"How organizational politics shapes IT decision making, and what should IT decision makers do about it?"

In your essay you may wish to consider issues such as:

Why do people act politically? (Hint: What do people attempt to accomplish by acting politically?)

How can decisions about information technology affect the power of particular individuals or groups in an organization?

Are there examples from your own experience or from the readings that you can use to illustrate the political aspects of organizational decision-making?

Please note that these are not to be treated as questions to be answered with bullet points, but just as things to think about as you formulate your own ideas about the topic.

Sorces:

Finney, R. (2003) The Politics of Information and Projects. ITMWEB White Paper. Retrieved February 27, 2008 from http://www.itmweb.com/essay008.htm

Lapointe, L. and Rivard, S. (2006) Getting physicians to accept new information technology: insights from case studies. CMAJ. May 23, 2006; 174 (11).
from http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/174/11/1573

Answer each question with minimum 200 words. Indicate each question. Thank you.

1) Please reflect on an organization that you know well. Are there organizational politics rampant in the organization? Are the politics hurting the organization? If so, what ideas do you have to reduce the issues? If not, why not? (Pretend you are talking about Kroger store).

2) Please review slides 1-4. What types of influence do you most often use at work and your personal life? Are they same? Are there other factors that you would like to use more often?

3) From doing some secondary research, provide the name of a company (i.e. Yahoo) or organization that has recently (say last 3 - 5 years) undergone a serious strategic change. What were the challenges for "your" company?
How did "your" company overcome those challenges? What leadership qualities did the organizational leader possess?

4) Please review slides 5-6, which leadership competencies do you feel that you possess and which ones would like to improve? Do you feel you have the capacity to improve?
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Paul Strassman, a former vice president of Xerox Corp., has written a number of books and articles regarding organizational politics and governance and may be considered one of the senior gurus of the field. As the case for this module, you'll be looking at some of his insights on the problem, comparing them to some ideas held by others, and making application to some real-world situations.

Start by taking a look at the overview of Strassmann's book:

Paul A. Strassmann (n/d) The Politics of Information Management: Policy Guidelines. Summary at http://www.infoeconomics.com/info-politics.php.

You'll also want to look at Strassmann's analytical approach to political power and related issues:

Paul A. Strassmann Check: How to Verify if You are Important. CIOInsight July 8, 2005 http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,1849919,00.asp

Then read through this very excellent analysis provided by a practitioner of the fine art of information politics:

Russ Finney The Politics of Information and Projects. ITMWEB White Paper. Available at http://www.itmweb.com/essay008.htm

Now for the the real world portion of the case. Please read:

The CIO Who Admitted Too Much

Opinion: Ziff Davis Internet's Evan Schuman writes that the CIO of Overstock.com thought he was doing the right thing by revealing his company's technology shortcomings and taking the blame. Can today's CIO afford such candor?

You may also wish to consult material from the Background information or related other materials you find yourself. Then please compose a 2 page paper addressing the following questions (Please make sure you include the case questions in your cover page):

Was it good organizational politics for Overstock.com's CIO to act as he did? Why? Do you have any better political advice to extend to him?

Be sure to justify your answer with appropriate references to the readings or other sources you locate (be sure to cite them correctly!); don't just give me your off-the-top-of-the-head or experience-based advice. I want to know what you've learned here that helps you give a better answer than you would have given before you read any of this material.

Please read and follow the attached document that will be uploaded.
Clement, RW (1994) Culture, leadership, and power: the keys to organizational change. Business Horizons. Retrieved May 16, 2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1038/is_n1_v37/ai_14922916/

Case Assignment
Read the Clement article in light of the material that you have read on organizational leadership and politics, supplemented if you wish with material from the optional readings and perhaps the supplementary background as well, and even other outside reading you might find by yourself to be useful. Then write a short paper describing how the exercise of leadership depends on undersanding the politics of the organization.
Case Assignment Expectations
Your paper should be short (4-6 pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. You are expected to deal with these issues in an integrated fashion, rather than treating them as a series of individual questions to be answered one by one and left at that. To help guide your thinking, however, you will need to consider issues such as:
Summing up the key lessons of the Clement article in no more than 3-6 sentences.
To what degree does Clement's analysis distinguish among the three companies? Are there areas where you see his advice as the same across situations?
Are there any differences in the time frames or other context features of the situations described that might affect your conclusions about the relationship of politics to leadership??
Summarize your overall thoughts on the management of power in social relationships, the balance of personal vs. organizational responsibility for doing this management, and the relationship of this management (that is, politics) to leadership (please note -- there's no "one right answer" here, but when you've stated your conclusions, remember that you need to back up your argument with facts).
What, if anything, does thinking about an "organization as a political system" add to what we have learned by thinking about an "organization as a machine", an "organization as an organism", an "organization as a brain", and an "organization as a culture"?
You will be particularly assessed on:
Your ability to see what the module is all about -- the "big picture" is the political aspects of organizations-- and structure your paper accordingly.
Your informed commentary and analysis -- this is as important as your summary of the material in the articles -- simply repeating what the articles say does not constitute an adequate paper.
Your ability to apply the professional language and terminology of the underlying model -- in this case, organizational politics ??" correctly and helpfully. However interesting your paper about leadership, it's not going to be complete unless you also show that you can write about it in political terms.
Your ability to apply the language of the political metaphor effectively.
Your effective and appropriate use of in-text citations to the assigned readings and other source material to support your arguments.


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While answering the specific questions below, please develop a case analysis.
Case Questions:

1. What influence tactics and power bases are evident in this case? Explain.
2. Where would you plot J.A. Counters ROWE program on the empowerment grid in Figure 15-2? Explain.
3. Has employee empowerment been taken too far in this case? Explain.
4. What impact do you expect the ROWE program to have on organizational politics at J.A. Counter? Explain.
5. What are your own feelings about the ROWE concept? Would you like to work in such an unstructured situation? Explain why or why not.

