88-344: Organizational Intelligence in the Information Age
Carnegie Mellon University -- Spring 2001
Professor Larry Heimann
TR 9-10:20am @ Porter 226A

Course Nature and Goals: Across all organizations people find that the actions they take affect, and are affected by, the technology, norms, procedures, culture, and members of the organization. In order to navigate through this organizational world, agents need a better understanding of social and organizational intelligence. How do organizations (and the people who populate them) acquire and then process information? In what ways have new technologies affected the norms, procedures, and culture of organizations? How do leaders successfully guide their organizations through a world where new information and new technologies are constantly being produced? This course is about information assessment and analysis in organizations, and the way organizations are transformed by technology.

Grades: Grades in the course will be determined by three take-home exams (23% each), a consulting project (20%) and class participation and quizzes (11%). Each of these factors is discussed further below.

Take-Home Exams.

There will be three take home exams during the semester. You will have one week to complete exams 1 & 2. I am granting extra time on exam 3 because I understand the end-of-the-semester crunch that most students face and am trying to be accomodating (If there are any complaints about the grace period, I will revoke it -- after all it is for students not me). The official exam dates are as follows:

All exams are due at the beginning of class (i.e, 9:00 am). Any exams turned in after that time are considered tardy and subject to a 10 point penalty per 24-hour period. (I am a stickler for punctuality--don't be late.) All exams are open book, open notes exams, but students are strictly prohibited from working with one another on these exams. Students are not allowed to discuss the questions amongst themselves, proofread each other's papers, or ask any other student or faculty member for help on these exams or the material they contain. I have posted more information on cheating on-line that can help you. If there are questions about the exam itself or what is/is not permissible, please direct your questions to me alone. You are on your honor to conduct yourself appropriately.

Lastly, exams should be typed and proofread/spellchecked. Writing mechanics do count towards the grade and students will lose points for spelling mistakes, run-on sentences and paragraphs, and other writing errors. Spell checkers are wonderful things--use them. If you need help with writing because English is not your native language, please see me and I can help you find the resources you need.

Consulting Project.

Students will be assigned to work in groups of six or seven people and be given a client whom they will assisting. Working as a consulting team, each group will first assess the goals and objectives of the client organization and how hey acquire, process, and utilize information. Applying principles from the class, the teams will then identify any weaknesses in the acquisition, processing, and/or utilization of information and propose concrete strategies for the client to address these weaknesses.

Each team will write a detailed report for the client and make a presentation of their findings during the final week of classes. (Depending on client availability, some presentations may be done during non-class hours that week. More information on scheduling will follow.) Project grades are a function of both the written report (60%) and the presentation (40%). No team member will receive a project grade higher than the team grade, but those who do not do their fair share of the work on the team project should expect a significant penalty applied to their project grade. There will be a peer evaluation at the end of the semester to help identify potential free riders and others who have not adequately contributed to their team's success.

Class Participation.

Even though this is a lecture-based class, I do encourage participation through various means. I do take attendance (although as I learn all your names, I may not call the roll aloud) and I also tend to call on individuals to answer questions in class. Furthermore, there will be an occasional case presented in class for discussion as well. The point of these exercises is to make the abstract concepts covered in class more concrete. Students are expected to participate during these exercises. Lastly, there may be occasional quizzes given out at the beginning of class. Students who miss either a discussion session or quiz receive a zero on that assignment, but the lowest of these grades will be dropped.

Readings: This year I have assigned one books which can be purchased at the CMU bookstore or online. (check bestbookbuys.com for good online deals)

• Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know by Davenport and Prusak

I expect students to read the book material in a timely manner. You can and will be tested on it -- even the parts I don't explicitly cover in class. (FYI: Reading quizzes are particularly easy to write) In the past I have assigned some other books for this class that I will still discuss (in brief) and you may still wish to either purchase or borrow for a more thorough treatment of the subject material. These books are:

• Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy by Shapiro and Varian
• Managerial Dilemmas by G. Miller
• Acceptable Risks: Policy, Politics and Risky Technologies by Heimann
• Management Information Systems: New Approaches to Organization and Technology by Laudon and Laudon

I have listed some of the optional readings in the schedule below. You do not need to purchase the optional readings, but if you don't I suggest you avoid missing lecture those weeks.

Schedule: Below is a listing of the lectures and readings for each week. Please note this is a general guideline only in terms of lecture schedules; some topics take longer to cover than one week while some are shorter and we will take whatever time is needed to cover the topic adequately.

Wk	Lecture	Reading
	Part I: Foundations
01	The Changing Organizational Environment of the Information Age	Shaprio & Varian
02	Management Challenges in the Information Age	Miller, ch. 4 & 5
03	Information Problems Every Organization Faces	Miller, ch. 6 & 7
04	Structure and Organizational Decision-Making	Heimann, ch. 1, 4 & 5
	Part II: Principles of Knowledge Management
06	Knowledge and Organizational Culture	Davenport, ch. 1 & 2
07	Knowledge = Power = Politics	Davenport, ch. 3
08	Knowledge and Strategic Decisions	Davenport, ch. 4
09	Knowledge Management Strategies	Davenport, ch. 5 & 6
10	Knowledge Management and Technology	Davenport, ch. 7-9
	Part III: Organizations, Information, and Technology
11	Redesigning the Organization with Information Systems	Laudon & Laudon
12	Controlling Information System	Laudon & Laudon
13	Ethical and Social Issues Related to Information Systems	Laudon & Laudon
14	Managing in an Era of Constant Innovation
15	Course Wrap-Up and Presentations

Office Hours: My office hours this semester are Tuesdays from 1:30 to 3:00pm and on Wednesdays from 10:30am to 12:00pm. You cannot make an appointment for those times -- it is strictly a first come, first served basis at that time. However, I am available for appointments on other days. If I am in my office students are certainly welcome to stop in without an appointment. If I am busy at the moment, I will be happy to schedule an appointment for a later meeting. Be forewarned that Monday and Wednesday afternoons are filled with 66-373 team meetings and that I am generally unavailable on Fridays without an appointment.

The professor reserves the right to make modifications to material in this syllabus during the term as circumstances warrant.

Please note: this site contains relevant information for the Spring 2001 semester only. The site is maintained on a semi-regular basis by Professor H, so any questions or problems with these pages should be sent to lheimann@andrew.cmu.edu.