Tuesday, April 6, 2010

MIS 2 - Assignment #3

Assignment #3 (December 6, 2009)
What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan? (3000)

The company or organization that me and my group mates in Management Information System 2 subject was the Davao Light and Power Corporation, Bajada, Davao City. There we were able to meet students from the Institute of Computing who were graduate students and some of them were undergraduates. However the main person who was our interviewee in the company was their head of the Information Technology Information Systems department. I honestly forgot the name of our interviewee, I do not know why but I just forgot his name but if happen to see his face I can recognize him, but I was able to remember the things the he told us that day. We were not actually just there to interview about the frustrations of Information Systems professionals and users while working on the Information Systems plan. We were also there for other interview reasons. Obviously all of it was for academic purpose.

First we are going to define what a frustration is. Frustrations, as what I have read from the web, are a common emotional response to opposition. Related to anger and disappointment, it arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of individual will. The greater the obstruction, and the greater the will, the more the frustration is likely to be. Causes of frustration may be internal or external. In people, internal frustration may arise from challenges in fulfilling personal goals anddesires, instinctual drives and needs, or dealing with perceived deficiencies, such as a lack of confidence or fear of social situations. Conflict can also be an internal source of frustration; when one has competing goals that interfere with one another, it can create cognitive dissonance. External causes of frustration involve conditions outside an individual, such as a blocked road or a difficult task. While coping with frustration, some individuals may engage in passive-aggressive behavior, making it difficult to identify the original cause(s) of their frustration, as the responses are indirect. A more direct, and common response, is a propensity towards aggression.

To the individual experiencing frustration, the emotion is usually attributed to external factors which are beyond their control. Although mild frustration due to internal factors (e.g. laziness, lack of effort) is often a positive force (inspiring motivation), it is more often than not a perceived uncontrolled problem that instigates more severe, and perhaps pathological, frustration. An individual suffering from pathological frustration will often feel powerless to change the situation they are in, leading to frustration and, if left uncontrolled, further anger.
And next is to define what an information system is. Information systems are the software and hardware systems that support data-intensive applications. The journal Information Systems publishes articles concerning the design and implementation of languages, data models, process models, algorithms, software and hardware for information systems.

Subject areas include data management issues as presented in the principal international database conferences (e.g. ACM SIGMOD, ACM PODS, VLDB, ICDE and ICDT/EDBT) as well as data-related issues from the fields of data mining, information retrieval, internet and cloud data management, web semantics, visual and audio information systems, scientific computing, and organizational behavior. Implementation papers having to do with massively parallel data management, fault tolerance in practice, and special purpose hardware for data-intensive systems are also welcome.
All papers should motivate the problems they address with compelling examples from real or potential applications. Systems papers must be serious about experimentation either on real systems or simulations based on traces from real systems. Papers from industrial organizations are welcome. Theoretical papers should have a clear motivation from applications. They should either break significant new ground or unify and extend existing algorithms. Such papers should clearly state which ideas have potentially wide applicability. In addition to publishing submitted articles, the Editors-in-Chief will invite retrospective articles that describe significant projects by the principal architects of those projects. Authors of such articles should write in the first person, tracing the social as well as technical history of their projects, describing the evolution of ideas, mistakes made, and reality tests. Technical results should be explained in a uniform notation with the emphasis on clarity and on ideas that may have applications outside of the environment of that research. Particularly complex details may be summarized with references to previously published papers.

During our interview we asked our interviewee about the cause of frustrations that their department usually encounter when planning for an information system. The first cause of frustration the he stated to us in the lack of support from the company. He said that there are many big companies that are flourishing and growing but not all of them are completely knowledgeable and or aware of the current trends of information system. No matter how good the information technology or the information systems department is but as long as the company or the organization does not support the views and beliefs of the department. If this is so then the department would become useless. Our interviewee said that in their company they encounter less support and yet a lot of resistance especially from their old workers, especially the workers who happen to be working in the company for many years. Now their group has been developing solutions to the problems of the company so they have been developing solutions to ease, hasten and optimize their business flows but not all of these developed systems are accepted because there is what they call the legacy systems. Newly developed systems, even a hundred percent effective, are not completely accepted because the people who get to use or interact with the system are not at ease towards the new system because they have already adapted to the so called legacy system or what I call traditional system. Resistance is the reason why some people, especially the old ones (I am not completely criticizing old people inside companies however I am just basing my inferences on observations and facts), neglect or reject new changes in their environment or work flows and it poses a big threat to the department who are developing new systems and doing their best to solve problems inside a company.

