Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin Chapter 13 Communication and Information Technology Management

13-2 Learning Objectives Differentiate between data and information, list the attributes of useful information, and describe three reasons why managers must have access to information to perform their tasks and roles effectively Explain why effective communication-the sharing of information-helps an organization gain a competitive advantage and describe the communication process

13-3 Learning Objectives Define information richness, and describe the information richness of communication media available to managers Differentiate among four kinds of management information systems

13-4 Information and the Manager’s Job Data: Raw, unsummarized, and unanalyzed facts Information: Data that are organized in a meaningful fashion

13-5 Figure Factors Affecting the Usefulness of Information

13-6 What is Information Technology? Information technology: The set of methods or techniques for acquiring, organizing, storing, manipulating, and transmitting information Management information system: A specific form of IT that managers utilize to generate the specific, detailed information they need to perform their roles effectively

13-7 Communication, Information, and Management Communication: The sharing of information between two or more individuals or groups to reach a common understanding Importance of good communication: Increased efficiency in new technologies and skills Improved quality of products and services Increased responsiveness to customers More innovation through communication

13-8 Figure The Communication Process

13-9 The Communication Process Verbal communication: The encoding of messages into words, either written or spoken Nonverbal communication: The encoding of messages by means of facial expressions, body language, and styles of dress

13-10 Information Richness and Communication Media Information richness: The amount of information that a communication medium can carry and the extent to which the medium enables the sender and receiver to reach a common understanding

13-11 Figure The Information Richness of Communication Media

13-12 Figure A Four-Tier Information System with Cloud Computing

13-13 Figure Four Computer-Based Management Information Systems

13-14 The Organizational Hierarchy: The Traditional Information System Traditionally, managers have used the organizational hierarchy as the main system for gathering information Can take a long time for information to travel up the hierarchy and for decisions to travel back down Information distortion: Changes in meaning that occur as information passes through a series of senders and receivers

13-15 Limitations of Information Systems A vital human element of communication may be lost Very rich information is required to coordinate and control an enterprise and to make informed decisions, far beyond that which can be quantified and aggregated The importance of information richness is a strong argument in favor of using electronic communication to support face-to-face communication, not to replace it