Behavioural Approach to Business Processes
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Questions and Answers

What best describes the significance of the sociotechnical approach in organizational performance?

  • It focuses exclusively on technological improvements.
  • It integrates social and technical systems for optimal performance. (correct)
  • It aims to optimize only the social systems involved.
  • It emphasizes the importance of economic factors over psychology.

    • Which of the following is an example of a functional business process?

  • Both B and C (correct)
  • Order fulfillment process
  • Identifying customers
  • Managing cash accounts

    • What is a characteristic of cross-functional business processes?

  • They integrate activities across related business functions. (correct)
  • They are solely concerned with manual steps.
  • They operate independently without sharing information.
  • They are tied strictly to one functional area.

    • How does information technology improve business processes?

    <p>By increasing efficiency through automation and new models.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is NOT a function of Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)?

    <p>Manage strategic decision-making.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a primary role of business processes in an organization?

    <p>To produce a product or service through a series of activities.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following statements best defines business processes?

    <p>They involve flows of material, information, and knowledge.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the term 'assets or liabilities' refer to in the context of business processes?

    <p>The effectiveness and efficiency of business processes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is one primary function of enterprise software?

    <p>To collect data from various firm divisions for internal business activities</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following options is NOT a predefined business process within enterprise software?

    <p>Project Management</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of safety stock in supply chain management?

    <p>To act as a buffer against supply chain flexibility issues</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which term describes the distortion of information about product demand as it is passed through the supply chain?

    <p>Bullwhip effect</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is a feature of supply chain execution systems?

    <p>Managing product flow through distribution centers</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does Moore's law state regarding computing power?

    <p>It doubles every 2 years.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What benefit does enterprise systems provide for decision-making in a company?

    <p>Provides firm-wide information to support better decisions</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which law describes the value of a network based on its number of members?

    <p>Metcalfe's law</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What role does an operating system (OS) primarily fulfill?

    <p>It manages computer resources and interfaces with applications.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is one of the consequences of inefficiencies in supply chain management?

    <p>Increases operational costs</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which strategy ensures components arrive only as needed in the production process?

    <p>Just-in-time strategy</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How has the amount of data being stored changed annually according to the law of mass digital storage?

    <p>It doubles every year.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is NOT a component of IT infrastructure?

    <p>Quantum computing simulation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a primary function of middleware in enterprise software applications?

    <p>To serve as a bridge between different software applications.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which organization is recognized as a large provider of enterprise software?

    <p>SAP</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is Apache Hadoop primarily used for?

    <p>To manage large data sets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary purpose of Executive Support Systems (ESS)?

    <p>To help executives focus on important performance information</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The Balanced Scorecard Method measures outcomes across which dimensions?

    <p>Financial, business process, customer, and learning &amp; growth</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best defines business performance management (BPM)?

    <p>A strategy to translate a firm's strategies into operational targets</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Backward sensitivity analysis primarily evaluates how changes in which of the following impact the output?

    <p>Input variables</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are designed to measure progress towards what?

    <p>Targets established in relation to business strategies</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the role of the application server in a typical configuration?

    <p>Responsible for managing user requests and application operations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is NOT an advantage of using the web for database access?

    <p>Web interface requires extensive changes to the database.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a key aspect of data governance?

    <p>It establishes rules for sharing and managing data as an organizational resource.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What must a firm do before a new database is operational?

    <p>Identify and correct faulty data.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are unstructured decisions characterized by?

    <p>They need insight and evaluation to solve problems.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which group of managers typically makes semi-structured decisions?

    <p>Middle managers carrying out programs of senior management.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is data cleansing primarily concerned with?

    <p>Detecting and correcting corrupt or inaccurate records.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best describes structured decisions?

    <p>They are repetitive and follow established procedures.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Behavioural Approach

    • The Behavioural approach looks at how businesses function through the lens of psychology, economics and sociology.
    • It focuses on integrating business strategies and implementation with a socio-technical lens—optimizing both social and technical systems.
    • Avoids a purely technology-focused approach.

    Business Processes

    • A collection of activities needed for producing a product or service.
    • Involve flows of material, information and knowledge.
    • Can be tied to a specific functional area or be cross-functional.
    • Many individual processes come together to form an entire business.
    • Business processes are assets or liabilities for a business depending on their efficiency.

    Examples of Functional Business Processes: Major Business Functions

    • Manufacturing & Production involves assembling, quality control and producing bill of materials.
    • Sales & Marketing focuses on identifying customers, making them aware of the product and selling it.
    • Finance & Accounting deals with paying creditors, generating financial statements and managing cash accounts.
    • Human Resources manages employee hiring, performance evaluation and benefit plan enrollment.

    Examples of a Cross-Functional Business Process: The Order Fulfillment Process

    • Functional business processes often operate independently and can struggle to share information for cross-functional processes.
    • Large-scale cross-functional business processes integrate activities of related business processes and organizational units.

    How Information Technology Improves Business Processes

    • Automation of manual steps can increase existing process efficiency.
    • Enables entirely new processes through altering information flow, replacing sequential steps, reducing decision-making delays and supporting new business models.

