What Is It And The New Organization

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School of Information Management

INFO 405
IT AND THE NEW ORGANISATION
Trimester 1 2014
COURSE OUTLINE
Contact Details
Course Coordinator
Office
Telephone
Email
Office hours

Benoit A. Aubert
RH 525
+64 4 463-5421 benoit.aubert@vuw.ac.nz meetings by appointment

Trimester Dates
Monday 3rd March – Friday 6th June
Withdrawal from Courses:
1. Your fees will be refunded if you withdraw from this course on or before Friday 14th March
2014.
2. The standard last date for withdrawal from this course is Friday 16th May. After this date, students forced to withdraw by circumstances beyond their control must apply for permission on an ‘Application for Associate Dean’s Permission to Withdraw Late’ including supporting documentation The application form is available from either of the Faculty’s Student Customer Service Desks.
Class Times and Room Numbers
Class dates
Class time
Venue
Tutorials

(Tuesday) 4 March – 15 April and 6 May – 3 June
9.30am-12.20am
Railway RWW 221
None

Course Content
A manager’s job in the 21st century organization is not easy. Not only does he or she have to cope with the barrage of changes raining down like shrapnel, today’s manager must also lead his or her organization through this uncharted territory all the while trying to carry on the business of the firm.
The 21st century manager lives in a world where he or she is told to abandon the tried and true assumptions about business and the tools and practices which have been developed carefully over time. At the same time, new fads are coming and going at the speed of light. The media, vendors and consultants hype ideas and technologies before they are fully developed. Often, it is unclear just why all this is happening and how it all fits together. Thus, many managers today must feel like they are facing a table full of jigsaw puzzle pieces with no idea of the size, shape, or outline of what they are
1

supposed to accomplish. Somehow, they must put together a coherent picture of what their particular organization will look like but with so many pieces, and no picture to guide them, the task seems
Herculean.
The traditional models of developing IT strategy are deemed inadequate to meet the challenges of the information age. IT can be used to transform the organization, increase coordination, and enable collaboration. All these capabilities have to be clearly understood and managers have to understand that the challenge is not in implementing the technology itself, but in devising how IT can be used to rethink how business is conducted. This is changing drastically the structure of the organizations. It has changed to virtual, network, organic, etc. No single form is better than the others. Again, understanding the particularities of each is essential to predict the best fit between environment, technology, strategy and structure.
Course Learning Objectives
By the end of this course students will able to (Week # in parenthesis):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Describe and understand the context in which organizations operate (1). LG2
Understand the relationship between innovation, organizational structure and information technology (2, 9, 10). LG1
Better understand the key technologies changing the current business structures (2, 3, 6). LG3
Understand how information technology can be used to transform the organizations and their competitive environment (4, 5). LG3
Understand how to apply tools, IT, and governance modes in order to change the organization
(7, 8). LG2
Define the various forms of organization currently observed in the business environment and explain how each type can be adapted to its competitive environment (all). LG2, LG3
Understand the trade-offs between various management options (10). LG2
Write concise analysis documents in a structured manner (3, 5, 8, 10). LG4

Course Delivery
Students are expected to have read the material carefully and be ready to discuss it. The discussion will be centred on the clarification of the concepts and their