...Centralized Verses Decentralized: A Tale of Two Structures Leroy Dowdy Walden University Dr. Gayle Grant 08 April 2012 Centralized Verses Decentralized: A Tale of Two Structures The history of information technology (IT) has been well documented over the previous decades. The contributions of IT vary, but perhaps the most notable is the influence on organizational structuring. Prior to the information age, organizations predominately operated within a centralized structure (Mukherji, 2002). In a centralized structure, decision-making resided at senior levels and was executed within a formal structure. Conversely, a decentralized structure distributes decision-making in an informal environment. The centralized structure was effective, in part, due to decision-making authorities being reserved for upper management (Hitt & Brynjolfsson, 1997). The two case studies presented excellent examples of how organizational structure influences the use of IT. The use of social action theory to frame the research was insightful. Social action theory suggests that organization’s structures are based on traditions, policies, and habits, but may change if any of these factors are changed, replaced, or not acted upon (Giddens, 1984). This author will examine the challenges faced and the strategic responses implemented by both universities. Challenges and Strategic Responses The maturation of IT made the handling, sorting, and storing of hard copy documents obsolete. The...
Words: 1055 - Pages: 5
...meet today’s demands. This increase in information storage, patient records and imaging data requires large amounts of bandwidth. Flexible network solutions between data centers, hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices to access centralized medical records. Move electronic medical records from local to centralized storage. Backup and restore medical data between data centers for disaster recovery. -All mobile devices and USB drives should be encrypted if they will be used remotely. Healthcare organizations are now routinely installing full-disk encryption on their employee laptops. USB thumb drives are a convenient way to transport documents between offices or move data between work and home. But healthcare organization should take steps to minimize the security risks created by those portable drives. The health organization has to keep in mind the threats of USB drives. If the USB lost or stolen or lost which holding protected health information or other sensitive data. The other threat is USB malware USB drives often get passed around and are handed out for free at conferences and other events. That means many people use thumb drives without knowing where they’ve been before, making USB drives an effective way to spread computer viruses. Also Insider threat gives malicious insiders a convenient method for sneaking sensitive information off of a healthcare organization’s premises. -In health care facility faculty, staff, students and other persons acting on behalf of the...
Words: 362 - Pages: 2
...Failures in Distributed and Centralized Systems Student Name POS/355 Instructor Name Date Failures in Distributed and Centralized Systems In today’s technology we have a vastly wide range of options when it comes to networking and linking computer systems. Organizations use a few different methods to linking their systems together. Large organizations, such as banks, power grids, and airport flight controller systems use what is called a distributed system. A distributed system must be reliable, available, safe, and secure. Since a distributed system is a widely available system that is essentially a collection of independent computers. With any large system, there are more components, more software, and more security risks that can jeopardize the system’s integrity. Many smaller organizations use what is called a centralized system, which can be anything from a personal computer to several terminals connected to a server. These systems can run into a few errors within their processes called failures. Distributed System According to our text, “A distributed system is a collection of processors that do not share memory or a clock. Instead, each processor has its own local memory. The processors communicate with one another through various communication networks, such as high-speed buses or telephone lines. In this chapter, we discuss the general structure of distributed systems and the networks that interconnect them.” (Silbershatz, A., Galvin, P. B., & Gagne, G...
Words: 1091 - Pages: 5
...Case Study Using Information Technologies at Federal Express Federal Express, founded in 1971, handles an average of 3 million package-tracking requests every day (http://about.fedex.designcdt.com). To stay ahead in a highly competitive industry, Federal Express focuses on customer service by maintaining a comprehensive Web site, FedEx.com, to assist customers and reduce costs. For example, every request for information is handled at the Web site instead of going to the call center saves roughly $1.87. Federal Express has reported that customer calls have decreased by 83, 000 per day since 2000, which saves the company $57.56 million per year. In addition, each package-tracking costs Federal Express three cents; by using Web site instead of the call center to handle these requests, costs have been reduced from more than $1.36 billion per year to $21.6 million per year. Another technology for improving customer service is Ship Manager, an application installed on customers’ sites so that users can weigh packages, determine shipping charges, and print shipping labels. Customers can also link their invoicing, billing, accounting, and inventory systems to Ship Manager. However, Federal, Express still spends almost $326 million per year on its call center to reduce customers’ frustration when the Web site is down or when customers have difficulty in using it. Federal Express uses customer relationship management software called Clarify in its call centers to make customer service...
