Understanding Organizations: Definition, Goals, and IT Role

Organization Definition

• An organization is a group of individuals working together with resources to achieve specific goals.
• It's a structured entity where people with different roles interact under formal or informal rules.

Organization Objectives

• Improve productivity
• Improve the quality of goods and services
• Control deadlines
• Improve safety
• Improve information quality
• Improve communication
• Improve work life quality

Key Organizational Elements

• Resources: including human skills, equipment, and finances
• Purposes: focused on economic gains, technological advancements, and social improvements like working conditions and communication

Challenges of IT in Organizations

• IT, or Information Technology/Information Systems (IS), plays a significant role in supporting activities and exchanges.
• There is a need to consider the nature and circulation of information within the company.

Company as an Organization

• Every business has an organizational structure. That structure determines how the company operates daily, makes decisions, and facilitates teamwork.
• Organizations need to adapt to internal and external changes like tech shifts, market conditions, or strategic objectives.

Basic Components of an Organization

• An IS is vital for how an organization functions.
• Organized human activity requires work division and task coordination.
• Mintzberg identified five components that are essential to an organization and their coordinated activities.

Organizational Components & Their Roles

• Strategic Apex: composed of directors and executives who define the mission and ensure its consistency with organizational objectives
• Operating core: responsible for carrying out activities to deliver outputs
• The middle line: links the strategic apex and operating core. Its role involves the interpretation of strategic apex expectations for the operating core.
• Techno-structure: consists of individuals and teams in areas like HR, training, finance, and planning that seek skill standardization and quality requirements
• Support staff: works in research, legal services, and public relations that indirectly contribute to the organization's core purposes.

Types of Organizational Structures

• Companies can be viewed as networks of sectors (sales, accounting) using flows of money, material, or information.
• The company can be viewed as multi-layered with a certain decision-making power.
• Mintzberg identified five organization categories, each relying on a specific element of the model.

Simple Organizational Structure

• Simple structure is often centralized and autocratic, with control exerted by the chief executive and has a strong sense of mission but is vulnerable

Machine Bureaucracy

• The machine bureaucracy relies on a techno-structure with strategic planners and financial controllers which can result in rigid and demotivated employees.

Professional Bureaucracy

• The professional bureaucracy is based on authority and standard practice but with external standards and is more democratic, motivating employees.

Divisionalized Structure

• A divisionalized structure is small, central core that sets autonomous business unit guidelines - typical of multinational companies.

Adhocracy

• Adhocracy focuses on tasks or projects, allowing for quick responses to change driven by rapidly-changing markets or innovation.

Information Circulation

• A company's functions are exercised to meet objectives involving interconnected sectors and information exchange, which are known as the information circuits.
• Levels of responsibility each make decisions related to actions and decisions are known as information cycles
• Information is a decision-making, communication, and collective work tool.

Information Cycle

• Cycle that characterizes links decisions to actions, based on objectives
• It prompts you to consider the goals, whether they have been met, and ask question.

Information Circuits

• Relationships between sectors (sales, production, supply).
• Exchanges via material, money, and information flows
• Standardization involves codification of information and standardized information.

Information Flow Diagram (IFD)

• Process of exchanging information between business parts so that they can collaborate because there needs to be functional information flows for success. This means information must reach the rightrecipient.
• Interest is fourfold, simple, frequently used, an excellent starting point or the treatments.

Types of Information Flow

• Data flows are used to model information flows between actors in a study area which presents schematic path ways for this information and its exchange within a system.
• There are two types of information flow.

External Information Flow

• Exchange happens between a company and its stakeholders, the study area is a black box and only external flows are represented.

Internal Information Flow

• Flow Model allows for an exchange between different departments within a company, to ensure everyone is all working towards one goal.

Information Flow Diagrams.

• Basis for refinement of data model, has field, related external actors, activities,
• Field of study represents what is being studied, well defined and part of the subject.
• Field is represented by name in a rectangle.

