INSTRUCTOR    Dr. W. Acar, A413 BSA, 672-1156             Home: 673-6514

                          E-mail:  wacar@kent.edu

                          Office hours:  M-W  2:00-3:30 pm & 5:00-6:00, and by appointment.

                          Class Time & Location:  6:15-8:55 at 211-MSB (MSB211)

 

 

TEXT          E. Turban, D. Leidner, E. McLean & J. Wetherbe:

                   (Wiley, 5th edition, 2006)            ISBN 0-471-70522-5

 

                       

COURSE OBJECTIVES

 

            This conceptual course is intended to introduce IAKM students to the principal concepts of strategic information management, as well as to sensitize them to implementation issues in this age of increasing globalization. Information is a uniquely privileged resource, one that is not consumable.  We will work together so that you will come to see that, it behooves firms to better manage their informational resources and Internet connection in this Information Age.

 

 

COURSE PREREQUISITES

 

            This course assumes that you are admissible to graduate-level courses at KSU.  In order not to risk deregistration, in case of doubt please check with your college’s or school’s graduate office.

 

 

COURSE PRINCIPLES

 

            As with any growing field, of late our expectations of the information revolution have grown exponentially.  This course aims at sharpening your conceptual skills with regard to the theories of strategic and managerial decision making, while keeping an eye on the ethical side, so as to provide you a critical, balanced perspective that could guide you in a future career of information-resource manager or consultant. 

 

 

OVERLAP WITH OTHER COURSES

 

Many of the materials used in this course overlap with those used by other instructors.  In particular, there may be a duplication of materials with the IAKM 60005 course Information Technology.  However, these two courses differ in that IAKM 60005 is meant primarily to address the technical side of KM (knowledge management), while IAKM 60006 is primarily on the ways to interpret information for management purposes.

 

COURSE PROCEDURE

 

The TLMW text is very rich and complete.  However, its structure is more that of an enclyclopaedia or a dictionary than a thematic text.  It can serve as a rich source of (direct and indirect) background references for your term papers.   Due to this, my lectures will focus on a subset of the text so as to present a clearly linked sequence of topics.  Also, I will complement it in the areas of strategic theory and decision making.

 

            This type of course cannot be ingested passively, but requires your active participation in and before class.  This will render the course more rather than less interesting, since what you get out of a course is in direct relation to the effort that goes into it.  Students will organize themselves into teams of 3-4 people (our version of "quality circles") for class and project preparation, as well as class discussion.  More importantly, the class discussion is an integral part of this course.  Meet with your team members outside class hours and bring your ideas to class!  Students will be expected to reflect on their readings from the following four sources:

            i)          The theories and rationales found in the textbook or presented in class.

            ii)         The theoretical knowledge derived from your other courses.

            iii)        Information gleaned from keeping up with professional business or IT readings.

            iv)        General knowledge gleaned from your prior organizational experience.

 

 

CLASS ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION

 

            An interactive class presupposes beforehand preparation and regular attendance.  A 90% attendance rate will allow you to make allowance for emergencies.  In such eventuality, do not call your instructor; simply ask your quality-circle teammates to take notes for you.

 

 

GRADING

 

Individual class participation will be counted toward 20% of the grade, the remaining 80% being divided among three group papers with the following value:

·         Paper I:      10 pts

·         Paper II:     25 pts

·         Paper III:    45 pts

 

            Paper I is a short paper (3 pages, 1000 words or so, 1.5 spacing, with a clear highlighting of the headings and spacing around them) in which each group describes, in a few well-structured paragraphs, what it estimates the main issues in SIM (strategic information management) to be.  As this is done very early in the course, you will have to rely on general knowledge, not yet the textbook.  My feedback will consist of substantive and writing pointers.

 

            Paper II is a substantial paper (a dozen pages, approximately 5000 words, 1.5 spacing, with a clear highlighting of the headings and spacing around them).  By then you will have seen the internal management of corporations and e-commerce, but not how to seek external strategic information.  This first major paper will have to present your group’s sense of how to manage the information in a corporation (including some consideration of ethical questions), but also to extrapolate from what you know to how you would seek to manage the firm’s environmental scanning and external connections.