Words: 1243 - Pages: 5
...Organizational Learning and Decision-Making: A Southeastern School District and Elementary School Greg Alford, DA University of Phoenix Org 714 Organizational Learning and Decision-Making: A Southeastern School District and Elementary School Although learning should be an easy task for a school and school system, the bureaucracy of a public educational system presents many obstacles to substantive learning on the part of the employees and the smoothness of the decision-making process. This paper examines the opportunities for organizational learning and the decision-making process in southeastern U.S. school district and specifically at an elementary school Pre-K CDC Program. What is Organizational Learning and Decision-Making? Organizational learning is the process through which managers seek to improve organization members’ desire and ability to understand and manage the organization and its environment so they make decisions that continuously raise organizational effectiveness. There are two types of organizational learning strategies that may be pursued by any group: exploration and exploitation. Exploration is a method where organizational members learn of ways to improve existing organizational activities and procedures through experimentation. Exploitation is where those members refine and improve on existing activities and procedures to increase effectiveness (Jones, 2010). Organizational decision-making is the process of responding to a problem by searching...
Words: 2773 - Pages: 12
...CIS 505 Case study 3 week 7 Carlson Companies Prof Name Matthew Anyanwu Student name Sajid Mehmood Date 08/16/2015 Carlson Companies * Assess how the Carlson SAN approach would be implemented in today’s environment. In the same way as other IT staff confronted with exponential stockpiling development, Norman Owens understood a couple of years back that his organization was set out toward a test on the off chance that it didn't begin uniting its stockpiling assets onto a stockpiling territory system (SAN). Owens, a stockpiling system designer and expert with Carlson Companies, addresses a crowd of people of his associates at Storage Decisions 2003 as of late about his organization's merging endeavors. (While not so much a commonly recognized name, Carlson Companies is a global vicinity behind such understood retail and lodging networks as TGI Friday's and Radisson inns and resorts. Before solidifying onto a SAN, Owens' imparted administrations gathering upheld an arrangement to one centralized computer and 26 servers, where the greater part of the servers were working diligently supporting the organization's Oracle Financials database under HP/UX. This course of action took care of 14TB of information, more than 54 SCSI and 8 ESCON associations. "It resembled a point-to-point SCSI arrangement," Owens said, noticing, "There were a ton of links." When they required more stockpiling, "We'd simply go purchase another casing. After the organization requested that his gathering...
Words: 1555 - Pages: 7
...ECRM 2007: 6th European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies Using PEST Analysis as a Tool for Refining and Focusing Contexts for Information Systems Research Guo Chao Alex Peng, Miguel Baptista Nunes Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK lip05gcp@sheffield.ac.uk, j.m.nunes@sheffield.ac.uk Abstract It is common for inexperienced researchers and research students to aim at investigating very wide contexts such as countries (e.g. China, India, UK), regions (e.g. the Arab Countries) or even continents (e.g. Africa). Such studies in Information Systems (IS) are not only unrealistic and potentially unfeasible, but may result in findings that are neither significant nor meaningful. Research supervisors often face difficulties in explaining and resolving these common pitfalls in research proposals. This paper proposes the use of Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST, also often referred to as STEP) analysis as a tool to identify narrower contexts and focus research questions around feasible and meaningful regional contexts. It illustrates this process with the results of an analysis carried out as part of an ongoing PhD research project. The project aims to investigate the barriers and risks associated with the post-implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in Chinese companies. PEST analysis was used to define an appropriate region in China (i.e. Guangdong)...