There are faxes for this order.

The case for this module calls for you to look at an exercise in "leadership" and then analyze it in terms of its context, its execution, and its consequences. As we noted in the introduction to the module, leadership is not often considered to be a political problem, but it certainly makes sense to consider it in this context, since the political environment of the organization constitutes the critical background within which any leader's efforts must be conducted. Leadership is a political effort, and mobilizes in its service all the formal and informal resources available to those charged with it. For elaboration on these observations, please see:

Leadership and organizational politics. ALAGSE. http://www.alagse.com/leadership/l3.php

In order to place this within a larger political context, however, is most useful for you to start by reviewing this excellent summary of issues in organizational politics:

Wilf Ratzburg, Defining Organizational Politics [Obnotes.Htm: available at http://web.archive.org/web/20080216010425/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1650/htmlpolitc01.html

You're going to need access to some of the vocabulary of leadership analysis, both for this case and for your future work. The following is an adequate general summary, cast in a largely nonacademic frame but still reflecting the academic analysis of leadership. (The optional readings and supplementary material contain considerable additional supporting material on leadership analysis if you would like to dig further into this aspect of the case.)

Clark, D. (N.D.) Leadership Styles. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html


Ronald Clement has written an interesting analysis of the relationship between power, leadership, and our new friend --- organizational culture. He describes three companies that all faced a need to change, and had to mobilize various kinds of power and leadership to do so.

Clement, RW (1994) Culture, leadership, and power: the keys to organizational change. Business Horizons. Retrieved May 16, 2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1038/is_n1_v37/ai_14922916/



Case Assignment

Read the Clement article in light of the material that you have read on organizational leadership and politics, supplemented if you wish with material from the optional readings and perhaps the supplementary background as well, and even other outside reading you might find by yourself to be useful. Then write a short paper describing how the exercise of leadership depends on understanding the politics of the organization.

Case Assignment Expectations

Your paper should be short (3) pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. You are expected to deal with these issues in an integrated fashion, rather than treating them as a series of individual questions to be answered one by one and left at that. To help guide your thinking, however, you will need to consider issues such as:

Summing up the key lessons of the Clement article in no more than 3-6 sentences.
To what degree does Clement's analysis distinguish among the three companies? Are there areas where you see his advice as the same across situations?

Are there any differences in the time frames or other context features of the situations described that might affect your conclusions about the relationship of politics to leadership??
Summarize your overall thoughts on the management of power in social relationships, the balance of personal vs. organizational responsibility for doing this management, and the relationship of this management (that is, politics) to leadership (please note -- there's no "one right answer" here, but when you've stated your conclusions, remember that you need to back up your argument with facts).

What, if anything, does thinking about an "organization as a political system" add to what we have learned by thinking about an "organization as a machine", an "organization as an organism", an "organization as a brain", and an "organization as a culture"?
You will be particularly assessed on:

Your ability to see what the module is all about -- the "big picture" is the political aspects of organizations-- and structure your paper accordingly.

Your informed commentary and analysis -- this is as important as your summary of the material in the articles -- simply repeating what the articles say does not constitute an adequate paper.
Your ability to apply the professional language and terminology of the underlying model -- in this case, organizational politics ??" correctly and helpfully. However interesting your paper about leadership, it's not going to be complete unless you also show that you can write about it in political terms.

Your ability to apply the language of the political metaphor effectively.

Your effective and appropriate use of in-text citations to the assigned readings and other source material to support your arguments.

Purpose

The purpose of this diagnostic analysis is to create an opportunity to use the ideas and concepts discussed in the course in the analysis of a real organizational situation. The situation may be drawn from your experiences, or if you are not working or do not have a frame of reference, then research an organization through the online library (www.greatplacetowork.com/). Your choice of the situation is important and will take considerable judgment and discretion in deciding whether it is feasible to use it for the purposes of the papers. Discretion and confidentiality are of utmost importance in this analysis. So, disguise the source of the case study (unless it is drawn from public record) through use of appropriate pseudonyms.

Learning objectives of the Final Paper:
Identify an organizational situation for the purpose of analysis (the situation must be sufficiently complex to generate enough material to satisfy the requirements as outlined below)
Analyze how the images, concepts and theoretical frameworks help to make sense of the situation
Construct a case study that relates evidence to theory and provide an appropriate analysis and explanation of the situation described
Organizational Analysis in a Nutshell

Organizational analysis is the ability to examine an organization/organizational situation so that its fundamental characteristics are made clear. It is not simply spotting problems and applying appropriate solutions. It asks the questions: What is going on in the situation that I am analyzing? How can I account for its characteristics and the way they are changing? How can I make sense of the situation and arrive at an interpretation that allows me to say something concrete about it? In a nutshell, organizational analysis involves a process of thinking about a situation, constructing and reconstructing it in different ways that seems consistent with its organizational norms/culture. The goal is to provide insight for a basis for action. You can view this as getting to the root cause of the problem/issue. If done well, then the appropriate course of action for managing or changing the situation will become apparent.
Throughout the course we will be examining different theories and ways of viewing organizations. Each way provides a lens that highlights different aspects of the organization. If you think of a pair of glasses, there are different lens for different people that help them see clearly. Just as individuals have different lens, you will apply the lens in varying effects to your individual situation. Your task is to attempt to view through the different lens (theory, metaphors, and conceptual frameworks) to make sense of the situation that you are analyzing.