What is resistance? Resistance or Resistance to change is the action taken by individuals and groups when they perceive that a change that is occurring as a threat to them. Key words here are 'perceive' and 'threat'. The threat need not be real or large for resistance to occur. In its usual description it refers to change within organizations, although it also is found elsewhere in other forms. Resistance is the equivalent of objections in sales and disagreement in general discussions. Resistance may take many forms, including active or passive, overt or covert, individual or organized, aggressive or timid. As a personal view I do not want to criticize old people in my post or view but it is just an observation. Old people tend to neglect new things and continue to use what they have been doing in a very long time or traditional way because they think that they could not learn like young people do. Some people think that they could not learn it and they think that it would just cost them their time and money. Or some just think it would be troublesome. I find this kind of attitude troublesome because it degrades the attitude of the Filipino people. We are supposed the working class. We were always the ones who are hard working, willing to change for the better even if it means adapting to things that are outside of their comfort zone. One scenario in our history that supports this is the time when we Filipinos were invaded and colonized by two different cultures.

One other reason why people tend to neglect new technology is because of their lack of confidence and or confidence for the new technologies. They do not believe the way as other people believe in technology. One other reason that I can think of is that when their company or organization adapts a certain technology, an information system for example, they become threatened or become afraid that they might be replaced by these new technology and or might lose their job. I also found top ten reasons why people resist to change and these are the following:

1. THE RISK OF CHANGE IS SEEN AS GREATER THAN THE RISK OF STANDING STILL

Making a change requires a kind of leap of faith: you decide to move in the direction of the unknown on the promise that something will be better for you. But you have no proof. Taking that leap of faith is risky, and people will only take active steps toward the unknown if they genuinely believe – and perhaps more importantly, feel – that the risks of standing still are greater than those of moving forward in a new direction. Making a change is all about managing risk. If you are making the case for change, be sure to set out in stark, truthful terms why you believe the risk situation favors change. Use numbers whenever you can, because we in the West pay attention to numbers. At the very least, they get our attention, and then when the rational mind is engaged, the emotional mind (which is typically most decisive) can begin to grapple with the prospect of change. But if you only sell your idea of change based on idealistic, unseen promises of reward, you won’t be nearly as effective in moving people to action. The power of the human fight-or-flight response can be activated to fight for change, but that begins with the perception of risk.

2. PEOPLE FEEL CONNECTED TO OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE IDENTIFIED WITH THE OLD WAY
We are a social species. We become and like to remains connected to those we know, those who have taught us, those with whom we are familiar – even at times to our own detriment. Loyalty certainly helped our ancestors hunt antelope and defend against the aggressions of hostile tribes, and so we are hard wired, I believe, to form emotional bonds of loyalty, generally speaking. If you ask people in an organization to do things in a new way, as rational as that new way may seem to you, you will be setting yourself up against all that hard wiring, all those emotional connections to those who taught your audience the old way - and that’s not trivial. At the very least, as you craft your change message, you should make statements that honor the work and contributions of those who brought such success to the organization in the past, because on a very human but seldom articulated level, your audience will feel asked to betray their former mentors (whether those people remain in the organization or not). A little good diplomacy at the outset can stave off a lot of resistance.
3. PEOPLE HAVE NO ROLE MODELS FOR THE NEW ACTIVITY

Never underestimate the power of observational learning. If you see yourself as a change agent, you probably are something of a dreamer, someone who uses the imagination to create new possibilities that do not currently exist. Well, most people don’t operate that way. It’s great to be a visionary, but communicating a vision is not enough. Get some people on board with your idea, so that you or they can demonstrate how the new way can work. Operationally, this can mean setting up effective pilot programs that model a change and work out the kinks before taking your innovation “on the road.” For most people, seeing is believing. Less rhetoric and more demonstration can go a long way toward overcoming resistance, changing people’s objections from the “It can’t be done!” variety to the “How can we get it done?” category.

4. PEOPLE FEAR THEY LACK THE COMPETENCE TO CHANGE
This is a fear people will seldom admit. But sometimes, change in organizations necessitates changes in skills, and some people will feel that they won’t be able to make the transition very well. They don’t think they, as individuals, can do it. The hard part is that some of them may be right. But in many cases, their fears will be unfounded, and that’s why part of moving people toward change requires you to be an effective motivator. Even more, a successful change campaign includes effective new training programs, typically staged from the broad to the specific. By this I mean that initial events should be town-hall type information events, presenting the rationale and plan for change, specifying the next steps, outlining future communications channels for questions, etc., and specifying how people will learn the specifics of what will be required of them, from whom, and when. Then, training programs must be implemented and evaluated over time. In this way, you can minimize the initial fear of a lack of personal competence for change by showing how people will be brought to competence throughout the change process. Then you have to deliver.

5. PEOPLE FEEL OVERLOADED AND OVERWHELMED
Fatigue can really kill a change effort, for an individual or for an organization. If, for example, you believe you should quit smoking, but you’ve got ten projects going and four kids to keep up with, it can be easy to put off your personal health improvement project (until your first heart attack or cancer scare, when suddenly the risks of standing still seem greater than the risks of change!). When you’re introducing a change effort, be aware of fatigue as a factor in keeping people from moving forward, even if they are telling you they believe in the wisdom of your idea. If an organization has been through a lot of upheaval, people may resist change just because they are tired and overwhelmed, perhaps at precisely the time when more radical change is most needed! That’s when you need to do two things: re-emphasize the risk scenario that forms the rationale for change (as in my cancer scare example), and also be very generous and continuously attentive with praise, and with understanding for people’s complaints, throughout the change process. When you reemphasize the risk scenario, you’re activating people’s fears, the basic fight-or-flight response we all possess. But that’s not enough, and fear can produce its own fatigue. You’ve got to motivate and praise accomplishments as well, and be patient enough to let people vent (without getting too caught up in attending to unproductive negativity).