Words: 5493 - Pages: 22
...[pic] NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET Student: THIS FORM MUST BE COMPLETELY FILLED IN Follow these procedures: If requested by your instructor, please include an assignment cover sheet. This will become the first page of your assignment. In addition, your assignment header should include your last name, first initial, course code, dash, and assignment number. This should be left justified, with the page number right justified. For example: |BTM7001-8 1 | Save a copy of your assignments: You may need to re-submit an assignment at your instructor’s request. Make sure you save your files in accessible location. | | | |BTM7001-8 | | | | | |Advanced Scholarly Writing |Week 1 Assignment: Referencing Peer Reviewed Studies | | | | Faculty Use Only ...
Words: 1138 - Pages: 5
...Improving Access to University Health Services A Case Study ► Process Improved: The system for triage and making appointments for students utilizing University Health Services ► Unit (s): Student Affairs – University Health Services ► Customers of the Process and Their Needs: UW-Madison students were the users of the process, although the problem impacted R.N. and Program Assistants (PAs) staffing University Health Services ► Problem/Opportunity Statement: Students were dissatisfied with access to medical services at UHS. Specific complaints included prolonged waiting times on hold or getting the “busy signal” when calling UHS. The limited capacity of the system for incoming calls meant that people waited a long time or were disconnected. All medical/illness-related questions were referred to one nurse. (When the nurse was on the telephone with a caller, messages were taken from ill students or those seeking same-day appointments. The messages stacked up and often, by the time the nurse was available to call the patient back, the patient would not be available. Many opportunities for contact were missed. Getting an appointment was very much a matter of luck.) The long waits for the nurse meant that students were “triaged” by PAs who were non-medical personnel. More students came in for care without appointments. (“I couldn’t get through on the phone, so I came in.”) The decentralized appointment structure meant that a patient calling for a women’s clinic appointment called directly...
Words: 901 - Pages: 4
...media strategy and rich media repository at the top of the list. While video is permeating almost every aspect of campus life – from teaching and learning to marketing, development, communications and admissions - the approach has generally been haphazard, resulting in silos of content that lack a coherent framework for Security, Access Control, Rights Management, Discoverability, Accessibility and Search. For many, a potential rich-media management crisis is looming on campus, and this impending crisis is only exacerbated by today’s ed-tech trends, which all rely heavily on video to thrive – flipped classrooms, personalised learning, blended learning, social learning, and of course MOOCs. Add the complexity of allowing (and supporting) students and faculty to Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), and you have a recipe for an IT nightmare. According to Kenneth C. Green of The Campus Computing Project: “Fewer than 30 percent of CIOs and senior campus IT officers representing some 540-plus U.S. colleges and universities surveyed by Campus Computing in fall 2012 report that their institution had a strategic plan for content management. For most campuses, a video management strategy is an ‘after the fact’ initiative as opposed to an ‘ahead of the curve’ strategy.” But why should CIOs care about video so much? Because of a few compounding factors: 1. Video is the foundation of the two most important trends in EDU right now a. flipped classroom b. distance education By setting the...
Words: 1554 - Pages: 7
... One of the reasons that procedures vary for handling patient records is the volume of patients seen on any given day. By comparing and contrasting record management systems in different sized facilities, you will have information to contribute to several activities in this course. By Week Four you should have completed three interviews, which you may conduct in person or by phone. You need to use the list of questions in the table on the next page to gather information about each of the following: • A small medical facility—an office for one or two doctors • A medium-sized facility—a clinic where several doctors work in partnership • A large facility—a hospital or medical center People will be more likely to cooperate if you disclose that the information you want is related to schoolwork, you will not take up much of their time, and none of the information is confidential. Consider introducing yourself with something like the following: Hello, my name is ________ and I need some general information about filing systems for a school assignment. Would it be possible to speak to the person in charge of filing patient records for a few quick questions, or may I call back at another time? If the facility needs proof that you are a student, you must provide your instructor with a name and e-mail address to send a permission notice, and then allow three days for your instructor to send the notice. It is your responsibility to follow up with the prospective...
