A test of the relationship between job characteristics and data requirements was conducted. Information system users in five public sector service organizations participated in a cross-sectional field survey. Results indicate that some job characteristics are related to data manipulation requirements, while others are related to data quality. The results support past findings outside the CBIS field that complex, nonroutine tasks with low analyzability require less precise information and more information processing than simple, routine tasks.
A field survey was conducted to study the factors associated with the use of data processing charge-back information in organizations. The aim of this research was to identify the organizational and budgetary characteristics associated with how the output of a chargeback system is used by user-managers to control their data processing costs. It was found that involvement in budget preparation, accountability for meeting the data processing budget, and cost variability of the charges were the most important factors to consider when designing data processing chargeback systems.
This study examines the impact of an information system on user attitudes and perceptions of job characteristics. These impacts were assessed with a quasi-experimental research design for a sample of nurses in a major urban hospital. After testing for and rejecting possible confounding influences of the pretest scores, comparisons were made between pre-implementation and post-implementation attitudes and perceptions. Results showed little change in job perceptions and no significant change in attitudes toward the system. The importance of these findings is discussed within the context of alternative models for explaining the organizational impacts of information systems.
A 1985 survey of Singaporean analysts and programmers, on their perceptions on motivation, enables a comparison to earlier U.S. survey results. Growth need strength (GNS) of U.S. analysts is significantly higher than that of U.S. programmers. The GNS of Singaporean analysts and programmers was found to be equivalent to their U.S. counterparts. However, there were significant differences between the U.S. and Singaporean computer professionals for the other side of the motivation equation, the job’s motivating potential. The Singaporean motivating potential score (MPS) was significantly lower for both job types, indicating a need for job enrichment and enlargement.
This article reports the findings of a field study of personal computing in 173 U.S. companies. It identifies trends over the last five years in the use of personal computing as well as the corporate MIS departments’ roles, policies, and practices with regard to personal computing. A prioritized checklist of personal computing problems shows lack of user education, lack of a company-wide perspective on the use of personal computers, and overwhelming demands on MIS departments at the top in terms of problem intensity.
Recent highly publicized success stories have focused general managers’ attention on so called “competitive information systems." But organizations attempting to identify systems that provide competitive advantage are finding the search to be frustrating and often unrewarding. This article combines two familiar information system concepts, the Anthony framework and information attributes, to produce a methodology for identifying one class of competitive information systems, systems in support of product pricing. A number of examples demonstrate the descriptive utility of the classification scheme, and provide a synergistic vehicle for the discovery of new applications.
The rapid growth of end-user computing is a double-edged sword: it offers new opportunities for improving the effectiveness of organizations, but it also creates new risks for a firm's information resources. This paper describes an organized approach for effectively managing end-user computing, it is based on the definition of “service support levels” which link support services to responsibilities. These levels form the basis of a cooperative effort between the MIS department and the end user.
This article identifies the issues which MIS management rates as most important and most difficult to solve over the next two years. The results were obtained from a 1985 opinion survey of MIS managers in over 100 St. Louis area companies. The most important issues fall into three categories: aligning MIS with corporate goals, software development, and end-user computing; the least important issues were narrowly focused or more technical. Comparison with prior research reveals that the alignment and end-user computing issues have increased in importance. The results indicate that MIS managers are more oriented to corporate than to technical issues.
This study investigates the usage pattern and sources of assistance for personal computer (PC) users in twelve organizations. The study found that PCs attract new computer users and the extent of PC usage was correlated with prior computer knowledge. The most important reason for using PCs was for specific professional work. Although managers spend fewer hours than their staff using their PCs, there was no relationship between the diversity of applications and organizational position. Overall, users were satisfied with their PCs, but not with the information they obtained from the written sources (i.e. manuals, documents, and journals). The best sources of information for PC users were their own colleagues and their organization's information systems staff. Moveover, “lead users" played an important role as consultants to other users. Two divisions of a large manufacturing firm in our sample introduced PCs concurrently but under different policies. The two units provided a natural setting for assessing the impact of the technology. In the division that underwent extensive planning prior to the introduction of this technology, we found that users made significantly more use of internal consulting. In contrast, in the other division, where management had adopted an “individual initiatives and maximum freedom” policy for introducing this technology, the users made significantly less use of internal consulting, approaching outside vendors instead even though they felt the information obtained from the vendors was significantly lower in quality. Implications for the management of personal computer technology are discussed.
This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an integrated voice-data-video information system for crisis management at Southern California Edison (SCE). It was developed for top managers to help prevent and control problems that might arise with their nuclear power generating station at San Onofre, California. The article describes some of the system’s unique design features, and the lessons that SCE learned from implementation. It concludes by providing a generic set of preemptions for the design and implementation of information systems for crisis management.