IST 301: Information and Organizations Wei-Fan Chen, Ph.D. The Penn State University Wilkes-Barre Campus

Week 4: Processes in Organizations Review: the who’s the boss problem The roles of organizational processes Definitions of organizational processes Conceptualizations of processes Case study: Restaurant service Based on the reading: Crowston and Short: Understanding Processes in Organizations. Unpublished manuscript: Syracuse University. 18 pages.

Answer to the “who’s the boss” problem Dr. Chen’s boss is NOT ___________ Dr. Chen’s bosses are _____________

The roles of organizational processes Organization Science Organization design IT Structures Processes (modeling, supply chain management)

Definitions of organizational processes Premises: Thinking about processes is a good way to understand organizations Thinking about processes helps to define organizational activities more accurately. Goal: Improve E+E of an organization What is the main purpose of this article?

Definitions of organizational processes What people actually do in organizations Any activity (or group of activities) that takes an input, adds value to it, and provides outputs to customers

Conceptualizations of processes Processes as ways to accomplish goals Processes as transformations of inputs to outputs Processes as sequences of activities Identifying activities Relevance Top-down Bottom-up

Case study: Restaurant service Seinfeld- The Soup Nazi What is the most important factor resulting in a successful restaurant? What types of restaurants? (pp.2-3 on Reading#3) How different? Pros and cons? How to collect data? Observation Interview Document analysis Five processes identified: order-cook-serve-eat-pay Interdependencies among processes

Review questions What are the roles of organizational processes? What are the definitions of organizational processes? What are the conceptualizations of processes? What do you learn from the restaurant service case study?

In-class activity According to the activities in restaurant service identified on p.6 in the article, design (or plan) a restaurant information system for the Michigan chain store. Consider the following components: System requirements (H/W and S/W) Database systems, Web servers, etc. Don’t consider budgets this at point. Is any organizational change necessary to comply with to the new IT implementation?

Homework (week 5- reading#3) Based on what you have learned from the reading#3, propose your own ideas to save this restaurant: Levanti's Italian Restaurant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O8TU843cHE Complete Horst Schulze’s talk and write-up a reflection report.