 

                *      Team members should complement each other.  It would be wasteful or even infeasible for them to duplicate each other's work.  To provide for greater choice and flexibility, teammates do not all have to end up with the same grade.  Each team member will be evaluated by his or her peers by means of the division of a pie of 10 points (or 1.00 in decimal notation) in among the team members [see attached example].  This will allow the instruction will derive a multiplier to scale the group grade up or down for each individual according to his/her peer review.

 

                *      Alternatively, groups who unanimously make this choice may simply submit together a sheet signed by all members listing EACH person's percentage contribution to the group work.

 

            Paper III   Instructions for paper III will be given in light of paper II.

           

            The final grading will conform to (or possibly be more lenient than) the following numeric scale conversion: A = [90-100], B = [80-89], C = [70-79], D = [60-69], F < 60.

 

 

OPTIONAL PRESENTATIONS

 

            To allow the students to participate even in designing the course contents, extra credit can be earned through class presentations approved by the instructor (maximum: 2 presentations per student).

            . Individual presentation :        3 extra points.

            . Group presentation       :        2 extra points for each presenter.

 

 

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

 

University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access equal access course content.  If you have documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments.  Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit  www.kent.edu/sas  for more information on registration procedures).

 

 

ACADEMIC HONESTY

Plagiarism is the misrepresentation of the source, nature or conditions of one’s academic work.  The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them due credit is considered a serious academic offense.  Also, cheating occurs when two or more people cooperate in such misrepresentations.  It is the University’s policy that cheating or plagiarism results in receiving a failing grade for the work or course.  Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.

 

NOTE            Papers should be turned in at the beginning of the class in which they are due.  Class absences due to working on late papers will not be excused.

 

 

LAST DATE TO WITHDRAW      25 March 2007     (Until that date, the transcript grade is just “W”).        

 

 

            INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

           

1/17     - Presentation of the course and the text

            -     Distinguishing theory from practice; conceptual courses from hands-on courses

            -     Organization into groups

-          Discussion of students’ expectations

-          Introduction to Strategic Management and Organization Theory.

 

 

            SYNOPSIS OF STRATEGIC THINKING AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING

           

1/24     - Strategic management and organization theory: contrast and complementation [instructor].

-          The notion of competitive advantage [instructor]

-          Information and competitive advantage [TLMW ch 1 and throughout the book]

-          Businesses, corporations and SBUs [instructor]

-          Porter’s framework for competitive strategy [Appendix 1a: pp. 44-47].

 

1/31     - Data, information and knowledge [TLMW pp. 49-52]

            - Managers and decision making [TLMW pp. 457-465]

-          Decision-Support Systems (DSS) [pp. 465-470]

-          Group Decision-support systems (GDSS) [pp. 471-476]

-          More and less intelligent support systems [477-491].

            -  Paper I due.

 

 

            THE STATE OF THE ART

 

2/7       -Evolution of information systems [TLMW pp. 49-57]

-          Transaction processing vs. management information [pp. 58-60]

-          How IT supports organizational activities [pp. 60-65]

-          Information systems infrastructure and architecture [pp. 66-71]

-          Web-based systems [pp. 71-76]

-          Managing information resources [pp. 77-81]

- Strategic advantage and information technology (IT) [TLMW pp. 506-515].

-          IT capabilities and IT planning [pp. 515-531]

-          Planning IT architectures and related issues [pp. 532-544].

 

2/14     - Data management [TLMW pp. 407-416]

-          Data Warehousing [pp. 417-422]

-          Data analysis & mining [pp. 423-432]

-          Data visualization technologies [pp. 432-440]

-          Marketing databases [pp. 440-448]

-          Review of Intelligent systems [pp. 477-491]

-          Modelling and simulation [pp. 492-494].

 

            THE INTERNAL MANAGEMENT OF CORPORATIONS

 

2/21     - Functional information systems [TLMW pp. 245-249]

-          Transaction-processing systems [249-255]

-          Managing production/operations and logistics [255-260]

-          Managing marketing and sales systems [pp. 261-268]

-          Managing Finance and accounting systems [pp. 269-276]

-          Managing human resources systems [pp. 276-282]

-          Integrating functional information systems [pp. 282-285]

            - Enterprise systems and supply chains [TLMW pp. 294-299]

            -      Supply chain problems and solutions [pp. 300-308]

-          MRP, MRP II, SCM and ERP [pp. 309-317]

-          CRM and its support by IT [pp. 318-324].