External Actor

• An external actor transmits and receives data outside the system

Related Field

• A related field interacts with the field of study but internal to the company.

Activity

• An activity is an internal actor set to transform data, a part of the field of study

Flow

• A flow is an information transfer, from transmitter to receiver.

Guidelines for drawing Data Flow Diagram

• Define field of study
• ID Actors/External
• ID Flows
• Draw Flowchart while IDing actors and flows

External/Context Model

• Company comprised of management: Sales, Accounting, Personnel, and Inventory where the field of study is Sales Management.

Conceptual Flow Diagram

• Broken down activities and using data diagrams to represent the work flow. Formal structured vs Informal unstructured flows.

System Definition

• System is a organized association, humans, hardware software etc, interacting with the environment for objectives.
• Determined by boundaries, interactions, functions/activities, and examples of systems.

Classifications of Systems

• Two types, Natural/Solar or Man made/Industrial

Life Cycle of a System

• From analysis of constituent needs, recycling

Systemic Approach

• For an open, pilot system, you need systemic approach, Rosnay states Dynamic interaction in elements of the goal".
• Study object allows operation. Identify efficiency.

System Study

• Study is on concepts and priciples, or daniel durand. Organization.

Concepts Of System Approach

• interaction, globality, complexity,
• facilitate study through sub systems is possible through breakdown, to get simple compnents. System can be defined through how it affects its own system operations. Through material, environment interactions.

the company is a system

• through tangible elements, resources and applied techniques.
• The company environment and components influence the output.
• 3 subsystem coordination, information storages, and operating system.

IS System Concepts

• large omnipresence activity linked one way to integration automations, relevant precise informations constitutes strategy for decision making.
• Essential mission can be available to factors for the system, via access memory.
• Every organization has a system for internal activity and external exchanges.
• System has characteristics defined of approach.

Definition

• IS is a is defined communication in the vehicle by which the nervous system is strategy.
• Its structure is composed so it can organize and communicater information.

IS Functions

• Access to the information to assist and solve problems etc. Ensure a dynamic link.
• The IS of a system is structured around three components.

IS Components

• Organization, helps actor carry out tasks.
• Human components, with actors internal or external.
• Technique with ICT.

Structural Aspects of an IS

• Information flows between individuals is practice or machines.
• A station is a point of processing characterized by flows, operations and duration.
• Flow is a set or infomration between stations. The nature conveyed.
• Vehicles can be various through traditional means. Orally, document.

Documents

• Supports necesary for management. 2 types of ciculation or fixed.

IS Concepts

• System for person to perform operations to the task, the operations constituate a work station.

Function

• Carried out within stations will be stations.

Procedure

• Its to cary out a process. Involoving sever stations for a a task.

Automation Of IS

• improve administrative work, through examples.

Automatable Information System

• "IS" can be sees as as a structure or a set of rules. Can a system be fully automated.
• Programmable Vs Non programmable.
• Actions can be transformed through results because they are programmed

Non Preogrammation

• Knowledge gives more, with more output. the actions will be automated and are a subsystem of it, that has a relation.
• Function descriptions of automation can function and run like the following.
• Must ensure internal functions and external functions.

The process from above

• A process is an organized method.

Steps for Construction

• Data processing or dichotomy. Analysis and framework.
• Provide a model of an organization or system. There's too models with logic
• You need design process phases. 2 Model based systems or or logical.
• Systems is under aspects, dynamic vs static with several examples. In practice methods is more inportant.

The structure of information system

• A System is about several strategic components in the field with management. two categories.
• Info is intended to operating with in the company with subtypes of info systems.
• Structues will look operational or stable for data entry for the compnay and operations.
• The quality is great through IS. Thanks to data it handles. The IS is better aligned. Improves objective and collaboration systems.

Explore the definition of an organization as a group working towards specific goals with resources. Learn about key organizational elements (resources, purposes) and the objectives. Understand the challenges of IT in organizations and the essence of a company as an organization.