6. PEOPLE HAVE A HEALTHY SKEPTICISM AND WANT TO BE SURE NEW IDEAS ARE SOUND
It’s important to remember that few worthwhile changes are conceived in their final, best form at the outset. Healthy skeptics perform an important social function: to vet the change idea or process so that it can be improved upon along the road to becoming reality. So listen to your skeptics, and pay attention, because some percentage of what they have to say will prompt genuine improvements to your change idea (even if some of the criticism you will hear will be based more on fear and anger than substance).

7. PEOPLE FEAR HIDDEN AGENDAS AMONG WOULD-BE REFORMERS
Let’s face it; reformers can be a motley lot. Not all are to be trusted. Perhaps even more frightening, some of the worst atrocities modern history has known were begun by earnest people who really believed they knew what was best for everyone else. Reformers, as a group, share a blemished past . . . And so, you can hardly blame those you might seek to move toward change for mistrusting your motives, or for thinking you have another agenda to follow shortly. If you seek to promote change in an organization, not only can you expect to encounter resentment for upsetting the established order and for thinking you know better than everyone else, but you may also be suspected of wanted to increase your own power, or even eliminate potential opposition through later stages of change.

I saw this in a recent change management project for which I consulted, when management faced a lingering and inextinguishable suspicion in some quarters that the whole affair was a prelude to far-reaching layoffs. It was not the case, but no amount of reason or reassurance sufficed to quell the fears of some people. What’s the solution? Well, you’d better be interested in change for the right reasons, and not for personal or factional advantage, if you want to minimize and overcome resistance. And you’d better be as open with information and communication as you possibly can be, without reacting unduly to accusations and provocations, in order to show your good faith, and your genuine interest in the greater good of the organization. And if your change project will imply reductions in workforce, then be open about that and create an orderly process for outplacement and in-house retraining. Avoid the drip-drip-drip of bad news coming out in stages, or through indirect communication or rumor. Get as much information out there as fast as you can and create a process to allow everyone to move on and stay focused on the change effort.

8. PEOPLE FEEL THE PROPOSED CHANGE THREATENS THEIR NOTIONS OF THEMSELVES
Sometimes change on the job gets right to a person’s sense of identity. When a factory worker begins to do less with her hands and more with the monitoring of automated instruments, she may lose her sense of herself as a craftsperson, and may genuinely feel that the very things that attracted her to the work in the first place have been lost. I saw this among many medical people and psychologists during my graduate training, as the structures of medical reimbursement in this country changed in favor of the insurance companies, HMO’s and managed care organizations. Medical professionals felt they had less say in the treatment of their patients, and felt answerable to less well trained people in the insurance companies to approve treatments the doctors felt were necessary. And so, the doctors felt they had lost control of their profession, and lost the ability to do what they thought best for patients.

My point is not to take sides in that argument, but to point out how change can get right to a person’s sense of identity, the sense of self as a professional. As a result, people may feel that the intrinsic rewards that brought them to a particular line of work will be lost with the change. And in some cases, they may be absolutely right. The only answer is to help people see and understand the new rewards that may come with a new work process, or to see how their own underlying sense of mission and values can still be realized under the new way of operating. When resistance springs from these identity-related roots, it is deep and powerful, and to minimize its force, change leaders must be able to understand it and then address it, acknowledging that change does have costs, but also, (hopefully) larger benefits.

9. PEOPLE ANTICIPATE A LOSS OF STATUS OR QUALITY OF LIFE
Real change reshuffles the deck a bit. Reshuffling the deck can bring winners . . . and losers. Some people, most likely, will gain in status, job security, quality of life, etc. with the proposed change, and some will likely lose a bit. Change does not have to be a zero sum game, and change can (and should) bring more advantage to more people than disadvantage. But we all live in the real world, and let’s face it – if there were no obstacles (read: people and their interests) aligned against change, then special efforts to promote change would be unnecessary.

Some people will, in part, be aligned against change because they will clearly, and in some cases correctly, view the change as being contrary to their interests. There are various strategies for minimizing this, and for dealing with steadfast obstacles to change in the form of people and their interests, but the short answer for dealing with this problem is to do what you can to present the inevitability of the change given the risk landscape, and offer to help people to adjust. Having said that, I’ve never seen a real organizational change effort that did not result in some people choosing to leave the organization, and sometimes that’s best for all concerned. When the organization changes, it won’t be to everyone’s liking, and in that case, it’s best for everyone to be adult about it and move on.

