CS507 Assignment No. 1 solution

Assignment No. 01
SEMESTER Spring 2011
CS507- Information Systems 

Total Marks: 10
Due Date: 18/04/2011

 
Instructions
Please read the following instructions carefully before solving & submitting assignment: It should be clear that your assignment will get zero marks if:
o The assignment is submitted after due date.
o The submitted assignment does not open or file is corrupt.
o The assignment is copied (from other student or ditto copy from handouts or internet).
o Student ID is not mentioned in the assignment File or name of file is other than student ID.

Note:
Your answer must follow the below given specifications. You will be assigned zero marks if you do not follow these instructions.
> Font style: “Times New Roman”
> Font color: “Black”
> Font size: “12”
> Bold for heading only.
> Font in Italic is not allowed at all.
Do not put any query at MDB about this assignment, if you have any query then contact at cs507@vu.edu.pk

Deadline
Your assignment must be uploaded/submitted at or before Monday, April 18th, 2011.Marks: 10

Question 1:
Is monitoring of the e-mail by managers ethical (It is legal.) Support your answer. [ 3 marks]
 

Question 2:
To what extent do organizations now depend on the success of information technology to stay in
business? [ 2 marks]
 

Question 3:
Can you think of definitions of information systems other than the one presented in handouts?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of these definitions compared with the one we adopted? [ 5 marks]

Note: Write only precise answer and avoid giving extra details.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Solution:

Question 1:

Is monitoring of the e-mail by managers ethical (It is legal.) Support your answer. [ 3 marks]

Basically the answer is yes, IF your company has implemented a written email policy in which employees are warned that their emails can be monitored and that they should have no expectation of privacy. Not only will the existence of an email policy help you in a court of law, it will also educate your employees in the usage of email and may prevent many of the issues you were trying to stop by monitoring email. Make sure that the email policy is properly communicated to all staff and that any updates are circulated amongst all employees. It is preferable to have employees sign the email policy, including any additions to it, to prove that the employee has agreed to abide by the rules. Furthermore, email monitoring must be applied as uniformly as possible, since singling out an individual without a clear reason to do so could subject the company to discrimination claims.

Question 1:
Is monitoring of the e-mail by managers ethical (It is legal.) Support your answer. [ 3 marks]


Monitoring the emails is legal but it does not make it ethical the term ethics is a word that is defined by everyone’s own set of mind and the rules he use to adopt in his life like if one thing is unethical for one person may be it is ethical for other person so it depend upon human psychology to get offended by certain actions or not. So when the employee come to work place he had a little bit of privacy in his work space because he cannot just throw away his life out when coming to work but it is his duty to work efficiently instead of wasting time as he is using the employers resources and getting paid. So yes it is ethical but only to some extent to keep track of and watch over employees emails but this watch must not be too much. It must be to extent that employee know that their activities have been watched over and it’s not like that they can do whatever they can.



Question 2:
To what extent do organizations now depend on the success of information technology to stay in business? [ 2 marks]


Organizations now a days depend on technology so much that they can not do  even one day with out it because of technological advancement and the electronic age it is becoming more and more difficult to cope up with the modern day business system. Like cash system has been replaced by the credit card system so if an organization is not providing credit card services then obviousle the market share must be cut doen to only cash customers. Also now a days the internet surfing is more than newspaper reading you can target more audiebce through internet so organization in order to make people aware of them have to use internet instead of old traditional methods. And also there are countless reasons that a business have to depend ona successful information system technology now a days.



Question 3:
Can you think of definitions of information systems other than the one presented in handouts?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of these definitions compared withthe one we adopted?


Hand Out Definition
“Interrelated components working together to collect, process, store and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination control, analysis and visualization in an organization.”



Proposed Definition
Information systems are the ways to provide the users readable information to help them achieve their objectives. These systems capture, transmit, store, retrieve, manipulate and then make it available to display information.



Advantages of Proposed definition:
This Definition explains:
1. Control and manipulation of data before representing or make it available to public
2. The components stressed for system must not necessarily have to interrelated
3. This emphasize on general objective which not specifically have to be decision making
4. This definition is given by keeping in mind the general public not the businesses specifically



Disadvantages of Proposed definition:
1. This definition generalize things
2. There is no significance of coordination and interrelation mentioned.
3. The definition is not much focused one.


Is monitoring of the e-mail by managers ethical (It is legal.) Support your answer. [3 marks]

Monitoring the emails is legal but it does not make it ethical the term ethics is a word that is defined by everyone’s own set of mind and the rules he use to adopt in his life like if one thing is unethical for one person may be it is ethical for other person so it depend upon human psychology to get offended by certain actions or not. So when the employee come to work place he had a little bit of privacy in his work space because he cannot just throw away his life out when coming to work but it is his duty to work efficiently instead of wasting time as he is using the employers resources and getting paid. So yes it is ethical but only to some extent to keep track of and watch over employees emails but this watch must not be too much. It must be to extent that employee know that their activities have been watched over and it’s not like that they can do whatever they can.


Question 2:

To what extent do organizations now depend on the success of information
technology to stay in business? [ 2 marks]

Organizations now a days depend on technology so much that they can not do even one day with out it because of technological advancement and the electronic age it is becoming more and more difficult to cope up with the modern day business system. Like cash system has been replaced by the credit card system so if an organization is not providing credit card services then obviousle the market share must be cut doen to only cash customers. Also now a days the internet surfing is more than newspaper reading you can target more audiebce through internet so organization in order to make people aware of them have to use internet instead of old traditional methods. And also there
are countless reasons that a business have to depend ona successful information system technology now a days.

Question 3:
Can you think of definitions of information systems other than the one presented in handouts?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of these definitions compared with the one we adopted?

Hand Out Definition

“Interrelated components working together to collect, process, store and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination control, analysis and visualization in an organization.”

Information systems are the ways to provide the users readable information to help them achieve their objectives. These systems capture, transmit, store, retrieve, manipulate and then make it available to display information. ****