Process Steps:
Choose an organization to analyze.
Provide a brief account of the nature of the situation being investigated. This account should have sufficient information for the reader to understand the nature of the organization and its context. This will include information on the age, size and history of the organization, the product or services it provides, and the general nature of the environment. Basically, this is the background information so that the reader can be oriented with the industry and the general trend that it is facing. I suggest doing this when you select the situation for analysis (preferably within the first week). Chapter 10 of Images of Organization is a good place to start.
Apply the relevant theories, metaphors, or images through which you can see and understand the organization you are studying. Morgan (1998) is a good place to begin. As you read the chapters, an image or metaphor will emerge through which you can see and understand the organization you are studying. It is your job to try and apply these ideas to practice, identifying the detailed ways in which the different metaphors relate to your particular organization. For example, one of the images that Morgan (1998) discusses is organization as machines. Look at the topics in your text and apply them to your situation. Ask yourself the question: How does this metaphor relate to the organizational situation which I am studying? Look at the politics, economic and environmental influences, technology, culture, communication patterns, etc. What you are doing is linking the theory and practice and providing a basis for each stage of the analysis; looking at the organization from different points of view.
Your diagnostic analysis involves consideration of the literature. What you are doing is using the information from the reading and judging the significance of its application in the organization. For example, you may find that your case is best understood as a situation of organizational politics, one of classic bureaucracy, or one which is best understood in terms of the inability of the organization to adapt to its environment. Now you have determined the root cause of the problems. Some people call this contextual analysis. Then, you will continue with the analysis as follows:
Provide alternatives and solutions for your situation; supported by relevant theory (end of analysis)
Evaluate the alternatives and solutions based on best practices in the industry through research
Look at implications and draw conclusions based on the research.
Propose recommendations for the organizations leaders to consider. Be specific. Support your assertions/conclusions with relevant research.
The paper should be written in APA format. Be sure to draw from the resources in the course and from the APA manual itself to see examples of APA format. The paper should have a Title page, main body of text, and a References page. An Abstract is not required. If you include it does not count toward the word length requirements.
Students must incorporate a minimum of ten (10) scholarly sources that are cited throughout the paper (five of them should be journal articles found in the online library).
The paper should be 2500-3000 words (not including Title Page and References page). Be sure to include headings and subheadings within your paper.

PAPER: Times New Roman 12 pt font

Purpose

The purpose of this diagnostic analysis is to create an opportunity to use the ideas and concepts discussed in the course in the analysis of a real organizational situation. The situation may be drawn from your experiences, or if you are not working or do not have a frame of reference, then research an organization through the online library (www.greatplacetowork.com/). Your choice of the situation is important and will take considerable judgment and discretion in deciding whether it is feasible to use it for the purposes of the papers. Discretion and confidentiality are of utmost importance in this analysis. So, disguise the source of the case study (unless it is drawn from public record) through use of appropriate pseudonyms.

Learning objectives of the Final Paper:
1.Identify an organizational situation for the purpose of analysis (the situation must be sufficiently complex to generate enough material to satisfy the requirements as outlined below)
2.Analyze how the images, concepts and theoretical frameworks help to make sense of the situation
3.Construct a case study that relates evidence to theory and provide an appropriate analysis and explanation of the situation described
Organizational Analysis in a Nutshell

Organizational analysis is the ability to examine an organization/organizational situation so that its fundamental characteristics are made clear. It is not simply spotting problems and applying appropriate solutions. It asks the questions: What is going on in the situation that I am analyzing? How can I account for its characteristics and the way they are changing? How can I make sense of the situation and arrive at an interpretation that allows me to say something concrete about it? In a nutshell, organizational analysis involves a process of thinking about a situation, constructing and reconstructing it in different ways that seems consistent with its organizational norms/culture. The goal is to provide insight for a basis for action. You can view this as getting to the root cause of the problem/issue. If done well, then the appropriate course of action for managing or changing the situation will become apparent.
Throughout the course we will be examining different theories and ways of viewing organizations. Each way provides a lens that highlights different aspects of the organization. If you think of a pair of glasses, there are different lens for different people that help them see clearly. Just as individuals have different lens, you will apply the lens in varying effects to your individual situation. Your task is to attempt to view through the different lens (theory, metaphors, and conceptual frameworks) to make sense of the situation that you are analyzing.

Process Steps:
1.Choose an organization to analyze.
2.Provide a brief account of the nature of the situation being investigated. This account should have sufficient information for the reader to understand the nature of the organization and its context. This will include information on the age, size and history of the organization, the product or services it provides, and the general nature of the environment. Basically, this is the background information so that the reader can be oriented with the industry and the general trend that it is facing. I suggest doing this when you select the situation for analysis (preferably within the first week). Chapter 10 of Images of Organization is a good place to start.
3.Apply the relevant theories, metaphors, or images through which you can see and understand the organization you are studying. Morgan (1998) is a good place to begin. As you read the chapters, an image or metaphor will emerge through which you can see and understand the organization you are studying. It is your job to try and apply these ideas to practice, identifying the detailed ways in which the different metaphors relate to your particular organization. For example, one of the images that Morgan (1998) discusses is organization as machines. Look at the topics in your text and apply them to your situation. Ask yourself the question: How does this metaphor relate to the organizational situation which I am studying? Look at the politics, economic and environmental influences, technology, culture, communication patterns, etc. What you are doing is linking the theory and practice and providing a basis for each stage of the analysis; looking at the organization from different points of view.
Your diagnostic analysis involves consideration of the literature. What you are doing is using the information from the reading and judging the significance of its application in the organization. For example, you may find that your case is best understood as a situation of organizational politics, one of classic bureaucracy, or one which is best understood in terms of the inability of the organization to adapt to its environment. Now you have determined the root cause of the problems. Some people call this contextual analysis. Then, you will continue with the analysis as follows:
1.Provide alternatives and solutions for your situation; supported by relevant theory (end of analysis)
2.Evaluate the alternatives and solutions based on best practices in the industry through research
3.Look at implications and draw conclusions based on the research.
4.Propose recommendations for the organizations leaders to consider. Be specific. Support your assertions/conclusions with relevant research.
5.The paper should be written in APA format. Be sure to draw from the resources in the course and from the APA manual itself to see examples of APA format. The paper should have a Title page, main body of text, and a References page. An Abstract is not required. If you include it does not count toward the word length requirements.
6.Students must incorporate a minimum of ten (10) scholarly sources that are cited throughout the paper (five of them should be journal articles found in the online library).
7.The paper should be 2500-3000 words (not including Title Page and References page). Be sure to include headings and subheadings within your paper.
There are faxes for this order.