10. PEOPLE GENUINELY BELIEVE THAT THE PROPOSED CHANGE IS A BAD IDEA
I’ll never forget what a supervisor of mine said to be, during the year after I had graduated from college, secure as I was in the knowledge of my well earned, pedigreed wisdom at age twenty-two. We were in a meeting, and I made the comment, in response to some piece of information, “Oh, I didn’t know that!” Ricky, my boss, looked at me sideways, and commented dryly, “Things you don’t know . . . fill libraries.” The truth is, sometimes someone’s (even – gasp! – my) idea of change is just not a good idea. Sometimes people are not being recalcitrant, or afraid, or muddle-headed, or nasty, or foolish when they resist. They just see that we’re wrong. And even if we’re not all wrong, but only half wrong, or even if we’re right, it’s important not to ignore when people have genuine, rational reservations or objections.

Not all resistance is about emotion, in spite of this list I’ve assembled here. To win people’s commitment for change, you must engage them on both a rational level and an emotional level. I’ve emphasized the emotional side of the equation for this list because I find, in my experience, that this is the area would-be change agents understand least well. But I’m also mindful that a failure to listen to and respond to people’s rational objections and beliefs is ultimately disrespectful to them, and to assume arrogantly that we innovative, change agent types really do know best. A word to the wise: we’re just as fallible as anyone. The reasons stated above the individual sources of resistance. However there is also what we call organizational resistance.

Factor built in the organizational system also lead to resistance to change. It has been observed that organizations are conservative and are therefore slow to change. 1. Inertia of a structure: A number of built-in mechanisms provide stability to organizations. Every organization has got its own systems, processes, policies, and procedures, which ought to be followed for uniformity and formalization of the process. Consequently any change in the structural aspects has cascading effect on other related systems and processes. This creates a hurdle in introducing organizational change. In organizations where structural changes are introduced, it takes long for people to accept and assimilate the structural change. 2. Threat to power dynamics: Structural change with ensuing changes in decision-making pattern can destabilize power relationships established over a period of time. Changes in decision-making process from centralize decision making process to participative or democratic decision-making process form centralized decision-making can threaten managers affected by it. 3. Group pressure: Group norms evolved by an organization over the years become a bottleneck in bringing about change. It is common observation that a single member of a group accepts change suggested by management willingly. However, his group affiliation with a union does not allow him to do so. Therefore, he is likely to resists change. 4. Blinkered view of change: Any organization consists of four elements namely task, structure, technology, and people. Focus on any one of the elements of the organization will bring about corresponding change in other elements as well. Therefore, change cannot have lopsided and limited perspective.

Resistance inside a company or an organization is inevitable. Companies do not seldom encounter this because there is resistance everywhere. Now if the company does not find solutions in countering this resistance the company or the organization will never prosper or grow according the views, vision and the mission of the company. A company can never stay as it is. Change is constant and that if you do not ride with the flow you will be left behind.

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES TO OVER COME THE RESISTANCE:

1. Counseling: counseling has been found to be very effective in reducing individual resistance. Individual resistance occurs because of anxieties and fears and by letting people talk through their problems and anxieties can help them come to terms with change. This techniques is used on one-to-one and also in formal communication system with the whole team.

2. Force-field analysis : this technique provides an assessment of any change situation and presents a balance between the driving forces and the resisting forces. The participants are advised by the change agent to identify these forces. While identifying the restraining forces the group develops insight about ways of handling them. In a number of organizations this technique is used effectively to create a shared change processes for thinking through specific changes.

3. Commitment Charting : in any change there will be people who gain and others who lose. Therefore, in order to get the commitment of the people who are likely to loose, it is important to handle them with care, as they will be sensitive to any action. For a change to succeed it is important to have a critical mass and also to minimize the pain it causes to the affected. In order to do that a chart is prepared listing the names of key players and their commitment level to the change. The chart indicates the status of the people who have commitment at present and whose commitment needs to be ensured for change to be successful. Also the people who have no commitment need to be focused for gaining commitment.

In this regard our organization follows the ways as suggested by Watson (1969) to reduce the resistance. These relate to ownership of change, nature of change and the process of changing.

Ownership: resistance is likely to be low if the change is perceived as being the need of and suggested (sense of belongingness ) by those affected by it. And when it has the top management support. Nature of Change : Resistance is reduced by joint and agreed diagnosis of the problems and burdens, conforming to the core values of the group, offering new and interesting experience to the group, and does not threaten autonomy and security.

Change process : Resistance is reduced by joint and agreed diagnosis of the problem, consensus on the board design of change, listening to “objections’(and learning from them), periodical review and feedback, development of high interpersonal trust and cohesive teams and openness to revision.


I can also think of another reason why people tend to resist changing and this other reason is the attitude of skepticism. Skepticism is the Western philosophical tradition that maintains that human beings can never arrive at any kind of certain knowledge. Originating in Greece in the middle of the fourth century BC, skepticism and its derivatives are based on the following principles: There is no such thing as certainty in human knowledge and all human knowledge is only probably true, that is, true most of the time, or not true. Skeptics or some other people call unbelievers are those people who lack faith in some things, in this case the lack of faith to new technology. Most skeptics think that these new technologies are nothing compared to the traditional ways. However I think it is the other way around. These new technologies are derived from the traditional processes and if people tell that the new technology is irrelevant or not reliable then why should the traditional systems be any different? I mean, technologies were derived from these traditional systems. They were made to enhance the traditional systems, not make them even more useless.

