Teaching and Learning Activity: Suggested Solutions

Module: IT Systems Management 1 (HISM100-

1)
Week number (Date): 2, (15 August 2019)
Unit covered: Unit 2 (Chapter 3&4)

Instructions:
To enrich your learning experience at Boston even further, and to ensure that you are
exposed to a variety of resources in this module, announcements will be posted every
week containing additional materials or activities for you to work through.

It is important to note that these activities are neither compulsory nor weighted, but that
it will be to your advantage to participate. The purpose of the activities is to help you
better understand the content of your weekly unit/s of study, and it will assist in creating
insight and deeper meaning.

The suggested solutions to last week’s activity is as follows:

Answer the following questions:

Chapter 3

1. Managers need to know the features of organisations for them to build and use
information systems successfully. Which of the following is one of the
organisational features?

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 A. Organisational Structure.

B. IT infrastructure

C. Cloud structure.

D. Network structure

MIS textbook, Chapter 3, Pg. 109, LO1: Which features of organizations do

managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully?

2. Which of the following statements are true?

A. Information technology helps organisations diminish in size because it can

reduce transaction costs.

B. According to transaction cost theory, organisations and individuals seek to

economize on transaction costs, much as they do on production costs.

C. Information technology facilitates flattening of hierarchies by broadening the

distribution of information to empower lower-level employees and increase
management efficiency.

D. To deliver genuine benefits, information systems must be built with a clear

understanding of the business laws in which they will be used.

MIS textbook, Chapter 7, Pg. 286, LO1: What are the principal components of
telecommunications networks and key networking technologies?

3. Select 2 correct statements that best describes the “Organisational culture”.

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 A. Embraces a set of assumptions about what products the organisation should
produce, how it should produce them, where, and for whom.
B. A system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how
people behave in organisations.
C. Defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision are
directed toward the achievement of organisational aims.
D. Identifies each job, its function and where it reports to within the organisation.

MIS textbook, Chapter 3, Pg. 112, LO1: Which features of organizations do

managers need to know about to build and use information systems successfully?

4. Porter’s model is all about the organisations’ general business environment. Which
of the following are components of Porter’s model?

A. New Market Entrants.

B. Suppliers

C. Environmental Scanning

D. Substitute Products and Services

MIS textbook, Chapter 3, Pg. 124, LO3: How do Porter’s competitive forces model,
the value chain model, synergies, core competencies, and network economics
help companies develop competitive strategies using information systems?

5. To identify the types of systems that provide a strategic advantage to their

organizations, managers should ask which of the following questions (Choose 2
correct answers):

A. What is the structure of the industry in which the organisation is located?

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 B. How is the system going to benefit them in their personal objectives?
C. Has IT been aligned with the business strategy and goals?
D. How does Porter’s competitive forces model help companies develop
competitive strategies using information systems?

MIS textbook, Chapter 3, Pg. 124, LO3: How do Porter’s competitive forces model,
the value chain model, synergies, core competencies, and network economics
help companies develop competitive strategies using information systems?

Chapter 4

1. Identify and briefly explain the five (5) moral dimensions that information
systems raise in the information age.

Answer:
 Information rights and obligations: What information rights do individuals and
organizations possess with respect to themselves? What can they protect?
 Property rights and obligations: How will traditional intellectual property rights

be protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for owner- ship

are difficult and ignoring such property rights is so easy?

 Accountability and control: Who can and will be held accountable and liable
for the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?
 System quality: What standards of data and system quality should we
demand to protect individual rights and the safety of society?
 Quality of life: What values should be preserved in an information and
knowledge-based society? Which institutions should we protect from violation?
Which cultural values and practices does the new information technology
support?

MIS textbook, Chapter 4, Pg. 156, LO1: Why are systems for collaboration and
social business so important, and what technologies do they use?

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2. What are some of the health-related risks that occur from the repetitive use of
computers?

Answer:

A common occupational disease today is repetitive stress injury (RSI). RSI

occurs when muscle groups are forced through repetitive actions often with
high impact loads (such as tennis) or tens of thousands of repetitions under
low-impact loads (such as working at a computer keyboard). The incidence of
RSI is estimated to be as much as one-third of the labor force and accounts for
one-third of all disability cases.

The single largest source of RSI is computer keyboards. The most common
kind of computer-related RSI is carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), in which
pressure on the median nerve through the wrist’s bony structure, called a carpal
tunnel, produces pain. The pressure is caused by constant repetition of
keystrokes: in a single shift, a word processor may perform 23,000 keystrokes.
Symptoms of CTS include numbness, shooting pain, inability to grasp objects,
and tingling.

Computer vision syndrome (CVS) refers to any eyestrain condition related to

display screen use in desktop computers, laptops, e-readers, smartphones,
and handheld video games. CVS affects about 90 percent of people who spend
three hours or more per day at a computer. Its symptoms, which are usually
temporary, include headaches, blurred vision, and dry and irritated eyes. In
addition to these maladies, computer technology may be harming our cognitive
functions or at least changing how we think and solve problems.

MIS textbook, Chapter 4, Pg. 180-182, LO4: How have information systems
affected laws for establishing accountability and liability and the quality of
everyday life?

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