The case for this module calls for you to look at an exercise in "leadership" and then analyze it in terms of its context, its execution, and its consequences. As we noted in the introduction to the module, leadership is not often considered to be a political problem, but it certainly makes sense to consider it in this context, since the political environment of the organization constitutes the critical background within which any leader's efforts must be conducted. Leadership is a political effort, and mobilizes in its service all the formal and informal resources available to those charged with it. For elaboration on these observations, please see:

Leadership and organizational politics. ALAGSE. http://www.alagse.com/leadership/l3.php

In order to place this within a larger political context, however, is most useful for you to start by reviewing this excellent summary of issues in organizational politics:

Wilf Ratzburg, Defining Organizational Politics [Obnotes.Htm: available at http://web.archive.org/web/20080216010425/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1650/htmlpolitc01.html

You're going to need access to some of the vocabulary of leadership analysis, both for this case and for your future work. The following is an adequate general summary, cast in a largely nonacademic frame but still reflecting the academic analysis of leadership. (The optional readings and supplementary material contain considerable additional supporting material on leadership analysis if you would like to dig further into this aspect of the case.)

Clark, D. (N.D.) Leadership Styles. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html


Ronald Clement has written an interesting analysis of the relationship between power, leadership, and our new friend --- organizational culture. He describes three companies that all faced a need to change, and had to mobilize various kinds of power and leadership to do so.

Clement, RW (1994) Culture, leadership, and power: the keys to organizational change. Business Horizons. Retrieved May 16, 2010, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1038/is_n1_v37/ai_14922916/



Case Assignment
Read the Clement article in light of the material that you have read on organizational leadership and politics, supplemented if you wish with material from the optional readings and perhaps the supplementary background as well, and even other outside reading you might find by yourself to be useful. Then write a short paper describing how the exercise of leadership depends on undersanding the politics of the organization.

Case Assignment Expectations
Your paper should be short (4-6 pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. You are expected to deal with these issues in an integrated fashion, rather than treating them as a series of individual questions to be answered one by one and left at that. To help guide your thinking, however, you will need to consider issues such as:

Summing up the key lessons of the Clement article in no more than 3-6 sentences.
To what degree does Clement's analysis distinguish among the three companies? Are there areas where you see his advice as the same across situations?
Are there any differences in the time frames or other context features of the situations described that might affect your conclusions about the relationship of politics to leadership??
Summarize your overall thoughts on the management of power in social relationships, the balance of personal vs. organizational responsibility for doing this management, and the relationship of this management (that is, politics) to leadership (please note -- there's no "one right answer" here, but when you've stated your conclusions, remember that you need to back up your argument with facts).
What, if anything, does thinking about an "organization as a political system" add to what we have learned by thinking about an "organization as a machine", an "organization as an organism", an "organization as a brain", and an "organization as a culture"?
You will be particularly assessed on:

Your ability to see what the module is all about -- the "big picture" is the political aspects of organizations-- and structure your paper accordingly.
Your informed commentary and analysis -- this is as important as your summary of the material in the articles -- simply repeating what the articles say does not constitute an adequate paper.
Your ability to apply the professional language and terminology of the underlying model -- in this case, organizational politics ? correctly and helpfully. However interesting your paper about leadership, it's not going to be complete unless you also show that you can write about it in political terms.
Your ability to apply the language of the political metaphor effectively.
Your effective and appropriate use of in-text citations to the assigned readings and other source material to support your arguments.

Class is Organizational Behavior

Conduct research on MSO, focusing on the period when it was most successful (before the current crisis). What kinds of leadership patterns can you discern that would explain the earlier success of MSO? What other factors besides leadership can you attribute to MSO's earlier success?

How would leadership practices and approaches during a period of success be different from those that are needed during a crisis?

Define and describe the shifts that MSO needs to make in its leadership approach and the actions that most effectively deal with the current crisis.

Do you perceive some organizational politics in the way Martha withdrew from being the CEO of MSO, yet continued with her presence in the media?

Submit a report that's comprised of the following:

* Leadership patterns that explain the earlier success of MSO.

* Other factors that may have led to MSO's success.

* Describe the differences in the leadership practices and approaches that a company uses during a period of success and the ones it uses during a crisis. (Give examples of at least two other companies.)

Based on your research of leadership in other companies, describe the changes that MSO needs to make in its leadership to effectively deal with the current crisis.

Your answer to each essay question should be complete approx. 200 words.

1. Consider and discuss the role each of the following plays in determining whether effective communication does or does not take place: emotions, use of technical jargon, length of the message, interest level of the audience, educational level of the audience, and distractions. Identify each of these as an environment barrier or a personal barrier to communication. Finally, as a manager of a health care facility, suggest what you might do to overcome each of these barriers to communication.

2. The importance of listening, as a managerial skill, specifically relates to improving communications and coordination within an organization and to determining if effective understanding of a message has occurred. Recognizing that the basic methods of human communication are writing, reading, speaking, and listening, offer an explanation that justifies why there are required courses--at all levels of education for these methods--with the exception of listening. Listening is a learned skill, similar to any other type of communication. Research the five levels of listening--ignoring, pretending, selective listening, attentive listening and emphathic listening--and suggest how, as a health care manager, you would focus your managerial skills to ensuring that your employees are listening at the optimal levels.

3. Networking, as an integral component of politics, is a concept health care organizations and employees should practice. Describe what is involved in networking. Explain the value of building relationships based on mutually beneficial exchanges. Discuss how the adage, You scratch my back, and Ill scratch yours, applies to the concepts of networking and politics? Describe how the element of trust plays into the establishment of networking relationships. Express your opinion on the relevance of ethical issues that are involved in organizational politics.