Words: 829 - Pages: 4
...person can be counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, or social worker. For, example a student who sees their school counselor on occasions to discuss general problems, but then the counselor starts to notice these emotional problems that are leading to a more disruptive behavior and emotional problems, the counselor might make the proper referral for a student to see a Psychologist. Generally, they feel out a form and fax it over to the proper identity. Then the students can begin therapy with a professional who ca help them directly with these emotional problems, such as cutting, depression and even substance abuse, stress, Autism, ADHD, ADD or a different emotional/mental problem. It’s becoming more common to see this type of behavior in students and teens. Many times the problems they have at home affect to some point where they need to be referred immediately to a specialized person for help. In the Imperial Valley the school districts work real close with Imperial County Behavioral Health they have Psychologist who can administer medication and trained nurses, and case managers that work closely with the patient and their family in order to provide the services that they will benefit the child. The different people that work together to help the patient have an easy access to all these documents since they operate a database and many times the information is logged in to the computer. The also put together files that are passed...
Words: 1094 - Pages: 5
... One of the reasons that procedures vary for handling patient records is the volume of patients seen on any given day. By comparing and contrasting record management systems in different sized facilities, you will have information to contribute to several activities in this course. By Week Four you should have completed three interviews, which you may conduct in person or by phone. You need to use the list of questions in the table on the next page to gather information about each of the following: • A small medical facility—an office for one or two doctors • A medium-sized facility—a clinic where several doctors work in partnership • A large facility—a hospital or medical center People will be more likely to cooperate if you disclose that the information you want is related to schoolwork, you will not take up much of their time, and none of the information is confidential. Consider introducing yourself with something like the following: Hello, my name is ________ and I need some general information about filing systems for a school assignment. Would it be possible to speak to the person in charge of filing patient records for a few quick questions, or may I call back at another time? If the facility needs proof that you are a student, you must provide your instructor with a name and e-mail address to send a permission notice, and then allow three days for your instructor to send the notice. It is your responsibility to follow up with the prospective...
Words: 1165 - Pages: 5
...development. From a very young age the concepts of sharing, respect, and kindness become instilled repetitively. The golden rule is one of the primary and most influential ways personal responsibility begins. “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you” isn’t just something that works in kindergarten, it lasts a lifetime. These initial values that we instill into the youth of society are what will transcend into their adolescent lives as students, athletes, or members of an organization and ultimately their professional lives with career beginnings and development. When I think of personal responsibility, I think accountability. Personal responsibility is not just taking the credit when everything is going as planned, it is also finding the solution and helping others along the way when nothing is going as planned. Responsibility itself is something that can be divided into multiple concepts in itself. One of which Ann Allen goes on to split into centralized and decentralized. For a group setting, as members there is a sense of centralized responsibility. Each group member is responsible for contributing their part. At the same time, there is a sense of decentralized responsibility. Allen writes, “Decentralization allows for greater shared responsibility,” which is how group work happens (“Responsibility & School Governance,” 2009, 441). Each member must bring something to the table and possibly sacrifice something as well, for the benefit of the group. There are no excuses...
Words: 1399 - Pages: 6
...the Structure of Information Systems with Organizational Requirements for Information Sharing Author(s): Sunro Lee and Richard P. Leifer Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Spring, 1992), pp. 27-44 Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40397996 . Accessed: 18/03/2013 20:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . M.E. Sharpe, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Management Information Systems. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:56:30 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A Framework Linking Structure for the of with Information Systems Organizational for Requirements Information Sharing LEE P. SUNRO ANDRICHARD LEDFER in candidate Management Information at Sunro Lee is a doctoral Systems Rensselaer His research interests include Institute. current issuesin methodological Polytechnic andtesting, decision information group support systems...
Words: 6895 - Pages: 28
