Management Information Systems - Chapter 12

Semistructured Decisions

Decisions in which only part of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure.

Structured Decisions

Decisions that are repetitive, routine, and have a definite procedure for handling them.

Behavioral Models

Descriptions of management based on behavioral scientists' observations of what managers actually do in their jobs.

Managerial Roles

Expectations of the activities that managers should perform in an organization.

Balanced Scorecard Method

Framework for operationalizing a firms strategic plan by focusing on measurable financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth outcomes of firm performance.

Key Performance Indicators

Measures proposed by senior management for understanding how well the firm is performing along specified dimensions.

Interpersonal Roles

Mintzberg's classification for managerial roles where managers act as figureheads and leaders for the organization.

Informational Roles

Mintzberg's classification for managerial roles where managers act as the nerve centers of their organizations, receiving and disseminating critical information.

Decisional Roles

Mintzberg's classification for managerial roles where managers initiate activities, handle disturbances, allocate resources, and negotiate conflicts.

Sensitivity Analysis

Models that ask "what-if" questions repeatedly to determine the impact of changes in one or more factors on the outcomes.

Unstructured Decisions

Nonroutine decisions in which the decision maker must provide judgement, evaluation, and insights into the problem definition; there is no agreed-upon procedure for making such decisions.

Design

Simon's second stage of decision making, when the individual conceives of possible alternative solutions to a problem.

Choice

Simon's third stage of decision making, when the individual selects among the various solution alternatives.

Pivot Table

Spreadsheet tool for reorganizing and summarizing two or more dimensions of data in a tabular format.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

System with software that can analyze and display data using digitized maps to enhance planning and decision-making.

Data Visualization

Technology for helping users see patterns and relationships in large amounts of data by presenting the data in graphical form.

Drill Down

The ability to move from summary data to lower and lower levels of detail.

Intelligence

The first of Simon's four stages of decision making, when the individual collects information to identify problems occurring in the organization.

Predictive Analytics

The use of data mining techniques, historical data, and assumptions about future conditions to predict outcomes of events, such as the probability a customer will respond to an offer or purchase a specific product.

Classic Model of Management

Traditional description of management that focused on its formal functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and controlling.

Implementation

All the organizational activities surrounding the adoption, management, and routinization of an innovation, such as a new information system.

Group Decision-Support System (GDSS)

An interactive computer-based system to facilitate the solution to unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group.

Business Performance Management

Attempts to systematically translate a firm's strategies (e.g., differentiation, low-cost product, market share growth, and scope of operation) into operational targets.