Other factors include communication gap. What is communication? Communication is the exchange of information between individuals, for example, by means of speaking, writing, or using a common system of signs or behavior. Communication is essential especially in the planning process. No proper communication within the company especially the persons in charge of the planning will likely end up in a bad plan. Part of an Information Planning is the communication; it is often define as a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs". All forms of communication require a sender, a message, and a receiver. Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. Now let’s define Communication gap; it is define as a state that occurs when what is being said is not been communicated to the addressee properly and completely. There can be many causes of communication gap depending on where it exists. Actually Communication gap is the biggest hurdle in achieving the organizational goal and does not help at all in achievement of organizational goal. Communication gap in an organization means that the goals and objectives that are set by the top management are either not communicated to the employees of the organization at all levels or if communicated they are not been understood properly by the employees. This can be because of improper communication channels, unrealistic goals, inappropriate language etc.

We already discussed what resistance is an the other causes of frustrations in the information systems plan process. So far the two causes stated by our interviewee. The two causes are lack of support and the resistance that the workers of the company exert towards technology. These two cause frustrations. I read about frustration and I also happened to read about how to deal on frustrations. So how do we deal with frustrations? Well, perhaps the first and most immediate thing I do is to stop and take my mind off the things that frustrate me. I conserve whatever energy is left in me and use it to recharge myself. I do what my favorite poem tells me, “Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.” I shut down everything temporarily and go inside my sanctuary – armed with music and my favorite comfort foods; I drive around the city without a destination. Yes, this routine has been very therapeutic for me for the past years. I would spend a couple of hours without worries inside my car and let all my troubles settle at the back of my mind. Other than driving, I’ve also managed to come up with other things to do whenever I’m feeling depressed and frustrated. Some of which are spending time and talking with friends, writing my frustrations down and then burning the paper (I know, how dramatic) and sometimes, I simply jog inside our village. I guess the key here is to release the frustrations in a non-aggressive way. Of course, your problems won’t get solved by simply doing that. Chances are, it will still be in the same state when you come back from taking a break. However, what I hope to be different this time is my enthusiasm to tackle the difficulties once again. Moreover, with revitalized energy, I am now more capable to think and act towards succeeding this time. Upon my return, I take stock of everything at hand and systematically analyze the situation by asking myself such questions: Furthermore, I always keep in mind that frustration may lead to aggression and procrastination. Remembering so helps me act consciously without negativity and delay. When your goals seems to be so near yet so far, take positivity from the small accomplishments you’ve already attained and learn to also reward your efforts, not just your results. In the end, when you finally achieve, you’ll find yourself stronger in character and more ready to face greater challenges. Dealing with your finances can be frustrating at times, especially when you’ve been working so hard to save and invest and then a financial emergency would come and ruin your plans. As a blogger, I’ve also become familiar with common frustrations in having a website such as spending long hours optimizing for income and traffic only to get less than expected results. How about in your case? What has been your frustration lately and how are you dealing with it? Kindly share them below and continue the conversation

We are all likely to encounter frustration while pursuing our goals. But how do you usually deal with it? Do you vent your frustration through aggression in the form of physical or verbal abuse? Or do you walk on the path of persistence by working through each obstacle? The first sign of trouble usually results in people giving up. So what can you do to smooth the journey of perseverance and attaining eventual reward?

1. Desire. From the beginning, if you wish strongly for something, you will likely sacrifice time, money and effort to achieve it. Those who are intent on satisfying their fondest desire are often the ones who have the strongest motivation and desire to do so. On the same note, if your heart is not into what you do, it will translate into equivalent non-action through mind and body.

2. Self-confidence. Naturally, the more confident you are of your abilities, the more willing you would be to continue working through sticking points. But confidence can be a fragile state of mind. Difficult to build, easily shattered. A good way is to break your goals into smaller and achievable targets. Each positive result will contribute to a greater realization that you are heading in the right direction. Note that self-realizing prophecies cannot be more apparent in these situations - the more negativity you allow yourself to be in, the closer you will sink to greater depths. Practice the art of succeeding instead.

3. Magnitude. Just as well you should break a goal into smaller targets to build confidence; it also changes a much larger problem into bit-sized issues that you can have greater control and success over. Remember how you decided to skip an exam question when it seemed insurmountable given the time and pressure you were under? If the question had been broken down into several parts instead, it would have been tackled without a second thought. Chop your frustration to pieces by making problems smaller in magnitude.

4. Proximity. Another reason why breaking down your problems into bite-sized chunks would lessen your frustrations and channel it towards positive action - solutions and closure become that much closer and bring you nearer the ultimate satisfaction. Having sub goals or milestones will have the added benefit of seeing success progressively, providing assurance and lessening frustration.