4. Refer to the In Practice insert on page 291Building External Coalitions Results in Internal Success. Explain how the establishment of external coalitions should benefit the CEO of Urbanwide Health Plan. Explain how the establishment of external coalitions should benefit Urbanwide Health Plan. Explain how the establishment of external coalitions should benefit the managers and employees of Urbanwide Health Plan. Explain how the establishment of external coalitions should benefit the clients of Urbanwide Health Plan. As a manager of Urbanwide Health Plan, cite any disadvantages that you might deal with, because of your CEOs involvement in the many coalitions listed. Would you prefer to work for a CEO as involved as John OConner, or would you prefer a CEO who spends more time at his desk? Why?

5. You have dreamed of opening an Adult Day Care Center for elderly clients with early and middle stage dementias, in an area that currently has no such service. You recognize that your clients will need a range of multidisciplinary services. You have negotiated with the city's Public Housing Authority to use their multi-purpose facility for a $1/year rental fee. How would you begin designing your organization and the positions and/or teams necessary to provide the services? What would you consider as your biggest obstacle in getting your organization through the design process? Why?

6. Alliances vary in regard to ownership, control, size, governance, and nature of participation. Compare and contrast the types and forms of alliances. As a prospective manager for a health services organization, which type/form of alliance would you least like to be associated with? Which type/form of alliance would you most like to be associated with? Justify your answer.

7. Recognizing the four categories of alliance problems--parochial self-interest, misunderstanding and a lack of trust, different assessments, and low tolerance for ambiguity--identify which treatment/s you would use to eliminate and/or correct the problem. Explain your reasons for your choices.

8. The "learning organization" was popularized by Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline. Describe each of Senge's five learning disciplines, detailing how each discipline is of importance to an effective health care learning organization. In your opinion, which of Senge's disciplines is the most difficult for a learning organization to master? Is one discipline more vital than the others to the success of a learning organization? Why or why not?

9. Refer to "In Practice: Stakeholder Interest: Corporate Responsibility for Disclosure of Scientific Evidence in Medicine" on pages 432-433, which chronicles the law suit filed by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against GlaxoSmithKline. Explain how this article relates to quality assurance and quality improvement. Discuss the FDA's role in this situation and how it applied principles of quality assurance and quality improvement. Do you feel that GlaxoSmithKline should be held liable? Why or why not?

10. When considering the issue of quality improvement in health services organizations, there are conflicting views on how best to achieve the improvement, in the most effective manner. The most popular options for "the road to quality improvement" claim it can best be reached by changes in the organization and management of patient care units, by the availability of state of the art technology, by increased clinician competence and skills, or by the degree of teaching activity occurring? In your opinion, where should the greatest emphasis be placed? Why? Which option do you consider to be the most "doable?" Why? Which option do you consider to be the most difficult to achieve? Why?

There are faxes for this order.

In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.

The Business Intelligence Guide website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (they're short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology:

Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Recommended sections include:

BI Best Practices. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/BI_Best_Practices.php

BI Solutions. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_solutions/index.php

BI Drivers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Drivers_Of_BI.php

BI Barriers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Barriers_To_BI.php

Getting Started in BI. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_program/index.php

But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case.

Now let's look at two specific cases of BI implementation. Remember, these cases were written by the companies supplying the "solutions", so read carefully and if possible between the lines:

Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY - Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic. TDWI. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://tdwi.org/articles/2011/07/11/case-study-using-analytics-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-billing-accuracy-at-marshfield-clinic.aspx

Microsoft Inc. (2011) Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using business intelligence

Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.



Case assignment expectations:
Your paper should be short (5-7 pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. It is to be structured in the following manner. You are expected to:

Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely -- what are the "lessons learned"?

Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you draw these conclusions. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.

Then establish what counterarguments can be made in response to your conclusions.

Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.

By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally re-affirm your original position.



The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. In this case, there isn?t a single right or wrong, yes-or-no answer ? several perspectives can be justified. Your task is to construct a logical, well-reasoned, and persuasive argument for your conclusions. Be sure that you take a defined position on the question, and construct your paper to support that position with suitable arguments and evidence.

Your focus on the question as presented, and your ability to use the language of the module convincingly. Here, this means your ability to understand what business intelligence and data analytics are, your understanding of the complexities of organizational change being described, your ability to "read between the lines" to identify issues not necessarily described explicitly, and your sensitivity to the internal organizatiuonal politics involved.

Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don?t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space. Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it?s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings.

Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.

Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format. For assistance with proper paper formats, reference lists, and citation procedures, please consult the TUI Course Guidelines and/or the Purdue University manual listed in the Background Material.

CASE ASSIGNMENT AND EXPECTATIONS:
When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:
Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using business intelligence
Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.
Your paper should be short (5-7 pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. It is to be structured in the following manner. You are expected to:
? Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely -- what are the "lessons learned"?
? Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you draw these conclusions. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.
? Then establish what counterarguments can be made in response to your conclusions.
? Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.
By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally re-affirm your original position.
The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:
? Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. In this case, there isn?t a single right or wrong, yes-or-no answer ? either perspective can be justified. Your task is to construct a logical, well-reasoned, and persuasive argument for your conclusions. Be sure that you take a defined position on the question, and construct your paper to support that position with suitable arguments and evidence.
? Your focus on the question as presented, and your ability to use the language of the module convincingly. Here, this means your ability to differentiate between what constitutes the "technical system" of an organization and what constitutes its "social system", to define possible changes that could be made to either system and their probably consequences, and to explain how a "socio-technical" perspective involving joint consideration of both systems together may be better than dealing with either system by itself.
? Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don?t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space. Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it?s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings.
? Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.
? Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format. For assistance with proper paper formats, reference lists, and citation procedures, please consult the TUI Course Guidelines and/or the Purdue University manual listed in the Background Material.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdness?s that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.
The Business Intelligence Guide website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (they're short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology:
Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Recommended sections include:
BI Best Practices. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/BI_Best_Practices.php
BI Solutions. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_solutions/index.php
BI Drivers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Drivers_Of_BI.php
BI Barriers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Barriers_To_BI.php
Getting Started in BI. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_program/index.php
But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case.
Now let's look at two specific cases of BI implementation. Remember, these cases were written by the companies supplying the "solutions", so read carefully and if possible between the lines:
Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY - Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic. TDWI. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://tdwi.org/articles/2011/07/11/case-study-using-analytics-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-billing-accuracy-at-marshfield-clinic.aspx
Microsoft Inc. (2011) Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718
There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

