Speaking Notes

PADM 5500

February 16, 2009

Dr. Neubauer

 

WHERE WE ARE

  • IN THE NEWS REPORTS begin next week
  •             Latimore, Alissa A.
  •             Nelson, Jacqulyn M.
  • Lab 1 is due Sept. 30
    The TERM PROJECT is due Oct. 18 .  INSTALLMENT 1 IS DUE NEXT WEEK.  IT SHOULD BE THE IDENTIFICATION OF A PROCESS AND AT LEAST A RRELIMINARY DESCRIPTION OF HOW IT IS PRESENTLY PERFORMED.

CHAPTER 4 OF BARRETT AND GREENE:

 

  • Lurching toward the Center or Leaping toward Chaos?
  • The theme in this chapter is the tension between centralization and decentralization of the IT architecture – not just the technology but the administrative "structures."
  • In the age of the mainframes, the technology drove the organization in the direction of centralization, which was not difficult.
  •             Employees had to work through IT dept. to access needed information.
  •             Punch cards and "greenbar" paper
  •             Highly centralized access to information forces the organization toward a highly centralized organizational structure.
  •             Executives did not want a computer in their office.  It was viewed as the equivalent of a typewriter.
  • In the age of networks, the array of possible architectures is endless (both in terms of technology and administrative design.
  •            
  • The two architectures (the organization(s) and the network(s)) do not have to be the same, but they should support one another. 
  • It is whole new world in terms of ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN.  Hierarchy still matters, but we're not in Kansas any more!

 

"Old School"

 

  • The organization is understood in terms of hierarchy and authority.
  • Important decisions are made at or near the  top of the hierarchy.
  • The intermediate levels of administration function to control the lower layers rather than to let ideas move up the system.
  • Information is valuable and should not be shared with others.
  • Information is another form of power.
  • Basically the entire organization exists to implement the will of a few people at the top.
  • The whole thing is basically a machine.  Employees are "cogs" in the machine.  Their individual personalities don't much matter.  They can each be easily replaced.  They do not need to know the "big picture."  Jobs are designed to be as simple and repetitive as possible. 
  • Thinking is optional and not much wanted.  The brains are clustered at the top.

 

 The move to "right size" modern organizations . . .

 

  • Tended to remove the middle layers of management and to replace people with automated processes. 
  • This can be interpreted as a kind of centralization in that the people at the top now more directly "manage" the people who actually do the work.

 

The newer way of seeing things . . .

 

  • Every employee embodies the entire spirit and essence of the entire organization.
  • Important decisions are made throughout the organization in the absence of highly centralized control.
  • Innovative ideas "emerge" from the organization. 
  • People are rewarded for SHARING INFORMATION AND IDEA and for THINKING.
  • Top management provides encouragement, guidance and support for all employees.
  • People TRUST each other.
  • KNOWLEDGE flows throughout the organization and finds it way to the people who need to know as they have need to know. 
  • The organization is more AWARE OF ITS ENVIRONMENT and more responsive to changes in the environment because EMPLOYEES DO NOT HAVE TO CONTINUALLY ASK FOR PERMISSION before doing anything.
  • When mistakes are made leaders do not look for someone to BLAME.  Risk is understood to be part of what is necessary for success.

 

BOTTOM LINE, information technology can either be used to create CENTRALIZATION or DECENTRALIZATION.  It all depends upon THE PROCESSES, THE RULES, AND THE CULTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION.

 

The goal is not "chaos."  The goal is some "sweet spot" between authority/bureaucracy and excessive decentralization.  How to design such organizations (and the information systems to support them) is the key question.

 

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IS NOT THE SAME AS INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

 

Information management usually involves databases and the means by which information is reduced to data, stored, and then "reconstituted" as needed back into information.  INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IS THE ORGANIZATION MEMORIZING AND REMEMBERING. 

 

Knowledge management can also be facilitated by technology.  It involves SOCIAL NETWORKS (of people) in the organization and the ways that knowledge flows among them.  KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IS THE ORGANIZATION THINKING. 

 

In reality, the distinction above is not "crisp."  But what is unique to KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT is the social dimension.  IT MATTERS who talks to whom and whether or not people KNOW WHAT THE ORGANIZATION KNOWS when they must make important decisions.

 

            Data processing

                        Information Management

                                    Knowledge Management

 

Your next assignment will involve a KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MODEL AND SIMULATION built using Arena. 