5. Ability and Options. By understanding your own abilities, it can allow assessment of each situation in better light, rather than be weighed down by frustration. You can decide whether an obstacle is worth the effort to persevere or there could be a need to adjust goals accordingly. Note that changing goals do not necessarily preclude giving up - other options might have opened up in the realization, and they could very well lead to brighter futures.
These 5 factors are keys to how you can handle frustration and lessen it in the long run. It is natural to feel the stakes are stacked against you from time to time, but remember that it is what you do to face it that will remove that feeling, not wallowing in self-pity or frustration. What are some of the methods that you have personally used to manage frustration to build and achieve your own goals?

In conclusion we should know how to face and handle frustrations because we do not know when we might encounter it. If we do not know how to handle frustrations then we might end up sulking in a corner because we feel rejected. Frustrations can cause downfall and sometimes complete failure on a man, an organization or a company.

References:
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MIS 2 - Assignment #2

Assignment #2 (November 28, 2009)
What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan?

Planning is one thing that is very essential in a person or an organization. It puts essential things, things that need to be done or accomplished, in perfect order so as to be achieved with repose. Encarta defines plan or planning as a system for achieving an objective. Planning is a method of doing something or lay-outing as in making a blueprint of what is needed to be done in order to achieve something. The topic that is being discussed in this post is to what should be the nature of the relationship between the BP or the business plan and the ISP or the information systems plan. The topic is discussed in the following paragraphs.

What is a business? A business, also called a company, enterprise or firm, is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most beingprivately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself. The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of financial returns in exchange for work and acceptance of risk. Notable exceptions include cooperative enterprises and state-owned enterprises. Businesses can also be formed not-for-profit or be state-owned.

The etymology of "business" relates to the state of being busy either as an individual or society as a whole, doing commercially viable and profitable work. The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope, the singular usage (stated earlier) to mean a particular company or corporation, the generalized usage to refer to a particular market sector, such as "the music business" and compound forms such as agribusiness, or the broadest meaning to include all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services. However, the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of business, is a matter of debate and complexity of meanings. There other forms of business ownership. Sole proprietorship is one of the most basic forms of business ownership. Sole proprietorship means or is a business owned by one person. The owner may operate on his or her own or may employ others. The owner of the business has personal liability of the debts incurred by the business. One other form of ownership is partnership. Partnership is a form of business in which two or more people operate for the common goal which is often making profit. In most forms of partnerships, each partner has personal liability of the debts incurred by the business. There are three typical classifications of partnerships: general partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships. Next form is called Corporation. A corporation is either a limited or unlimited liability entity that has a separate personality from its members. A corporation can be organized for-profit or not-for-profit. A corporation is owned by multiple shareholders and is overseen by a board of directors, which hires the business's managerial staff. In addition to privately-owned corporate models, there are state-owned corporate models. And the last basic form of business ownership is Cooperative. Cooperative is often referred to as a "co-op", a cooperative is a limited liability entity that can organize for-profit or not-for-profit. A cooperative differs from a corporation in that it has members, as opposed to shareholders, who share decision-making authority. Cooperatives are typically classified as either consumer cooperatives or worker cooperatives. Cooperatives are fundamental to the ideology of economic democracy.
Before pointing out the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the information system plan I’ll lay down or rather site the definitions of the terms included in the question. What is a business plan? A business plan is a formal statement where the business goals of a certain company or organization are set, the reason why they are said to be reachable and the plan for reaching these goals. In any organization planning is a basic tool for achieving its objectives and purposes and to be able to achieve this and to be able to achieve an organization’s objectives an organization must have an effective business plan to be carried out.

A business plan is essential to a company or an organization based on the following reasons: first to test the feasibility of the business. Writing a business plan is the best way to test whether or not an idea for starting a business is feasible, other than going out and doing it. The business plan is a business safety net. Writing a business plan can save a great deal of time and money, if working through the business plan reveals that your business idea is unsustainable. With this you can test if having your idea business is feasible, and if not this help freeing you to move on to a new and better idea.

To give your new business the best possible chance of success, it is vital to the success of the business. Writing a business plan will ensure that you pay attention to both the broad operational and financial objectives of your new business and the details, such as budgeting and market planning. Taking the time to work through the process of writing a business plan will make for a smoother startup period and fewer unforeseen problems as your business becomes established. The next reason is to secure funding. Why? To start a business, it needs to have both operating and startup capital. Some business has their capital from financial institutions such as banks in which they expect that business has a developed business plan. And established businesses usually need money for their business operations. With this, the role of having a business plan will at least gives you an assurance and chance to keep the business operating or maybe an expansion.

To make business planning manageable and effective. A business plan is essential if you're thinking of starting a business, but it's also an important tool for established businesses. The company's original business plan needs to be revised as new goals are set, to adopt the changes in business industry. Reviewing the business plan can also help a company or corporation see what goals have been accomplished, what changes need to be made, or what new directions to a company's growth should take. And the other reason is to attract investors. Having a solid business plan, this is a plus factor to the company in which investors pull towards the company to invest. A company business plan will be the basis of the investor to do some background checks to the company.

