EM11C1

Management Information Systems

Lecture 1
Module 1
• Understanding of an integrated set of concepts and tools for
understanding information systems in organisations

• Study of information and communications technologies in

organisations as sociotechnical systems, in contrast to purely
technical or managerial views.

• Recognise the relevance of the sociotechnical approach through the

study of practical management information systems within real
organisations.
Essential definitions
• Don’t expect ‘information systems’ in the title of the session to be a
synonym for a module on computers and their direct uses;

• The concept of ‘information systems’, includes a broader set of topics and

issues. The concerns addressed in the course go beyond a narrow focus on
a specific type of technology or application – that is the subject of other
disciplines, e.g. CS;

• This module investigates what we do with IS; why we choose to use IS, who
is affected or interested in the use of IS; and how we organise ourselves to
be able to get the best from IS.
Essential definitions
• IS encompasses the uses made of digital technologies within human
organisations and societies;

• Study of how digital technologies are applied to improve the way

organisations operate and to help people to do their jobs.
• This is achieved by collecting, storing, processing and sharing information.
A holistic view of IS
• From this follows that the study of IS requires the activation of
interrelated perspectives:

• The digital technologies that enable computer-based information handling

(characteristics, capabilities);
• The individuals who work with IS (truly a process of becoming part);
• The tasks that individuals wish to undertake (informed by specific needs and
requirements);
• The social and organisational structure within which an IS is established (e.g.
a firm, a factory, a government department).
MIS & Organisational Change

Technology can promote

various degrees of
organizational change,
ranging from incremental
to far-reaching
A holistic view of IS
• Digital technologies, people, tasks, social and
organisational structure are all in relation to one
another

• We need to consider more than one perspective!

• This integrated perspective on technology in

organisations was proposed by Harold Leavitt
(1960s). If we change any of the dimensions,
consequences are very likely for other dimensions;
Leavitt’s Diamond of Change
• It signifies a dynamic relationship!
• It carries an impact on IS Strategy
A holistic view of IS
• Expression of a sociotechnical view of information systems.
• IS are in part social (about people and human organisations) and in part
technical (digital technology is applied to specific tasks);

• Given any situation that we study, the ‘so what’ questions must
capture this duality:
• How does digital technology influence people and the organisation?
• How do people influence technology choices and the way it is used
(implemented, adopted)?

• Reflection of the duality is IS Strategy is important

Why digitalisation?
• ICTs and digitalisation are new sources of productivity and growth;
• Think about the different industries…

• They enable new ways of operation (much like electricity in the

1930s);

• Why now?
• Digital technology is affordable and accessible to everyone. The computing
power of a tablet is comparable to that of 10-15 year old supercomputer,
which at the time would cost millions.
Digitalisation:
conceptual disambiguation

• Refers to “the changes associated with the application of digital

technology in all aspects of human society” (Stolerman and Fors,
2004);

• Translates the “ability to turn existing products or services into digital

variants, and thus offer advantages over tangible product” (Henriette
et al., 2015).
Digitalisation:
conceptual disambiguation
• Has been identified as one of the major trends changing society and
business in the near and long term future;
Digitalisation:
conceptual disambiguation
• Not to be confused with digitisation, which refers to the action or process of
digitising, i.e. the conversion of analogue data (images, video, and text) into
digital form;

• Digitalisation refers to a more fundamental change than just digitising existing

processes or work products.

• The scope of transformation goes beyond simply substituting analogue or

physical resources for their digital media or information counterparts;

• The journey towards digitization entails a shift in process control towards

customers, based on the convergence of four forces: social, mobile, big data and
cloud.
 Example: Tax Administration

Digitisation or
digitalisation?
Key technology trends
• CLOUD – The possibility to virtualize and consume infrastructure, platforms and
applications as service enable new levels of scalability, flexibility and
responsiveness;

• BIG DATA ANALYTICS – analytical methods and access to the right data enable the
generation of new insights and decision-rich information. Big data approaches
allow to make use of the rapidly increasing amount of data from multiple sources;

• CONNECTED EVERYTHING – connected devices of all kinds and cheap sensors

integrated everywhere constantly create large amounts of data that need to be
managed effectively. This also enables new ways of automated and personal
interaction. Application to industry revolutionises manufacturing by enabling the
acquisition and accessibility of far greater amounts of data, at far greater speeds,
and more efficiently than before.
Key technology trends
• MOBILE – widespread penetration of mobile devices impacts all areas
of business and personal life by transforming how people interact,
consume information and services, collaborate and work;

• SOCIAL MEDIA – collaboration technologies that create new patterns

of interaction and establishing relationships within and beyond
organisations;

• DATA VELOCITY – Technologies such as in-memory computing enable

real-time decision making based on analytics.
Megatrends,
megashifts
• Personal analytics: analysis of contextually
relevant data to provide personalised insight,
predictions and/or recommendations for the
benefit of individual users. Examples include
virtual health assistants, financial advice
assistants and shopping assistants.