 

[I will refer to the following figures in class this evening.]

 

 

 

 

The basic idea is that there are multiple variables affect the flow of knowledge through an organization.  They are . . .

 

The ability of team members to observe what is happening in the environment.

Their abilities to process information in their minds/brains.

Their willingness to communicate facts to others.

The patterns of their relationships.

The number of things happening in the environment.

 

There are lots of reasons why people in organizations make "bad" decisions because they do not know what is known by others in the organization.

 

CHAPTER 4 OF STAIR AND REYNOLDS:

 

Organizations are SOCIAL NETWORKS that are supported by physical facilities, means of transportation, telephone systems and computer networks.

 

COMPUTER NETWORKS SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS

 

            patterns of interpersonal communications

            decision making

            business processes

           

DATA GOES ACROSS A NETWORK IN PACKETS OR FRAMES

 

LANS, MAN, WANS

            SEVERAL MAJOR LAN TOPOLOGIES – STAR, BUS, AND RING

            LANs USUALLY WIRED, BUT CAN BE WIRELESS

 

THE INTERNET IS AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO CREATE MANS AND WANS

 

CENTRALIZED SYSTEM

            usually mainframe-based

            usually batch processing

            like a star topology for a LAN, this system has a single point of failure

 

DECENTRALIZED SYSTEM

            more complex

            also may have security risks

            may be a reflection of the "politics" of the organization itself

 

IN THE AGE OF "DUMB TERMINALS" CENTRALIZED SYSTEMS WERE A NATURAL

 

IN THE AGE OF CLIENT/SERVER COMPUTING (AND N-TIERED SYSTEMS) DECENTRALIZATION IS COMMON

 

ALIGNNMENT SHOULD BE BASED UPON THE NEEDS OF THE ORGANIZATION

THE "LOG CABIN" EXPLANATION OF DATA COMMUNICATION

 

FRIVOLOUS AND NON-FRIVOLOUS PROTOCOLS

 

THE INTERNET GREW OUT OF THE NEEDS OF THE US MILITARY FOR A COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM WITH NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE

 

THE BACKBONE IS THE SET OF MAJOR CONNECTIONS BETWEEN PLACES.

http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/atlas.html

http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/cox_1457_large.jpg

 

 

 

TCP/IP IS THE PAIR OF PROTOCOLS THAT THE INTERNET USES

 

HOW COMMUNICATIONS MOVE WITHIN AND ACROSS NETWORKS

 

  • On a LAN, each machine has a MAC address. 
  • The NIC (network interface card) breaks the communication into frames addressed to another machine using its MAC address.  The other machines ignore the frames.
  • If the frames need to cross the Internet, they get wrapped in packets that have an IP address.
  • Packets move from router to router across the Internet (hopefully) until they reach their destination.
  • Each router only knows its own "neighbors" and decides where to send the packet next, based upon the data in the header of the packet.
  • When the packet reaches the destination network, the IP layer gets discarded and the frame goes to the target machine using a MAC address.
  • Depending upon the protocol used, the packets that did not arrive may or may not be resent by the origin network.

 

A DOMAIN NAME IS A MASK FOR AN IP ADDRESS

http://www.lawrencegoetz.com/programs/ipinfo/

 

DOMAIN NAME SERVERS KEEP THE DATABASES THAT MATCH UP DOMAIN NAMES WITH IP ADDRESSES

 

ROUTERS ARE MACHINES THAT FORWARD PACKETS (FRAMES) TOWARD THEIR DESTINATIONS

http://www.howstuffworks.com/router.htm/printable

 

ORGANIZATIONS AND PEOPLE GET THEIR DOMAIN NAMES FROM COMPANIES LIKE GODADDY.COM

http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp

 

ORGANIZATIONS AND PEOPLE GET THEIR CONNECTIVITY THROUGH INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPs)

 

THE WORLD WIDE WEB IS THE MULTIMEDIA EXTENSION OF THE ORIGINAL INTERNET.

 

WEB BROWERS INTERPRET HTML FILES AND DISPLAY THE DATA

 

INTERNET, INTRANET, AND EXTRANETS

 

IT IS ALL ZEROS AND ONES – NOT "ANALOG"

 

http://visualroute.visualware.com/

 

"Traceroute" may be helpful in understanding what is happening when packets move across the Internet.