 

2/28     - Inter-organizational & global information systems [TLMW pp. 332-340]

-          Hubs, directories and B2B exchanges [pp. 341-345]

-          Electronic data interchange (EDI) [pp. 345-349]

-          Extranets and Web services [pp. 350-358]

- Introduction to knowledge management (KM) [TLMW 366-372]

-          The KM process: initiatives and approaches [pp. 373-376]

-          Information technology in KM [pp. 377-380]

-          Implementation of KM systems [pp. 381-388]

-          Managing KM systems: people and success factors [pp. 388-397].

 

 

 

            NETWORK COMPUTING AND E-COMMERCE

 

3/7       - Overview of network computing [TLMW pp. 90-94]

-          Basic operations of networks [pp. 95-103]

-          Network-based communications [pp. 104-108]

-          Network-based collaboration [pp. 108-115]

-          Collaboration-enabling tools [pp. 116-123]

-          Ethical and managerial issues [pp. 124-127]

            - Overview of e-business and e-commerce (EC) [TLMW pp. 138-143]

-          Major EC mechanisms [pp. 144-153]

-          Online advertising [pp. 153-157]

-          Business-to-business (B2B) applications [pp. 157-160]

-          Intra-business and consumer-to-consumer EC [pp. 161-164]

-          E-commerce support services [pp. 164-170]

-          Ethical, legal and managerial issues [pp. 170-177].

 

 

3/14     - Framework for IT application acquisition [TLMW pp. 595-599]

-          Planning information systems applications [pp. 600-607]

-          Outsourcing and application service providers [pp. 608-617]

-          The role of IT in business process redesign (BPR) [618-624]

 

 

 

            - Managing information resources and security [TLMW pp. 633-641]

-          IS vulnerability and computer crimes [pp. 642-651]

-          Protecting informational resources [pp. 652-660]

-          Securing the Web, intranets and wireless networks [pp. 661-666]

-          Implementing security and disaster recovery planning [pp. 667-679].

 

 

3/21     Inter-group Project Workshop toward Paper II

 

 

3/28     SPRING RECESS WEEK – No class

 

 

 

            CONCLUDING  SYNOPTIC VIEW

 

4/4       - Information technology economics:  the productivity paradox [TLMW pp. 553-560]

-          Issues in evaluating IT investment [pp. 560-565]

-          Methods for evaluating IT investments [pp. 566-574]

-          IT economic strategies [pp. 574-580]

-          Economics of e-commerce [pp. 581-586].

4/11     - Overview of the global impact of IT [TLMW pp. 689-695]

-          Information as a resource in transition [pp. 696-702]

-          The automation of the workplace [pp. 703-710]

-          IT’s impact on people’s value systems [pp. 711-717].

 

 

4/18     Intra-group Project Workshop toward Paper III

 

 

4/25     - General principles of ethics (found in the earlier editions) [Instructor]

            -      Student presentations ?

            - Paper III due.

 

 

5/9       - OPEN AGENDA.      

Dr  W.  Acar                                                        Group #:                                Full Name:

 

 

You are to evaluate your team members three different ways. You also can provide individual or personal comments. When evaluating your colleagues, you need to be careful, fair and objective. Base your evaluation on: personal effort/hard work, team cooperation (being present at meetings, working together), leadership, quality of ideas, analytic methodology and teaching teammates.

 

 

A.      Distribute a pie of 1.00 point among your team members, including yourself, down to the second decimal of a point. Points are to be given on the basis of performance on the joint project work.

 

B.      Rank-order each team member on the basis of the project work (1 the best, 4 the worst). Note: no two members can receive the same ranking.

 

C.      Rank each member’s class participation on a scale of 0-10 (with 10 being high). This time, performance evaluation is relative to all teams and individuals in this class; here it is possible to score everyone high or low or mixed.

Team Members:                                                   A                                              B                                           C

                                                                     Score of relative                               Tie-breaking                            

 performance in group                       ranking on                           Contribution

        project work.                                 project work.                       to class.

 

 

 

 

 

This is an example of a “peer review” or “teammate evaluation” sheet, which will serve to determine each student’s personal multiplier. This multiplier will transform the student’s group grade into his or her personal grade for the group projects.