IFSM Project
STRATEGIC USE OF TECHNOLOGY 7
Stage 2: Strategic Use of Technology
IFSM 300 6382 Information Systems in Organizations
September 17, 2017
Decision-Making
Decision-making plays an important role within any business organization. Through the process of decision-making, businesses make logical choices from the list of available options to help in the achievement of the business goals and objectives (Saaty, 2008). Making the best decisions will be important for CIC especially because of the company’s goal of increasing its number of contracts. The company’s new information systems will not only simplify the hiring process but also support the decision making process by enabling the relevant authorities to make the best possible decisions. The following are examples of decisions that the company’s managers can make on different decision-making levels, which will be supported by the hiring system.
|
Role |
Level |
Example of Possible Decision Supported by Hiring System |
|
Senior Executive Managers (Decisions made by the CEO and the CFO at CIC supported by the hiring system.) |
Executive |
The CEO decides to reduce the hiring process by a week so that the company can manage to complete the demand of the new contracts within a shorter period of time. The new system will make this possible because of the simplification of the hiring process and the improvement of efficiency. Comment by Jennifer Carter: Good idea, but a week is not a significant difference in time for a strategic decision. A more appropriate example of a senior executive decision might be to decide to bid on a large proposal for a new customer. By using the information about the skills they have and the candidate pool they can hire, they could identify if they would be able to meet the proposal requirements. |
|
Middle Managers (Decisions made by the Director of HR and the Manager of Recruiting supported by the hiring system.) |
Managerial |
The hiring manager makes the decision to have the job recruits a week earlier than the originally set date of reporting because of the excess workload from the new contracts. The system will make this possible because the communication process will be simplified and faster. Comment by Jennifer Carter: Decisions appropriate for this level might include selecting a recruiting event, hiring priorities, deciding where to advertise based on skill gaps, deciding on hiring limits, reallocation of existing staff, modifying the hiring process/approvals, etc. |
|
Operational Managers (Decisions made by the line managers in the organization who are hiring for their projects supported by the hiring system.) |
Operational |
The HR manager decides to shorten the new employees’ training process so that they can begin their work as soon as possible to meet the needs of the new contracts acquired by CIC. The new system will enable faster communication between all the stakeholders involved in the process allowing for faster processes. Comment by Jennifer Carter: All of these examples have to do with a faster process, but the intent was to focus on management decisions that the information from the hiring system enabled. For this level, examples of decisions supported by the system would be choosing the applicant to hire for a specific job, the interview panel members, who to interview, or ranking applicants. |
Communication Comment by Jennifer Carter: Well done descriptions of these factors.
Communication is very important in making all organizational processes to be efficient. The new hiring system will help to improve the internal and external communication within CIC in ways that the manual process could not have achieved. First, the communication between the recruiters and the CIC hiring team will be faster and more efficient. In the manual system, the communication between these parties was through the use of the mail system. The mail system takes days before messages can be transmitted from the sender to the recipient. However, with the presence of the system, the two mediums can communicate using instant messaging systems. Similarly, the company will be able to communicate hiring information to the recruits at a faster rate. In addition, the efficiency of the communication process will be improved significantly. There are a lot of challenges experienced in the mailing system such as delays or loss of deliveries that could have affected the communication before. Lastly, the internal communication will be improved since all relevant authorities will have access to the same system will all information about the hiring process. Comment by Jennifer Carter: Good description with several key points.
Collaboration
Collaboration in any organization is important for the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives. It takes the efforts of all people within the organizational system to help improve the overall quality of work and make it possible for the organization to achieve its goals(Knoben&Oerlemans, 2006). Collaboration at CIC is important for the company to be able to achieve its goal of improving the quality of work offered to its customers and increasing the number of contracts taken by the company. The new hiring system will help to improve the collaboration between all managers and other employees within the organization. The system will have a dashboard that contains all information on the hiring process from the recruitment to the final hiring procedures. Therefore, all the stakeholders in the process will have the information they need from the system. Each of the people involved will be expected to load information on the work they have done onto the system so that the others can access it easily.
Relationships
For organizational goals to be achieved, all employees, from all levels of the organization, need to be like-minded and focused on the achievement of the organizational goals (Bachmann &Inkpen, 2011). Aside from the hired employees, an organization needs to maintain a positive relationship with applicants in the job market so as to stay attractive because it may need to increase its personnel in the future. The new system will help to foster new relationships with the applicants and the new employees. The technology will enable them to see the organization of the company and how much it is dedicated to making the hiring process fast and efficient. The applicants and the hired employees will be able to access any kind of information they need from the system very easily hence making them appreciate the efficient process of the CIC hiring team. The system will ensure that there are no serious complaints experienced by the recruits as they are taken through the hiring process.
Structure
The structure of the hiring system will be organized in such a manner that all people in the hiring process can efficiently perform their role efficiently and in a timely manner. The structure of the system will accommodate the contribution of all people involved in the hiring process. Therefore, each member of the process will be able to experience a simplification of their work in a manner that contributes to the efficiency of the entire process. Comment by Jennifer Carter: These are good points, but the focus on structure is more on the repeatability, consistency, clear roles/responsibilities, a common understanding of status and process, common templates/terms, a single process, a central data repository, single dashboard, etc. These result in efficiency and effectiveness of the hiring process to support business needs.
Competitive Advantage
Competitive advantage refers to the characteristics that put a business in a position that makes it superior to its competitors (Barney, 2014). The new systems will give CIC a competitive advantage by making it possible for the company to improve its technology personnel. By having a more qualified team of technology professionals, the company will be able to fulfill the needs of its clients in a manner that is more efficient than its competitors. In addition, the system will avail information about the entire hiring process at all times that the company might need it. The data available in the systems can be used by the company in the future to improve its personnel hence giving the company a strategic advantage to its customers. For instance, if the company experiences a high rate in the employee turnover in the future, it will have the data of the entire hiring process to analyze so as to determine some of the areas that are causing the employee problems and fix them in the future hiring processes. Maintaining the database of the employees also allows the company to have quick access to employees in the market in case there is need to increase the personnel in the future. This gives the company an advantage because it can quickly change its personnel, hence giving the company operational advantages.
References Comment by Jennifer Carter: Good use of references.
Bachmann, R., &Inkpen, A. C. (2011). Understanding institutional-based trust building processes in inter-organizational relationships. Organization Studies, 32(2), 281-301.
Barney, J. B. (2014). Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson Higher Ed.
Knoben, J., &Oerlemans, L. A. (2006). Proximity and inter‐organizational collaboration: A literature review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 8(2), 71-89.
Saaty, T. L. (2008). Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process. International journal of services sciences, 1(1), 83-98.