The nature of the business plan is to look ahead, allocate resources, focus on key points, and prepare for certain risks, problems and opportunities. I reckon almost all business establishments have their own business plan. Business plans are determined or as I might say it is categorized for a profit or non-profit organization or company. A profit organization or company’s business plan focuses typically on financial goals such as profit creation while a non-profit organization or company’s business plan tend to focus on the mission of the organization which is the main reason for their status which is non-profit. A business plan is essential to an organization whether profit driven or not because it gives them a backbone or a guide. It makes an organization move into a systemic and orderly way. No business will be able to have a clear perspective of what is needed to be done if there is no plan or else they would be lingering towards nowhere and would unlikely achieve their goals.

There are ways of plotting or preparing a business plan for a company. This I know I found in the web and I honestly forgot who the author was. I just happened to save the web page. Steps in preparing the Business Plan. The process of preparing and developing a business plan is an interactive one that involves every functional area of a company. Successful business plans are usually the result of team effort, in which all employees provide input based on their special areas of expertise and technical skill. Business owners and managers provide overall support for the planning process as well as general guidelines and feedback on the plan as it is being developed. Once the planning process has been fully organized, participants can begin the process of assessment. Internal evaluations include identification of strengths and weaknesses of all areas of the business. In addition, it is generally useful to assess and evaluate such external factors as the general economy, competition, relevant technologies, trends, and other circumstances outside the control of the company that can affect its performance or fundamental health. Setting goals and defining strategies are the next key steps in the planning process. Using the assessment and evaluation of internal and external factors, fundamental goals for the business are developed. Pertinent areas to be studied include the company's competitive philosophy, its market focus, and its customer service philosophy. Specific performance and operational strategies are then established, based on these goals. After strategies and goals have been defined, they are translated into specific plans and programs. These plans and programs determine how a company's resources will be managed in order to implement its strategies and achieve its goals. Specific areas that require their own plans and programs include the overall organization of the company, sales and marketing, products and production, and finance. Finally, these specific plans are assembled into the completed business plan.

Also related in this account are the factors or the elements that can be found in a business plan of company or an organization. This I also found in the web. Business plans must include authoritative, factual data, usually obtained from a wide range of sources. The plans must be written in a consistent and realistic manner. Contradictions or inconsistencies within a business plan create doubts in the minds of its readers. Problems and risks associated with the business should be described rather than avoided, then used as the basis for presenting thoughtful solutions and contingency plans. Business plans can be tailored to the needs and interests of specific audiences by emphasizing or presenting differently certain categories of information in different versions of the plan. Business plans contain a number of specific elements as well as certain general characteristics. These include a general description of the company and its products or services, an executive summary, management and organizational charts, sales and marketing plans, financial plans, and production plans. They describe the general direction of a company in terms of its underlying philosophy, goals, and objectives. Business plans explain specific steps and actions that will be taken as well as their rationale. That is, they not only tell how a company will achieve its strategic objectives, they also tell why specific decisions have been made. Anticipated problems and the company's response to them are usually included. In effect, business plans are a set of management decisions about how the company will proceed along a specified course of action, with justifications for those decisions. Listed below are brief descriptions of the major elements found in business plans.

Include the same information on the title page. If you have a logo, you can use it, too. A table of contents follows the executive summary or statement of purpose, so that readers can quickly find the information or financial data they need.

The first is the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. This is usually a two-to five-page summary of the entire business plan. It is an important part of the plan, in that it is designed to capture the reader's attention and create an interest in the company. It usually includes the company's mission statement and summarizes its competitive advantages, sales and profit projections, financial requirements, plans to repay lenders or investors, and the amount of financing requested. Next is the DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS. The business description includes not only a profile of the company, but also a picture of the industry in which the company operates. Every business operates within a specific context that affects its growth potential. The description of a company's operating environment may cover new products and developments in the industry, trends and outlook for the industry, and overall economic trends. The intent of the company profile, meanwhile, is to provide readers with a description of unique features that give the company an edge in the environment in which it competes. A brief company history reveals how specific products and services were developed, while descriptions of pertinent contracts and agreements should also be mentioned (information on contracts and legal agreements may also be included in an appendix to the business plan). Other topics covered include operational procedures and research and development.

Third element of the business plan is the DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES. The goal of this section is to differentiate a company's products or services from those of the competition. It describes specific customer needs that are uniquely met by the firm's products or services. Product features are translated into customer benefits. Product life cycles and their effects on sales and marketing can be described. The company's plans for a new generation of products or services may also be included in this section. Next is the DESCRIPTION OF MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE. The quality of a company's management team can be the most important aspect of a business plan. This section presents the strengths of the company's management team by highlighting relevant experience, achievements, and past performance. Key areas include management's ability to provide planning, organizational skills, and leadership. This section also contains information about the company's ownership and work force. It may present an existing or planned organizational structure that will accomplish the goals set forth in the business plan. Specific management and control systems are often described as well.

