CIS DSM Ch12: Enhancing Decision Making

Information systems that support decision making produce better decision making by managers and employees, above average returns on investment for the firm, and ultimately higher profitability. __________ state(s) that the actual behavior of managers appears to be less systematic, more informal, less reflective, more reactive, and less well organized than previously thought.

Behavioral models

At the foundation of decision support systems are a business intelligence and business analytics infrastructure that supplies the data and the analytic tools for supporting decision making. Which of the following best describes business intelligence?

Business intellingence (BI) is a term used by hardware and software vendors and information technology consultants to describe the infrastructure for warehousing, integrating, reporting, and analyzing data that comes from the business environment, including big data.

There are two parts to developing an executive support system (ESS). First, you will need a methodology for understanding exactly what is "the really important performance information" for a specific firm that executives need, and second, you will need to develop systems capable of delivering this information to the right people in a timely fashion. __________ attempt(s) to systematically translate a firm's strategies into operational targets.

Business performance management (BPM)

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. Which stage of the decision-making process consists of selecting among solution alternatives?

Choice stage

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. Which of the stages of the decision-making process involves identifying and exploring various solutions to the problem?

Design

An important capability of business intelligence analytics is the ability to model future events and behaviors, such as the probability that a customer will respond to an offer to purchase a product. Which of the following provide tools to help decision makers visualize problems that benefit from mapping?

Geographic information systems

An important capability of business intelligence analytics is the ability to model future events and behaviors, such as the probability that a customer will respond to an offer to purchase a product. Which of the following statements best describes geographic information systems (GIS)?

Geographic information systems (GIS) provide tools to help decision makers visualize problems that benefit from mapping.

Which of the following best describes group decision-support systems (GDSS)?

Group decision-support systems (GDSS) are interactive computer-based systems that facilitate the solution to unstructured problems by a set of decision makers working together as a group.

According to Henry Mintzberg, managerial roles fall into three categories. In which of those roles do managers act as the nerve centers of their organizations, receiving the most concrete, up-to-date information and redistributing it to those who need to be aware of it?

Informational

Jaden is the CEO of Chat Rack (CR), a California-based company. CR's main area of focus is the development of instant messaging (IM) tools for organizations. After considerable success in the United States, Jaden is contemplating entering the Asian market. He consults Marsha, the marketing manager, and asks her to come up with a marketing plan. Bill, a customer care executive, considers the move to be a sure failure, since CR's IM tools face repeated complaints. Cathy, one of the 25 customer care representatives in CR, handles at least 50 customer complaints every day. Which of the following represents an unstructured decision in this scenario?

Jaden's interest in expanding business into the Asian market

An important capability of business intelligence analytics is the ability to model future events and behaviors, such as the probability that a customer will respond to an offer to purchase a product. __________ is the ability to gain business insights from the geographic component of data, including location data from mobile phones, output from sensors or scanning devices, and data from maps.

Location analytics

Information systems that support decision making produce better decision making by managers and employees, above average returns on investment for the firm, and ultimately higher profitability. Which of the following statements best describes the classical model of management?

Management focused on its formal functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and controlling

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. Which of the following is typically true of the types of decisions in an organization?

Middle management faces more structured decision scenarios, but its decisions may include unstructured components.

An important capability of business intelligence analytics is the ability to model future events and behaviors, such as the probability that a customer will respond to an offer to purchase a product. Which of the following statements is true of predictive analytics?

Predictive analytics is 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.

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. Which of the following concern(s) situations where only part of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure?

Semi-structured decisions

Using mathematical or analytical models allow decision makers to explore how changes in certain values affect other values; allowing them to predict outcomes if changes occur. __________ is a model that asks what-if questions repeatedly to predict a range of outcomes when one or more variables are changed multiple times.

Sensitivity analysis

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. Which of the following statements best describes structured decisions?

Structured decisions are repetitive and routine decisions which are handled procedurally.

There are two parts to developing an executive support system (ESS). First, you will need a methodology for understanding exactly what is "the really important performance information" for a specific firm that executives need, and second, you will need to develop systems capable of delivering this information to the right people in a timely fashion. __________ refers to a framework for operationalizing a firm's strategic plan by focusing on measurable financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth outcomes of firm performance.

The balanced scorecard method

There are two parts to developing an executive support system (ESS). First, you will need a methodology for understanding exactly what is "the really important performance information" for a specific firm that executives need, and second, you will need to develop systems capable of delivering this information to the right people in a timely fashion. Which of the following best describes the balanced scorecard method?

The balanced scorecard method refers to a framework for operationalizing a firm's strategic plan by focusing on measurable financial, business process, customer, and learning and growth outcomes of firm performance.

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. Identify the statement that best describes unstructured decisions.

Unstructured decisions are nonroutine, and there is no agreed-on procedure for making them.

According to Henry Mintzberg, managerial roles fall into three categories. In their interpersonal role, managers _________.

act as figureheads for the organization to the outside world and perform symbolic duties

According to Henry Mintzberg, managerial roles fall into three categories. In their informational role, managers __________.

act as the nerve centers of their organizations, receiving the most concrete, up-to-date information and redistributing it to those who need to be aware of it

At the foundation of decision support systems is an infrastructure that supplies the data and the analytic tools for supporting decision making. Integrating the information streams produced by a firm into a single, coherent enterprise-wide set of data, and then using modeling, statistical analysis tools, and data mining tools to make sense out of all these data so that managers can make better decisions and better plans describes the functions of __________.

business intellingence (BI) and business analytics (BA)

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. The choice stage of the decision-making process __________.

consists of choosing among solution alternatives

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. The intelligence stage involves __________.

discovering, identifying, and understanding the problems occurring in the organization—why a problem exists, where, and what effects it is having on the firm

Cisco's Collaboration Meeting Rooms Hybrid (CMR) allows groups of employees to meet using any device via WebEx video software, which does not require any special network connections, special displays, or complex software. Cisco's collaboration meeting rooms hybrid (CMR) is an example of a(n) ________.

group decision-support system

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. The design stage of the decision-making process involves _________.

identifying and exploring various solutions to the problem

Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. The __________ stage of the decision-making process involves making the chosen alternative work and continuing to monitor how well the solution is working.

implementation

According to Henry Mintzberg, managerial roles fall into three categories. In the __________ role, managers act as figureheads for the organization when they represent their companies to the outside world and perform symbolic duties.

interpersonal

An important capability of business intelligence analytics is the ability to model future events and behaviors, such as the probability that a customer will respond to an offer to purchase a product. Location analytics refers to __________.

the ability to gain business insights from the geographic component of data, including location data from mobile phones, output from sensors or scanning devices, and data from maps

Information systems that support decision making produce better decision making by managers and employees, above average returns on investment for the firm, and ultimately higher profitability. Management focused on its formal functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and controlling describes __________.

the classical model of management