    Types of Information Systems

    • Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) are computerized systems that serve operational managers and staff.
    • They perform and record daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business.
    • They also allow managers to monitor operational statuses and external environmental relations.

    Technology Drivers of Infrastructure Evolution

    • Moore's Law and micro-processing power: Computing power doubles every two years.
    • Nanotechnology: Technology that builds structures and processes by manipulating atoms at the molecular level.
    • Law of Mass Digital Storage: The amount of data stored each year doubles.
    • Metcalfe's Law and Network Economies: The value of a network scales exponentially with increasing numbers of members.
    • Declining Communication Costs and the Internet: The internet grows rapidly and communication costs decrease.
    • Standards and Network Effects: Compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network contribute to growth.

    Components of IT Infrastructure

    • Computer Hardware Platforms: Client machines (desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, chip types) and Servers (including mainframes).
    • Operating System Platforms: Corporate servers (Windows Server, Unix, Linux), client level (Windows, Android, iOS, Windows 10, Google's Chrome OS).
    • Enterprise Software Applications: Firms spend over $500 billion on software for enterprise applications annually. The largest providers are SAP and Oracle.
    • Data Management and Storage: This includes database software providers (managing and storing data in a specific way) and data management technology (managing data stored on physical media).
    • Enterprise Software: Built around thousands of predefined business processes reflecting best practices. These systems can be customized by selecting functions, mapping business processes to software processes, and configuring tables.

    Business Value of Enterprise Systems

    • Operational efficiency gains.
    • Provides firm-wide information supporting decision-making.
    • Enables rapid customer service responses.
    • Includes analytical tools for evaluating overall organizational performance.

    The Supply Chain

    • Network of organizations and processes for procuring materials, transforming them into products, and distributing these products.
    • Upstream refers to getting materials to the manufacturer.
    • Downstream refers to getting products from the manufacturer to the end consumer.
    • Internal refers to the chain of activities within a company.

    Supply Chain Management

    • Inefficiencies in the supply chain impact operating costs.
    • Just-in-time strategy: Components arrive as needed, finished goods shipped immediately after assembly.
    • Safety stock: Extra supplies to buffer lack of flexibility in the supply chain.
    • Bullwhip effect: Information about product demand gets distorted as it passes through the supply chain.

    Supply Chain Management Software

    • Supply chain planning systems: Used for forecasting demand and developing plans. Includes modelling the supply chain, demand planning, optimizing sourcing/manufacturing plans, establishing inventory levels, and identifying transportation modes.
    • Supply Chain Execution Systems: Manage the flow of products through distribution centres and warehouses to ensure efficient delivery.

    Typical Configuration

    • Includes a web server, application server/middleware/scripts (handles application operations) and database server (hosting DBMS).
    • Advantages of using the web for database access: ease of use via browser software, web interface requiring minimal changes to the database, and lower cost for adding a web interface.

    Data Governance

    • Policies and procedures to ensure data is managed as an organizational resource.
    • Includes rules for sharing, dissemination, acquiring, standardizing, classifying and inventorying information.

    Data Quality Assurance

    • Before a new database is implemented, faulty data must be identified and corrected.
    • Establish better data editing routines for continuous data quality.
    • Data quality audit to ensure data is clean, of good quality and used for the correct purposes.
    • Data cleansing to detect and correct (or remove) inaccurate records in databases.

    Types of Decisions

    • Unstructured Decisions: Decision maker needs judgment, evaluation and insight to address the problem.
    • Structured Decisions: Routine and repetitive, involving clear procedures.
    • Semi-structured Decisions: Some aspects of the problem have a clear-cut answer with existing procedures, while other aspects require more judgment.

    How Does the Decision-Making Process Work?

    • Senior managers make many unstructured decisions, focusing on long-range strategic decisions and firm financial performance.
    • Middle managers make more structured decisions, but these may include unstructured elements. They carry out senior management programs and plans.
    • Operational managers and employees make mostly structured decisions, monitoring daily business activities.

    Decision Support for Senior Management

    • Executive Support Systems (ESS): Help executives focus on critical performance information.
    • Data for ESS: Internal data from enterprise applications and external data such as financial market databases.
    • Balanced Scorecard Method: Measures outcomes on four dimensions for understanding business performance information relevant for executives: Financial, Business Process, Customer, and Learning & Growth.
    • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measure each dimension in the Balanced Scorecard framework.

    Balanced Scorecard Framework

    • Strategy Map Template: A visual representation of the Balanced Scorecard framework, showing how strategic objectives are linked across dimensions.

    Decision Support for Senior Management: Business Performance Management

    • Business Performance Management (BPM): Translates firm strategies (Ex.differentiation, low-cost producer) into operational targets.
    • KPIs are developed to track progress toward targets.

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    Description

    Explore the Behavioural approach to understanding business processes by integrating psychology, economics, and sociology. This quiz delves into how effective business processes can impact both functionality and efficiency within organizations. Test your knowledge on the major functional business processes, including manufacturing and marketing.

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