Paul Strassman, a former vice president of Xerox Corp., has written a number of books and articles regarding organizational politics and governance and may be considered one of the senior gurus of the field. As the case for this module, you'll be looking at some of his insights on the problem, comparing them to some ideas held by others, and making application to some real-world situations.

Start by taking a look at Strassmann's book, at least the overview of it provided by the summary, the searchable version, and a very thoughtful review:

Paul A. Strassmann (1994) The Politics of Information Management: Policy Guidelines. Summary at http://www.infoeconomics.com/info-politics.php.

Searchable version provided through Google Books Program at http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=C_q_t2hreJcC - use it to follow up on any questions you have, as you work through the case

Book Review by Neal M. Goldsmith (Business Technology,Volume 2, February 1995; http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/goldsmith.html)

You'll also want to look at Strassmann's analytical approach to political power and related issues:

Paul A. Strassmann Check: How to Verify if You are Important. CIOInsight July 8, 2005
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,1849919,00.asp
Calculator: Does Your CIO Have Clout? CIOInsight http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,1849920,00.asp

[click here to download the Excel spreadsheet to which he refers]

Then read through this very excellent analysis provided by a practitioner of the fine art:

Russ Finney The Politics of Information and Projects. ITMWEB White Paper. Available at http://www.itmweb.com/essay008.htm

Now for the the real world portion of the case. Please read:

The CIO Who Admitted Too Much

Opinion: Ziff Davis Internet's Evan Schuman writes that the CIO of Overstock.com thought he was doing the right thing by revealing his company's technology shortcomings and taking the blame. Can today's CIO afford such candor?

As noted earlier, you should consult material from the Background Readings or related other materials you find yourself (be sure to reference properly whatever specific sources you draw on), as well as the PPR Wiki (please do remember the cautionary note about the use of wiki resources).

When you've read through the articles and related material, scanned the websites, and thought about it carefully, please compose a short (ca. 5-7 page) paper on the following topic:

"Was it good organizational politics for Overstock.com's CIO to act as he did? Do you have any better political advice to extend to him?"


There are faxes for this order.

***LEADERSHIP APPLICATIONS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE***

Module 4

Leadership Self-Assessment Quizzes

The Leadership Self-Assessment Quizzes are an important component of the Written Exercise for this module. The quizzes are intended to reveal certain personality traits and leadership behaviors that you may not be fully aware of. By no means are these quizzes regarded as ?all knowing? of your leadership skills, and thus the results should not be taken as the end, but rather as the beginning, of the self-assessment process. You are expected to critically analyze the results and not just accept them at face value.

Take the following Leadership Self-Assessment Quizzes in the text:
? Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 7-1: Empowering Attitudes and Beliefs
? Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 7-2: The Positive Organizational Politics Questionnaire
? Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 8-1: Survey of Influence Tactics
? Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz 8-2: Measure of Ingratiating Behavior in Organizational Settings (MIBOS)

Conduct research on MSO, focusing on the period when it was most successful (before the current crisis). What kinds of leadership patterns can you discern that would explain the earlier success of MSO? What other factors besides leadership can you attribute to MSOs earlier success?

How would leadership practices and approaches during a period of success be different from those that are needed during a crisis?

Define and describe the shifts that MSO needs to make in its leadership approach and the actions that most effectively deal with the current crisis.

Do you perceive some organizational politics in the way Martha withdrew from being the CEO of MSO, yet continued with her presence in the media?

Submit a report thats comprised of the following:

* Leadership patterns that explain the earlier success of MSO.

* Other factors that may have led to MSOs success.

* Describe the differences in the leadership practices and approaches that a company uses during a period of success, and the ones it uses during a crisis. (Give examples of at least two other companies.)

Based on your research of leadership in other companies, describe the changes that MSO needs to make in its leadership to effectively deal with the current crisis.

MS0= martha stewart Omnimedia.

I will be faxing lecture notes. TO CITE LECTURE NOTES: (Lecture Notes, 2007. DO NOT USE CONTRACTIONS. WHEN CITING, DO NOT USE QUOTATIONS AND ALSO PUT IN OWN WORDS--DO NOT PLARGIZE THE MATERIALS
There are faxes for this order.

Case Assignment


This module is about the problems of creating information technology plans that work within the scope of the organization's strategic objectives. It is also about all the reasons why this is a very difficult thing to do, particularly when the process gets down to specifics. Like all organizational decision-making, information technology planning is often a complex muddle of conflicting goals, interests, unclear reasons and payoffs, and poor communication. This indictment is presented without apology, because it is in fact typical. This is not to say that there are not exceptions, and occasionally planning is actually done well. But almost everything in the organization mitigates against this, and we generally fight at best a rearguard action against all the forces that work routinely in favor of chaos.

By way of introduction to the process, consider Doug Frese's discussion paper on IT Enterprise Architecture and Pat Barton's on Enterprise Resource Planning: Factors Affecting Success and Failure. both talk about the process of creating IT enterprise systems from a relatively positive and more or less rational perspective, and both make perfect sense. But Stephanie Gurlen's discussion paper on Scope Creep is perhaps more to the point; the phenomenon that she describes and categorizes with that memorable and almost onomatopoetic phrase is a more or less constant fact of organizational life.

