Systems that maintain employee records: track employee skills, job performance, and training; and support planning for employee compensation and career development best describes a Sale
Trang 1Question Paper Management Information Systems (MC261) : April 2008
This section consists of questions with serial number 1 - 30
Answer all questions
Each question carries one mark
Maximum time for answering Section A is 30 Minutes
1 The data in the DSS database
(a) Are provided by middle management
(b) Use data mining
(c) Are based on system models
(d) Generally copies of production databases
(e) Are provided by Top-level management
<Answer>
2 In an organization business processes produce
(a) Product
(b) Knowledge
(c) Information
(d) Project
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
3 Which of the following is the type of electronic commerce that involves consumers selling directly to
consumers?
(a) B2C
(b) B2B
(c) C2C
(d) Virtual Storefront
(e) Electronic bartering
<Answer>
4 Which one of these best describes the role of a manager?
(a) Attending meetings, attending corporate luncheons, disciplining staff, representing the company
(b) Planning, organizing, coordinating, making decisions, controlling
(c) Maintaining a rigid position in the hierarchy to prevent customer complaints from coming to the
attention of the Board
(d) Supervising the work of junior staff
(e) Maintaining the work flow and coordination of the work
<Answer>
5 Systems that maintain employee records: track employee skills, job performance, and training; and support
planning for employee compensation and career development best describes
(a) Sales and marketing information systems
(b) Manufacturing and production information systems
(c) Finance and accounting information systems
(d) Human resources information systems
(e) Economic systems
<Answer>
6 Top managers use a -, as a combination of MIS and DSS, to support their decision making
(a) GIS
(b) ESS
(c) Expert System
(d) GDSS
(e) TPS
<Answer>
7 An example of input of an information system would be
(a) Sales trend forecast
(b) Inventory report
(c) Customer’s information
(d) Summary of customer’s preferences analyses
(e) None of the above
<Answer>
8 Which of the following is not a key information system component?
(a) Design stability
(b) Data
<Answer>
Trang 2(c) Data flow
(d) Processing logic
(e) Input and output
9 Which of the following is not one of the four major classes of information systems?
(a) Decision support system
(b) Collaboration system
(c) Management information system
(d) Expert system
(e) Transaction processing system
<Answer>
10.Drawing on diverse yet predictable data resources to aggregate and summarize data is characteristic of
(a) Management information system
(b) Decision support system
(c) Expert systems
(d) Transaction processing system
(e) Collaboration system
<Answer>
11.Which of the following replicates the decision-making process rather than manipulates information?
(a) Management replication system
(b) Management information system
(c) Expert system
(d) Decision support system
(e) Collaboration system
<Answer>
12.Making repeated changes to selected variables until a chosen variable reaches a target value is called as
(a) What- if analysis
(b) Sensitivity analysis
(c) Goal-Seeking analysis
(d) Optimization analysis
(e) Process analysis
<Answer>
13.What level of decision is appropriate for a manufacturing industry, if it involves rearranging the work area,
altering production schedules, changing inventory methods or expanding quality control measures?
(a) Operational
(b) Tactical
(c) Strategic
(d) Both (a) and (c)
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
14.The purpose of decision support systems is to
(a) Replace a manager’s judgment during the decision-making process
(b) Provide a predefined sequence of analysis during the process of problem solving
(c) Provide interactive assistance during the process of problem solving
(d) Automate a manager’s decision-making process
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
15.Electronic data interchange, E-mail, Extensible Markup Language (XML), Fax and Market size are the examples
related to which of the following Hubs?