• Virtual assistants: help users or organisations

with sets of tasks that previously could only be
carried out by humans. VAs listen and observe
behaviors, build and maintain data models,
automate tasks and predict and recommend Gartner, 2017
actions.
Rethinking traditional strategy formulation

Look at Porter’s five-force model and the

Frequent Flier Points Systems Case
Pathway to becoming a digitalised organisation
Digital transformation
• Enabled by the adoption of digital technologies by an organisation
and its operating environment;

• Leading to changes to models of working, roles and business

offerings:
• Changes at several levels: process, organisational, business domain and
societal.
• Changes in leadership: different thinking; encouragement of innovation and
new business models; incorporation of digitisation of assets and an increased
use of technology to improve the experience of the organisation’s employees,
customers, suppliers, partners and stakeholders.
• Data is at the heart of business value
Parviainen et al. (2017)
Enevo:
digital transformation of waste collection
• Waste collection for smart cities;

• Enevo One is a comprehensive

logistics solution that saves time,
money and the environment. It uses
wireless sensors to measure the fill-
level of waste containers and
generates smart collection plans
using the most efficient schedules
and routes. The solution provides up
to 50% in direct cost savings
Artificial intelligence
• Artificial intelligence - the ability of a digital
computer or computer-controlled robot to
perform tasks commonly associated with
intelligent human beings:

• developing systems endowed with the intellectual

processes characteristic of humans, such as the
ability to reason, discover meaning, generalise, or
learn from past experience;

• area of computer science dealing with giving

machines the ability to seem like they have human
intelligence (copying human behaviour)
Artificial intelligence
• Intelligent automation can support humans by improving
complex problem solving, risk analysis and business decision-
making.

• Key areas:
• Natural language processing
• Computer vision
• Knowledge representation
• Reasoning and planning
Artificial intelligence
• Google Duplex
Framing Technology and AI
• Human-machine ‘convergence’ is the key challenge of our collective future;
• Technology is exponential. But humans operate differently. Our development is
convergent;
• Human intelligence (social, intellectual, emotional, kinesthetic) and machine
intelligence are different;

• Anything that cannot be digitised or automated will become even more valuable:
• emotions, creativity, imagination, ethics, empathy, values, mystery, compassion, intuition;

• Technology is not what we seek, but how we seek.

• How we apply and frame it will define its value for people, organisations and society.
Why an IS angle is necessary
• “The root of our problems is not that we’re in a Great Recession, or a Great
Stagnation, but rather that we are in the early throes of a Great
Restructuring. Our technologies are racing ahead but many of our skills and
organisations are lagging behind” (2011)

• “The role of humans as the most important factor of production is bound

to diminish in the same way that the role of horses in agricultural
production was first diminished by the introduction of tractors” (2014)

Brynjolfsson and McAffee (2011, 2014)

Why an IS angle is necessary
• The latest phase of computers and the internet have created three
shifts in how work happens:
• The first is artificial intelligence (AI): a move from man to machine (e.g. self-
driving cars, online translation);
• The second is a shift from products to platforms (such as Facebook, Alibaba,
Airbnb);
• The third shift is from the core to the crowd. The core refers to centralized
institutions (e.g. central banks, Encyclopedia Britannica). The crowd refers to
de-centralized, self-organizing participants

Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2017)

Why an IS angle is necessary
• “Some organisations are using digital technology to achieve economies of
scale or internal efficiencies, or to open new sales and distribution
channels. But by and large the digital dream is still deferred” (Harvard
Business Review, 2018)

• Focus too narrowly on adopting a new technology, and only then on

figuring out what to do with it—rather than first identifying the challenge
they’d like to overcome, defining the desired outcome, and, finally,
searching out and deploying the technologies and process changes that can
best drive those outcomes.

• Addressing the digital transformation challenge cannot be like a hammer in

search of a nail!
References
1. McAfee, A., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2017). Machine, platform, crowd: Harnessing our digital future. WW
Norton & Company.
2. Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2014). The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in a time
of brilliant technologies. WW Norton & Company.
3. Brynjolfsson, E. and McAfee, A. (2011). Race Against the Machine. Digital Frontier, Lexington, MA.
4. Harvard Business Review(2018). Digital Transformation: Bridging the Gap Between Expectations and
Outcomes. Harvard Business Review Analytic Services.
5. Harvard Business Review (2016). IT Talent Crisis: Proven Advice from CIOs and HR Leaders. Harvard
Business Review Analytic Services.
6. Henriette, E., Mondher, F. and Boughzala, I. (2015) “The Shape of Digital Transformation: A Systematic
Literature Review,” in Ninth Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS), Samos, Greece,
2015.
7. Parviainen, P; Tihinen, M; Kääriäinen, J; Teppola, S (2017). Tackling the digitalization challenge: how to
benefit from digitalization in practice. International Journal of Information Systems and Project
Management. SciKA. 5(1), 63-77.
8. Stolterman, E. and Fors, A. C. (2004). “Information Technology and the Good Life,” in Information Systems
Research: Relevant Theory and Informed Practice, B. Kaplan et al. (eds), London,UK: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Fin