Chapter 3 Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy Part 1

Chapter 3 Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy 1) The interaction between information systems and organizations is influenced A) primarily by the decision making of middle and senior managers. B) by the development of new information technologies. C) by many factors, including structure, politics, culture, and environment. D) by two main microeconomic forces: capital and labor. E) by management decisions. Answer: B Page Ref: 82 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Information technology CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 2) An organization is a A) stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. B) formal, legal entity with internal rules and procedures that must abide by laws. C) a collection of people and other social elements. D) B and C E) A, B, and C Answer: E Page Ref: 82 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 3) An organization is seen as a means by which primary production factors are transformed into outputs consumed by the environment according to the definition of organizations. A) microeconomic B) macroeconomic C) sociotechnical D) behavioral E) psychological Answer: A Page Ref: 82 Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 4) How does the technical view of organizations fall short of understanding the full impacts of information systems in a firm? A) It sees information systems as a way to rearrange the inputs and outputs of the organization. B) It sees capital and labor as primary production factors. C) It sees an organization as a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities. D) It sees the organization as a social structure similar to a machine. E) It sees the inputs and outputs, labor and capital, as being infinitely malleable. Answer: E Page Ref: 83 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Analytical thinking CASE: Evaluation LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 5) Which of the following is not a major feature of organizations that impacts the use of information systems? A) business processes B) environments C) goals D) agency costs E) leadership styles Answer: D Page Ref: 84 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 6) Business processes are collections of A) informal practices and behaviors. B) formalized and documented practices. C) business rules. D) rights and privileges. E) routines. Answer: E Page Ref: 84 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 7) All of the following are considered disruptive technologies except A) instant messaging. B) e-mail. C) Internet telephony. D) PCs. E) smartphones. Answer: A Page Ref: 87 Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking CASE: Analysis LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 8) Under Mintzberg's classification of organizational structure, the knowledge-based organization where goods and services depend on the expertise and knowledge of professionals falls under the category of A) entrepreneurial structures. B) divisionalized bureaucracies. C) professional bureaucracies. D) adhocracies. E) machine bureaucracies. Answer: C Page Ref: 88 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 9) Mintzberg classifies a large bureaucracy existing in a slowly changing environment that produces standard products and is dominated by centralized management as a bureaucracy. A) machine B) professional C) divisionalized D) multidivisional E) ad hoc Answer: A Page Ref: 88 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 10) An example of a divisionalized bureaucracy is a A) startup firm. B) university. C) Fortune 500 firm. D) midsize manufacturer. E) consulting firm. Answer: C Page Ref: 88 Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 11) Along with capital, _ is the primary production input that the organization uses to create products and services. A) structure B) culture C) politics D) natural resources E) labor Answer: E Page Ref: 82 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Information technology CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 12) The divergent viewpoints about how resources, rewards, and punishments should be distributed, and the struggles resulting from these differences are known as A) culture. B) politics. C) structure. D) viewpoints. E) variance. Answer: B Page Ref: 84 Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Information technology CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 13) technologies radically change the business landscape and environment. A) Explosive B) Inventive C) Disruptive D) Subversive E) Divisive Answer: C Page Ref: 87 Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Information technology CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 14) Some organizations lack bedrock, unassailable assumptions that define their goals and products. Answer: FALSE Page Ref: 85 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 15) A professional bureaucracy is a knowledge-based organization where goods and services depend on the expertise and knowledge of professionals. Answer: TRUE Page Ref: 88 Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 16) Routines are also called standard operating procedures. Answer: TRUE Page Ref: 84 Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 17) How are the technical and behavioral definitions of an organization different? Answer: The behavioral definition of an organization is that it is a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution. The technical definition sees an organization as an entity that takes inputs from the environment and processes these to create products that are then consumed by the environment. The technical view sees capital and labor as interchangeable units, with the ability to rearrange these units at will, whereas the behavioral view sees that rearranging some aspects of the organization, such as an information system, will have important consequences and changes for the organization's other units. Page Ref: 82-83 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Analytical thinking CASE: Analysis LO: 3.1: Which features of organizations do managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully? 18) When a firm buys on the marketplace what it cannot make itself, the costs incurred are referred to as A) switching costs. B) network costs. C) procurement. D) agency costs. E) transaction costs. Answer: E Page Ref: 89 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Information technology CASE: Content LO: 3.2: What is the impact of information systems on organizations? 19) All of the following statements are true about information technology's impact on business firms except A) it helps firms expand in size. B) it helps firms lower the cost of market participation. C) it helps reduce internal management costs. D) it helps reduce transaction costs. E) it helps reduce agency costs. Answer: A Page Ref: 89-90 Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Information technology CASE: Content LO: 3.2: What is the impact of information systems on organizations? 20) According to agency theory, the firm is viewed as a(n) A) unified, profit-maximizing entity. B) task force organization that must respond to rapidly changing environments. C) entrepreneurial endeavor. D) "nexus of contracts" among self-interested individuals. E) entrepreneurial structure. Answer: D Page Ref: 90 Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Reflective thinking CASE: Content LO: 3.2: What is the impact of information systems on organizations? 21) According to research on organizational resistance, the four components that must be changed in an organization in order to successfully implement a new information system are A) environment, organization, structure, and tasks. B) technology, people, culture, and structure. C) organization, culture, management, and environment. D) tasks, technology, people, and structure. E) costs, tasks, structure, and management. Answer: D Page Ref: 93 Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Information technology CASE: Analysis LO: 3.2: What is the impact of information systems on organizations? 22) Information systems technology can be viewed as a factor of production that can be substituted for traditional capital and labor from the point of view of economics. Answer: TRUE Page Ref: 89 Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Information technology CASE: Content LO: 3.2: What is the impact of information systems on organizations?