Structural, professional, and personal forces all work in combination to make the IT service/planning interface problematical. Organizational politics alone would make the job difficult; add in communication difficulties, differing frames of professional reference, and just plain personality conflicts and you have a recipe for a serious misalignment. The person at the center of all this swirling chaos tends to be the chief information officer (CIO) of the organization. There's no doubt that superior management can make a big difference in achieving or not achieving planning alignment, or at least in making clear when and why alignment is less than perfect. Much of what the CIO does is to explain to both sides why the other is as it is. Here are two articles describing how CIOs play this key middle-ground role:

ALLAN HOLMES. The Four (Not Three, Not Five) Principles of Managing Expectations. CIO Magazine. http://www.cio.com/archive/110105/expectations.html

MARK GOULSTON. How to Avoid Bumping Heads. CIO Magazine http://www.cio.com/archive/110105/career.html

When you've had a chance to read through these articles, and look through the background material for additional information regarding this phenomenon and other parts of the IT planning process, and consult any other resources that seem helpful to you on this matter, please compose a 5-7 page paper on the topic:

"Most effective CIO's strategy for strategic IT planning"




There are faxes for this order.

In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.

Let's begin with a story -- a hypothetical although quite plausible sounding scenario developed by Kevin Hillstrom to show how "business intelligence" information gets put through a variety of organizational wringers in the push and pull of a high-stakes decision environment. Read through this case description even though you may not be fully following all the number crunching and self-justification going on; just try to follow the ways in which information is being used as weapons as much as analytical decision support:

Hillstrom, K. (2010) Gliebers Dresses: Stupid Marketers and Kewpon. MineThatData.com. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://blog.minethatdata.com/2010/09/gliebers-dresses-stupid-marketers-and.html

Now you should take a look at what one of the leading management information firms in the world, the German hardware/software colossus SAP, suggests ought to be happening, in this "Best Practices" advice column:

SAP (N.D.) Business intelligence best practices: Phase one - do you have a strategy? SAP Community Network. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/webcontent/uuid/d0d7ba8f-bfc1-2c10-9bb7-d7a07a9cc035&prtmode=print

Now it's time for you to do a little research on your own. Try googling a couple of search phrases, something like ?Failures in Business Intelligence? and ?Successes in Business Intelligence? or some variant on those that appeals to you, in search of one or two real-life examples of both success and failure in the business intelligence enterprise. You may even know of a case or two from your own experience.

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

What SAP didn't tell you about creating and using business intelligence, and why.



Case assignment expectations:

Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it?s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

LENGTH: 5-7 pages, double-spaced.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. . In this case, what are SAP?s problems, and where did they come from?
Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don?t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space.
Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper
Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format

In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.

The Business Intelligence Guide website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (they're short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology:

Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Recommended sections include:

BI Best Practices. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/BI_Best_Practices.php

BI Solutions. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_solutions/index.php

BI Drivers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Drivers_Of_BI.php

BI Barriers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Barriers_To_BI.php

Getting Started in BI. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_program/index.php

But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case.

Now let's look at two specific cases of BI implementation. Remember, these cases were written by the companies supplying the "solutions", so read carefully and if possible between the lines:

Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY - Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic. TDWI. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://tdwi.org/articles/2011/07/11/case-study-using-analytics-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-billing-accuracy-at-marshfield-clinic.aspx

Microsoft Inc. (2011) Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using business intelligence

Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.



Case assignment expectations:
Your paper should be short (5-7 pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. It is to be structured in the following manner. You are expected to:

Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely -- what are the "lessons learned"?

Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you draw these conclusions. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.

Then establish what counterarguments can be made in response to your conclusions.

Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.

By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally re-affirm your original position.

Write a 5 page paper on : Steps that organizations can take in creating, implementing, and using business intelligence that would substantially enhance the chances for BI success.

USEFUL INFORMATION AND WEBSITE REFERENCES:
In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.

Let's begin with a story. A number of years ago, a couple of researchers from the RAND Corporation conducted a study on the implementation of some information technologies at the World Bank. The technologies themselves are no longer of particular relevance, but the article does contain a number of useful observations on the processes of IT implementation. Read it quickly with an eye toward learning about the predictable dynamics of implementation:

Bikson, TK and Eveland, JD (1996) Groupware Implementation: Reinvention in the Sociotechnical Frame. Proceedings of the 1996 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. New York: Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://jdeveland.com/Papers%20for%20Website/worldbank.htm

The Business Intelligence Guide website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (they're short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology:

Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Recommended sections include:

BI Best Practices. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/BI_Best_Practices.php

BI Solutions. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_solutions/index.php

BI Drivers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Drivers_Of_BI.php

BI Barriers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Barriers_To_BI.php

Getting Started in BI. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_program/index.php

But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case.

Now it's time for you to become a business intelligence practitioner of sorts, by doing a little research on your own. Try googling a couple of search phrases, something like Failures in Business Intelligence and Successes in Business Intelligence or some variants on those that appeal to you, in search of one or two real-life examples of both success and failure in the business intelligence enterprise. You may even know of a case or two from your own experience.

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

Steps that organizations can take in creating, implementing, and using business intelligence that would substantially enhance the chances for BI success.

Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.

Based on the below four short readings, the material dealing with horoscopes, and your own observations and experience, write an essay in which you discuss the use of language to manipulate and deceive. Your essay should have a clear, effectively focused thesis, and you should use specific details from readings to support and illustrate your observations, being sure to use quotation marks when including an author's words. Moreover, your essay should be as fully developed and detailed.