(a) Collaboration Hubs
(b) Aggregator Hubs
(c) Translator Hubs
(d) Broker Hubs
(e) Both (a) and (b) above
<Answer>
16.Strategic changes often involve
(a) Applying for funds from a bank before changes are considered
(b) Laying off old employees before changes are made
(c) Hiring new IS teams before any of the competitors
(d) Implementing new technology before any of the competitors
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
17.When developing and choosing strategies, you must always remember that
(a) Innovations are free from risks and often do not carry high capital costs
(b) Innovations carry low capital costs and always lead to a successful business
<Answer>
Trang 3(c) Innovations can be risky and often carry high capital costs
(d) Innovations always take away money from other projects
(e) Innovation carry low capital costs and often risky
18.The Insurance renewal rate calculation system which has a standard set of decision rules uses
(a) Representation models
(b) Accounting models
(c) Suggestion models
(d) Optimization models
(e) Data analysis systems
<Answer>
19.Information systems can facilitate supply chain management by
(a) Tracking the status of orders
(b) Rapidly communicating orders
(c) Providing product specifications
(d) Processing orders
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
20.Delphi method and group norming are examples of
(a) Group Consensus
(b) Guided Brainstorming
(c) Brainstorming
(d) Closed Question
(e) Open Questions
<Answer>
21.What is the interactive, computer-based information system that collects data on transactions and operations?
(a) Transaction processing system
(b) Decision support system
(c) Executive information system
(d) Expert system
(e) MIS
<Answer>
22.Banks are very much dependent on technology to provide better customer service In order to automate
operations and reduce the transaction time banks has to use information technology Which type of quadrant in the information planning grid will best suit the above given example?
(a) Turnaround
(b) Factory
(c) Strategic
(d) Support
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
define as
(a) Mobile commerce
(b) The internet
(c) Digital markets
(d) The world wide web
(e) Electronic commerce
<Answer>
24.Using advanced graphics and communications to address unstructured decision making is an example of an
information system at
(a) The operational level
(b) The knowledge level
(c) The management level
(d) The strategic level
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
25.A model of decision making stating that organizations are not rational and that decisions are solutions that
become attached to problems for accidental reasons best describes the
(a) Irrational model of decision making
(b) Bureaucratic model of decision making
(c) Organizational model of decision making
(d) Systematic model of decision making
(e) "Garbage can" model of decision making
<Answer>
Trang 4
END OF SECTION A
or industry best describes
(a) Best practices
(b) Knowledge management
(c) Standard operating procedures
(d) Explicit knowledge
(e) Business objectives
27.Which of the following is a network of facilities for procuring materials, transforming raw materials into
intermediate and finished products and distributing the finished products to customers?
(a) Supply chain
(b) Production chain
(c) Distribution chain
(d) Value chain
(e) Primary chain
<Answer>
28.Why do computer projects in MIS need to be carefully managed?
(a) Computer professionals are rather disorganized people
(b) Many specialist skills are needed, which have to be coordinated
(c) MIS systems are powerful bits of software that make decisions
(d) The hardware is complex to be set
(e) All of the above
<Answer>
29.The process of helping users, see patterns and relationship in large amounts of data by presenting the data in
graphical form is called
(a) GIS
(b) Data visualization
(c) DSS
(d) An optimization model
(e) MIS
<Answer>
30.The most common models in a DSS software system are
(a) Libraries of statistical models
(b) Statistical graphs from multiple information sources
(c) Optimization models
(d) OLAP tools
(e) OLTP tools
<Answer>
This section consists of questions with serial number 1 – 5
Answer all questions
Marks are indicated against each question
Detailed workings/explanations should form part of your answer
Do not spend more than 110 - 120 minutes on Section B
1 What is the role of the MIS in an organization and its impact on the organization’s
<Answer>
2 Explain the different categories of key variables What are the steps that can help in
<Answer>
Read the caselet carefully and answer the following question:
3 What were the organizational impacts of the LAN and how well were they managed?
How successful were the Royal Mail in managing the implementation of the LAN? ( 15 marks)
<Answer>
The Post Office is a group of 3 core businesses that form the UK’s national postal
system It operates as a public corporation and is owned, but not managed, by the
Government Its businesses are: (1) Royal Mail: the letters business, (2) Post Office
Counters Limited: the retail business and (3) Parcelforce: the parcels business It also
Trang 5
runs Subscription Services Limited, which provides a portfolio of services to UK
businesses
The group as a whole has recorded a profit for the last 19 years, and is one of the few
national postal administrations to operate without government subsidy In 1994,
following a review set up two years earlier, the Government published a discussion
paper that set out proposals for the future of the Post Office Mr PETER LILLEY, trade
and industry secretary, used an Adam Smith Conference on postal services to make clear
yesterday, that his proposals to inject more competition into the Post Office did not
amount to wholesale privatization While restating his determination to liberalize postal
services, he frequently referred to the government’s commitment to a nation-wide letter
service with a uniform, affordable price structure Following a prolonged and intense
public debate the Government decided, in 1995, to drop plans for Royal Mail/Parcelforce
privatization from its then current legislative programme but in the following year
announced it was relaxing some of the financial restraints to allow the Post Office
businesses to compete for new business
The Post Office is to shed more than 15,000 jobs as a result of increased automation in
its sorting offices The reductions will cut the number of sorting office staff by a third
and will be implemented within the next three years They are in addition to 2,000
redundancies among middle managers in the past six months Details of the job losses
are incorporated in confidential minutes of the Post Office Board which heard a Union
leaders fear that the reductions could also lead to the closure of a number of the 40 large
sorting offices Workers at three London offices have been warned to expect a decision
on their future by the end of next month The work of at least one, King Edward’s near
St Paul’s Cathedral, is almost certain to be relocated
The Post Office said yesterday, it was a question of ‘technology replacing jobs’ The
machinery would enable Royal Mail to cope with an expected 18 per cent growth in
business in the next five years It was also expected to improve the quality of service by
three percentage points to 93 per cent Productivity in letter delivery had improved, with
a rise of 50 per cent in the numbers of items handled in the past 10 years The increase in
the volume of mail has allowed the Post Office the breathing space to adjust its staffing
requirements without the need for any compulsory redundancies
The Royal Mail was about to embark on a “business development” - restructuring that
would reduce the 64 postal districts that existed then to 9 new geographical divisions
What was then the Newcastle upon Tyne postal district would soon become the North
Eastern postal division
The concerns are related to the introduction of a Local Area Network in the Newcastle
upon Tyne postal district/North Eastern postal division office A Local Area Network
(LAN) had been introduced in the Newcastle upon Tyne postal district 18 months earlier
and was intended to link together different locations in the Newcastle area and to provide
a gateway to other Post Office LAN’s nation wide
Initially use of this system was restricted to senior (board level) managers but with the
impending restructuring and expected privatization use of the LAN was extended to
other levels in the organization Initially there were 37 terminals in the Newcastle area
and 6 at ‘remote sites’ The Newcastle LAN could also be used to link to another 20 Post
Office LAN’s in different parts of the country The system integrated elements of
personnel, administration, recruitment and data on human resource utilization with data
on costing and the volume of business transactions
END OF CASELET 1
Read the caselet carefully and answer the following questions:
4 “It is one thing to have ownership of your own computer systems but another to accept
the responsibilities of ownership such as data integrity, security and overall risk
management.” This was a statement made by the financial director of hospitals at a
regional medical conference attended by Medclinic management
Indicate how Medclinic would ensure that its ‘responsibilities of ownership’ are properly
<Answer>
5 An initial investigation of other medical centres similar to Medclinic has revealed that
some have opted for a minicomputer supporting a series of terminals while others have
adopted an information technology approach based on networked personal computers
Explain these two configurations and briefly discuss their suitability for Medclinic’s
<Answer>
Trang 6
END OF CASELET 2
END OF SECTION B
The Medclinic Health Centre is located in a small market town with a population of
approximately 10,000 The centre provides general medical care plus limited support
