and technology are vital tools available to managers for acquiring high measures of efficiency and productivity in commercial functioning and administration conduct. For instance, in Terma Company, the ASY business unit. ASY was struggling to engage as it had bumped into new market opportunities that demanded attention during the BPT.

Improved decision making strategic business objective is apparent in the case study of U.K National Health Service whereby the healthcare managers used real-time data to identify the needs and desires of patients and that assisted in decision-making process whereby they resorted to making healthcare services patient-centered, for the benefit of the citizens at large. Moreover, this strategy is also presented in the Facebook case study, whereby the adverts that the users receive are fetched from a search in their tastes and preferences. Then revenue is generated from the advertisers of the platform. The RSY business unit also presents this strategic business objective. The Corporate manager in the BPT implementation depended on evaluations to pinpoint challenges and lack of execution progress.

Survival as a strategic business objective is manifested in Terma Company ISY business unit, where it encountered market demands for evidence of process maturity, and it had to assimilate CMMI as a means and an end. The business unit embraced the defense industry’s maturity discourse and accepted the CMMI plan with no objections at all. Another example is the AES business unit in Terma Company that was through the process of organizational streamlining. At the same time, the economy was unstable but had to advance the unit’s process maturity and had to accept BPT as a resolution to all its constraints to keep running.

4. What kinds of ethical issues (refer to chapter 4) are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that persons, acting as free moral agents, use to make decisions to safeguard their character. Information systems stir ethical issues because they construct situations for profound social change. Current digital technologies have generated new forms of ethical dilemmas. Business ethics guards the conduct of a businessman while conducting business by observing righteousness in his commercial operations. In the case study of Facebook, Zuckerburg admitted that he was responsible for what happened on the social platform. He had not put preventive measures to third parties that would mine data from Facebook. This illustrates failed ethical judgment. The Facebook organization did not protect information rights and obligations. Progress in data analysis techniques enabled Analytica Cambridge to mine data from personal accounts, heightening ethical issues bone of contention.

In the Terma Company, all the business units had ethical-political issues that influenced the BPT project’s success. Rationalist, interpretive, radical, and pluralist politics maneuvered the BPT implementation. In the case study of U.K.’ national health service: IT and PCC discourses in policy, computing power doubles every 18 months technology trend raises the ethical issue in that the health centers will rely on computer systems or vital operations and will lead to vulnerability of systems failure. Firms can analyze the enormous quantity of data collected on individuals to create profiles of individual characters. Thus community surveillance on health trends can be obtained.

There exist managerial dilemmas between the social consideration and profit consideration that calls for a review of ethical issues. In Terma Company, ASY business unit, there was overstretching of resources, causing the workers to complain about poor working conditions and stress. There was a struggle at the project level where CMMI was viewed by the project managers to add administrative burdens and detract attention. Furthermore, in all the four business units of Terma Company, there existed ethical issues between the firm’s aim to reach a trade-off between pursuing its social expectations and economic goals. This documents the politics that dominated the BPT processes in all the business units as there were critical ethical concerns.

5. Which types of e-commerce (refer to B2C, B2B, C2C, G2C, G2B, etc., in Chapter 10), if any, are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

B2C – Business to Consumer. This electronic commerce entails retailing products and services to individual customers. This model vends its products directly to a consumer. The RSY business unit in Terma Company uses this model and reaches its consumers directly. It provides radar systems for surveillance applications and targets the civilian market.

B2B – Business to Business e-commerce. This electronic commerce involves the sales of goods and services among businesses. The b2b business model sells its products to an intermediate buyer who then sells the product to the final consumer. The ISY business unit provides its products through large scale projects for military customers. Thus if an individual military consumer needed a product, they would vend it from a retail outlet and not directly from the company. The retailer purchases wholesale from the business unit and on large quantities. The ASY is a global provider of its products. Thus it sells through large scale quantities and supplies other retail outlets.

C2C – Consumer to Consumer. This electronic commerce involves customers selling directly to consumers. The website may or might not charge the consumer for its services. Another customer may decide to buy the product of the first customer by viewing the post/ advertisement on the website. The Facebook case study generates revenue from advertising.  Facebook sells advertising that is highly customized based on the specific likes of each user.

G2C-Government to Citizen, This is electronic commerce activities performed between the government and its general public, including providing services and information and also paying taxes.  It has the aim of minimizing the average time that a citizen spends engaging in various government services.  The U.K government intends to transform healthcare by offering electronic health records, e-prescribing systems, and making healthcare patient-centered.

G2B-Government to business is a business model that refers to the government providing services and information to business organizations. The government uses this model website to approach business associations. These websites support tenders, auctions, and application submission functionalities. The U.K National Health Service organizations such as primary care practices are categorized into Trusts. The Trusts applied for fund holder status, granting them semi-autonomy from the central management of the NHS.

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