1. Robert Harris's "Fallacies Associated with Language"
(http://www.virtualsalt.com/think/semant4.htm)
2. Jeffrey Schrank's "The Language of Advertising Claims"
(http://home.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/comp/ad-claims.html)
3. George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language"
(http://langs.eserver.org/politics-english-language.txt)
4. Donna Woolfolk Cross's "Tricks of the Propagandist"
(http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=831344)

This week we touch on an aspect of Europe as a region that is very central to what we have identified as a cultural realm. Religion has been intricately a part of the cultural setting that has given Europe a key role in shaping the world and events for many centuries. Yet, the historical role of religion in Europe and contemporary realities differ in various ways. Read the following transcript of a discussion on this topic with an added lens from the U.S. included.


http://www.pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Secular-Europe-and-Religious-America-Implications-for-Transatlantic-Relations.aspx
1.Summarize concisely what you think describes Europe as a region and religion today. What seems surprising to you about this? Anything ironic?
2.Provide any perspectives that you think relate what this reading addresses and our earlier discussions about Europes social welfare systems?

Writer?s Assco5522, rbwpenn, betty, philipj

Research and comment on the following 2 separately.

1. Teaching is a complex skill that takes time and patience to develop. The characteristics of good teaching cannot be overemphasized; faculty has great responsibility to self, students and the organization to learn the skills of teaching. Teaching authentically and with reality- based assignment, is especially meaningful. This means the faculty has a responsibility to keep clinical competency at the forefront of practice in order to facilitate great teaching from current knowledge base and meaningful practice. Another important area of good teaching that is often overlooked is treating the students with respect. Being respectful to the students translate to meaningful engagement with students, putting them at the center of learning and being there to support, encourage and model best behavior to help them reach their goals.

The areas identified means a lot to me as a student. Reflecting on my own achievements as a student, I perform better as a result of identifying with my teachers being knowledgeable and respectful towards us students. When a student feel they are respected it sends a message that this teacher cares and it challenges the student to reciprocate the same to the teacher in learning and producing grades that reflect that the teacher is meeting standards.

Miller (2012) examines this issue and found ten characteristics that a teacher should possess. A contagious enthusiasm for teaching, creativity, pace and humor in the classroom, challenges the students, encouraging and patient, interest in the student as a person, grammatically correct and knowledgeable, be available after class to facilitate students questions, treat the students equally/understands diversity, and emotionally and mentally prepare when they are in the class.


Miller, P. (2012). Ten characteristics of a good teacher. English Teaching Forum, 50(1), p 36-38. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ971241.pdf


2. Recent debate in the health policy area has generated a plethora of models and the need to increase nurse recruitment, to improve career pathways to be incentives for them to remain in the profession. As future nurse educators, we each must make individual choices in our career focus?academic versus staff development. For myself, staff development lies in the realm of professional development.

Learning is based on relationships to the learners and colleagues. This creates a springboard for the spirit of inquiry and interdisciplinary collaboration. Without mutual respect, the learner is less likely to risk vulnerability or question institutional policy and procedure. According to this week?s Chamberlain lesson, the nurse educator has an opportunity to accomplish this through the below behaviors and activities
?Advising and counseling learners
?Demonstrating caring behavior
?Facilitating learner development
?Mentoring learners

Evidence based practice for the bedside nurse creates opportunities for change. Before evidence based practice can be ?formalized? the need for inquiry must be ignited to improve quality of patient care. Yet, organizational politics and hierarchies can be a barriers for the bedside nurse. The nurse educator can assist a bedside nurse to navigate this pathway.

Relationships with colleagues, includes other nurses and other healthcare professionals, to explore various perspectives. The Boyer ?Scholarship was developed by the Carnegie foundation to balance research activity/outcomes and teaching outcomes in universities. Boyer argues for a broader definition of scholarship that would help to form connections between research and teaching, between theory and practice, in ways that are mutually enhancing.

In 1990 Boyer argued that a broader approach to academic work ?might be thought of as having four separate, yet overlapping, functions.
1. the scholarship of discovery;

2. the scholarship of integration;

3. the scholarship of application; and

4.the scholarship of teaching.? (Boyer 1990: 16).

Smith and Crookes (2011) article on the application of Boyers principles in Australia has an interesting anaylsis which I would like to share with you. It provides wisdom to Dr. Priorier advice to embrace two qualities only at first. ?while these are presented as separate functions, Boyer argues that they overlap and are intrinsically connected. Good thorough scholarship is all of these things all at once, it is from the relationship between these spheres that a rigorous academic discipline is built, so that the discovery and generation of new knowledge flows through and is integrated into learning and then applied in practice, which in turn flows back into teaching and research. This is not a linear process but a circular one.

However, Boyer does not mean that a single individual must, or even can, fulfil or excel in all of these functions. In fact, Boyer's surveys found it was this very level of expectation that caused so much dissatisfaction in faculty staff, who felt they were under too much pressure and not well enough resourced to excel in anything (Smith & Crookes, 2011).?


Smith, K. M., & Crookes, P. A. (2011). Rethinking scholarship: Implications for the nursing academic workforce.

Organizational Issues

The Responsibility Project

Resource: The Responsibility Project website
Perform an Internet search for the site called The Responsibility Project.
Select the link for this site.
View the short films on the Responsibility Project website.
Select one of the short films that address organizational issues.
Write a 750, word paper describing how ethical principles can be used to address organizational issues. Include the link to the film you select and discuss the following:

? Why are the issues in the film important?
? What role do external social pressures have in influencing organizational ethics?
? How might these issues be relevant to organizational and personal decisions?
? What is the relationship between legal and ethical issues as shown in the film?

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts Paper
1. Using the readings, articles, and/or your personal experiences, prepare a 750-1,050-word paper in which you explain the following key concepts and terminology:
a. Organizational behavior
b. Organizational culture
c. Diversity
d. Communication
e. Organizational effectiveness and efficiency
f. Organizational learning
2. Provide examples of how these concepts and terms relate to your workplace.
This assignment is due in Week One.

There are faxes for this order.