services such as a small operating theatre, a laboratory for specimen testing and a
radiography unit for X-rays Medical care is on a day care only basis there being no
facilities for overnight hospitalisation Longer stay medical care is provided at the
regional hospital some 30 miles away
The centre is staffed by 10 doctors on a shift basis, who also provide emergency cover
when the centre is closed on Sunday and during the night The doctors are supported by
four nurses Administrative systems which include patient records, staff records, and
substantial correspondence between doctors, patients and consultants are undertaken by
two full time and four part-time secretaries The centre operates an appointment system
for patients seeking non-urgent treatment The system is operated by 12 part-time
receptionists working on a shift system
In addition, the centre employs a radiographer and three laboratory technicians The
laboratory technicians are also responsible for ordering, maintaining and issuing drugs
from the stocks held at the centre
At present time the payroll, income receipts and expenditure payments procedures for
the Medclinic centre are undertaken on the mainframe system at the regional hospital
computer centre All Medclinic centre administrative, text and record keeping
procedures are operated manually There is, however, a terminal link between the centre
and the regional hospital which is used to input accounting transaction data, order drugs
and transmit medical statistical data for national health monitoring The Medclinic centre
and all medical centres under the regional hospital will soon be responsible for their own
financial affairs The senior doctors at Medclinic see this as an opportunity to
computerize not only the financial systems which will now be necessary but many of
Medclinic’s administrative and record keeping procedures
The doctors are fully supported in this initiative by the nursing and administrative staff
The support staff feel overwhelmed by the present volumes of paperwork but are very
apprehensive at the prospect of taking responsibility for Medclinic’s financial and
associated systems
Trang 7
END OF SECTION C
END OF QUESTION PAPER
Section C : Applied Theory (20 Marks)
This section consists of questions with serial number 6 - 7
Answer all questions
Marks are indicated against each question
Do not spend more than 25 -30 minutes on Section C
6 List the decisions involved in each phase of the management process, starting from
7 Explain about the integration of multi technique tools used in the construction of
Trang 8Suggested Answers Management Information Systems (MC261) : April 2008
Section A : Basic Concepts
2 C In an organization business processes produce Information < TOP >
3 B B2B is the type of electronic commerce that involves consumers selling directly to
consumers
< TOP >
4 B Planning, organizing, coordinating, making decisions, controlling describe the role of a
manager
< TOP >
5 D Systems that maintain employee records; track employee skills, job performance, and
training; and support planning for employee compensation and career development best describes human resources information systems
< TOP >
6 B Top managers use a ESS as a combination of MIS and DSS, to support their decision
making
< TOP >
7 C An example of input of an information system would be Customer’s information < TOP >
8 A Design stability is not a key information system component < TOP >
9 B Collaboration system is not one of the four major classes of information systems < TOP >
10 B Drawing on diverse yet predictable data resources to aggregate and summarize data is
characteristic of decision support systems
< TOP >
11 D Decision support system replicates the decision-making process rather than anipulates
information
< TOP >
12 C Making repeated changes to selected variables until a chosen variable reaches a target
value is called as Goal-Seeking analysis
< TOP >
13 A Operational level of decision is appropriate for a manufacturing industry if it involves
rearranging the work area, altering production schedules, changing inventory methods, or expanding quality control measures
< TOP >
14 D The purpose of decision support systems is to Automate a manager’s decision-making
process
< TOP >
15 C Electronic data interchange, E-mail, Extensible Markup language (XML) and Fax and
market size are the examples related to the Translator Hubs
< TOP >
16 D Strategic changes often involve Implementing new technology before any of your
competitors
< TOP >
17 B When developing and choosing strategies, we must always remember that Innovations
carry low capital costs and always lead to a successful business
< TOP >
18 C The Insurance renewal rate calculation system which has a standard set of decision rules
uses Suggestion models
< TOP >
19 A Information systems can facilitate supply chain management by Tracking the status of
orders
< TOP >
20 A Delphi method and group norming are examples of Group Consensus < TOP >
21 A Transaction processing system is the interactive, computer-based information system that
collects data on transactions and operations
< TOP >
22 C Strategic type of quadrant in the information planning grid will best suit the above given
example
< TOP >
many buyers and sellers defines a digital markets
< TOP >
