Abstract [eng] |
Assessing the Influence of Information Systems on Organizational Management Decisions: a Case Study Main objective of this thesis is to assess the impact of the information systems used by chosen company on its management decisions. To achieve this goal, the theoretical basis of management decisions and information systems were examined first: the management process of the decision-making analyzed; the importance of information systems for this process is defined; the main types of information systems that are presented in scientific literature were reviewed; the most widely used information systems for business needs were singled out as well as the methods that are suggested by IT experts to measure the added value the used information systems create for the businesses were examined. Second part of the thesis contains a case study, using methods of analysis of semi-structured interviews and organization reports. Senior and middle managers were interviewed. Primary goal of the interviews was to find out the main purposes for which the new information systems were introduced and the benefits it has provided to the organization. Based on the methods of evaluating the benefits of information systems highlighted in the theoretical part of this thesis, the expectations of the organization’s management regarding the new systems were examined as the first goal, and just after that the actual changes and the results achieved by it were examined. Evaluation of the actual changes in the organization, caused by the information systems, and their benefits revealed that the expectations of the management were significantly exceeded. Moreover, the study revealed that information systems have affected almost all of the organization's business processes in one way or another and initiated a number of important management decisions, the implementation of which has helped to transform technical, financial and human resources of the company. The analysis of the organization's reports allowed to evaluate the effectiveness of the decisions made and to visually present the results achieved by implementing the new information systems. Finally, in order to foresee the possibilities of increasing the achieved results, the unused functions of the already incorporated information systems were singled out and the reasons for them being unused were examined. It was found out that the limited experience of the organization in the sphere of information systems had a decisive influence on not having the ability to exploit the available potential. There were some other factors limiting efficiency presented as well. These are: a conservative approach to processes, lack of time, fear of change as well as distrust of new technologies. It is concluded that a change in the habits and attitudes of employees could be expected to lead to better results in the future. At the end of the paper there are three recommendations presented that can help to promote innovative behaviour and habits of employees as well as solve other problems mentioned before. The author believes that the results of the research should draw the attention of the managers in the organization to the problem areas and reveal the possibilities of their optimization. |