24 D The strategic level is an example of an information system that uses advanced graphics
and communications to address unstructured decision making
< TOP >
are solutions that become attached to problems for accidental reasons best describes the
garbage can model of decision making
< TOP >
< TOP >
27 A Supply chain is a network of facilities for procuring materials, transforming raw materials
into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished products to
< TOP >
Trang 9customers
28 B Many specialist skills are needed, which have to be coordinated because computer
projects in MIS need to be carefully managed
< TOP >
29 B Data Visualization is a process which helps the users to see patterns and relationship in
large amounts of data in a graphical form
< TOP >
30 A Libraries of statistical models are the most common models in a DSS software system < TOP >
Trang 10Section B : Problems
1 Role of MIS in an organization:
The management information system ensures that proper data is collected from various sources,
processed and subsequently sent to all the destinations that require the information It fulfills the
information needs of a person, a group of persons, the managers and the top management It
satisfies their needs through the following systems such as query systems, analysis systems,
decision support systems and modeling systems It helps in strategic planning, management
control, operational control and transaction processing
Impact of MIS
In an organization, the management of marketing, finance, production and personnel will become
efficient with a good MIS support The functional managers can be informed about the progress,
achievements and shortfalls in the activity and targets By providing the information about the
probable trends in the various business aspects, the manager can be kept alert and it helps in
forecasting and long-term perspective planning The manager’s attention can be brought to a
situation that will make him to take an action or a decision in the matter
< TOP >
2 We can classify key variables broadly into the following categories such as strategy, structural,
process and environmental If there is similarity between the different variables, performance of
an organization will be improved
Strategy variables refer to the long-term choices concerning the programs, goals, policies
and action plans that are formulated by an organization
Structural variables can be studied in terms of the structure of the organization: centralized
or decentralized form of organization and the organizational autonomy Thus they represent
the organizational arrangements and the distribution of authority and relationships
Process variables refer to processes that influence the behavior of the employees towards
the achievement of organizational goals Some examples of process variables are the
participation, monitoring and control, human resource development and motivation
Environmental variables help in understanding the scope, diversity and uncertainty relating
to an organization
When all these variables are perfectly aligned then can organization can achieve congruence of its
performance with its goals The following steps will help in the identification of the key variables:
Identification of decision variables
Interactions with the environment
Implications for the control structure
Key success and the control paradigm
< TOP >
3 The introduction of a Local Area Network in the Newcastle upon Tyne postal district/North
Eastern postal division and consists of interviews with eight members of staff there A Local Area
Network (LAN) had been introduced in the Newcastle upon Tyne postal district 18 months earlier
and was intended to link together different locations in the Newcastle area and to provide a
gateway to other Post Office LAN’s nation wide
Initially use of this system was restricted to senior (board level) managers but with the impending
restructuring and expected privatisation use of the LAN was extended to other levels in the
organisation At the time of the interviews there were 37 terminals in the Newcastle area and 6 at
‘remote sites’ The Newcastle LAN could also be used to link to another 20 Post Office LAN’s in
different parts of the country
The system integrated elements of personnel, administration, recruitment and data on human
resource utilisation with data on costings and the volume of business transactions
< TOP >
4 All Medclinic centre administrative, text and record keeping procedures are operated manually
The Medclinic centre and all medical centres under the regional hospital will soon be responsible
for their own financial affairs The senior doctors at Medclinic see this as an opportunity to
computerise not only the financial systems which will now be necessary but many of Medclinic’s
administrative and record keeping procedures
The doctors are fully supported in this initiative by the nursing and administrative staff The
support staff feel overwhelmed by the present volumes of paperwork but are very apprehensive at
the prospect of taking responsibility for Medclinic’s financial and associated systems
< TOP >
5 The mainframe system which was used at the regional hospital computer centre is helpful in
preparing payroll, income receipts and expenditure payments for the Medclinic centre
< TOP >