The fifth element is the MARKET ANALYSIS. A thorough market analysis serves as the basis for a company's sales and marketing plans. The analysis generally covers the company's competition, customers, products, and market acceptance. The competitive analysis details the competition's strengths and weaknesses, providing a basis for discovering market opportunities. A customer analysis provides a picture of who buys and uses the company's products or services. This section of the business plan highlights how the company's products or services satisfy previously unfulfilled market needs. It also includes evidence of market acceptance of the company's unique products or services. Next is SALES AND MARKETING PLAN. The marketing plan delineates the methods and activities that will be employed to reach the company's revenue goals. This section describes the company's customer base, products or services, and marketing and sales programs. The latter is supported by conclusions drawn from the market analysis. Different revenue outcomes may be presented to allow for contingency planning in the areas of finance and production.

The seventh element is the PRODUCTION PLAN. A production plan is usually included if the business is involved in manufacturing a product. Based on the sales and marketing plan, the production plan covers production options that are available to produce a desired mix of products. The production plan contains information that allows for budgeting for such costs as labor and materials. In non-manufacturing companies, this section would cover new service development. Next is the FINANCIAL PLAN. This section covers the financing and cash flow requirements implicit in other areas of the business plan. It contains projections of income, expenses, and cash flow, as well as descriptions of budgeting and financial controls. Financial projections must be supported by verifiable facts, such as sales figures or market research. Monthly figures are generally given for the first two years, followed by annual figures for the next three to eight years. If the business plan is written for investors or lenders, the amount of financing required may be included here or in a separate section.

the ninth element of the business plan is the IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE. This section provides key dates pertaining to finance, marketing, and production. It indicates when specific financing is needed, when specific aspects of a particular marketing campaign will take place, and delivery dates based on production schedules. And the last element is the CONTINGENCYPLANS. This section defines problems and challenges that the company may face and outlines contingency plans for overcoming obstacles that might arise. Specific topics that may be explored are competitive responses, areas of weakness or vulnerability, legal constraints, staffing, and continuity of leadership. Most business plans include a table of contents and a cover sheet containing basic information about the company. An appendix may include a variety of documentation that supports different sections of the business plan. Among the items that may be found in an appendix are footnotes from the main plan, biographies, graphs and charts, copies of contracts and agreements, and references.

In addition to publishing submitted articles, the Editors-in-Chief will invite retrospective articles that describe significant projects by the principal architects of those projects. Authors of such articles should write in the first person, tracing the social as well as technical history of their projects, describing the evolution of ideas, mistakes made, and reality tests. Technical results should be explained in a uniform notation with the emphasis on clarity and on ideas that may have applications outside of the environment of that research. Particularly complex details may be summarized with references to previously published papers. We will make every effort to allow authors the right to republish papers appearing in Information Systems in their own books and monographs.

We have already portrayed what a business plan is. Information Systems plan on the other hand is the searching of strategies for information systems in order for the company to gain competitive advantages. What really are Information systems? Information systems are the software and hardware systems that support data-intensive applications. The journal Information Systems publishes articles concerning the design and implementation of languages, data models, process models, algorithms, software and hardware for information systems. Subject areas include data management issues as presented in the principal international database conferences (e.g. ACM SIGMOD, ACM PODS, VLDB, ICDE and ICDT/EDBT) as well as data-related issues from the fields of data mining, information retrieval, internet and cloud data management, web semantics, visual and audio information systems, scientific computing, and organizational behavior. Implementation papers having to do with massively parallel data management, fault tolerance in practice, and special purpose hardware for data-intensive systems are also welcome. All papers should motivate the problems they address with compelling examples from real or potential applications. Systems papers must be serious about experimentation either on real systems or simulations based on traces from real systems. Papers from industrial organizations are welcome. Theoretical papers should have a clear motivation from applications. They should either break significant new ground or unify and extend existing algorithms. Such papers should clearly state which ideas have potentially wide applicability.

Most likely companies do this by assessing the current environment and the organization’s objectives and strategies. Improving the processes, performance and operations has been the top priorities of companies or organizations and also, improving the planning process of information systems has long been one of the top concerns of information systems department management. To achieve this, the information system plan must be aligned with the business plan or the business strategy of an organization or a company. We, together with my group mates happen to have interviewed one the system analyst in the Davao Light and Power Company. I remember him saying that the IT department serves as the support group or should I say the prop that supports the organization in attaining organizational goals. He also said that their department supports the company by enhancing organizational processes and by making them easier and more accurate. That is why information systems plan must be aligned with the business plan of an organization so that the IT (information technology) unit and other organizational personnel are working on the same goals, using their respective competencies. Thus, the relationship of the business plan and the information systems plan should be parallel or analogous to each other.

I have also seen in the web some qualities of a good information systems plan. Characteristics of a good information systems plan include being timely. Timely as such that the information systems plan must be created when it is needed. An information system plan created long after it is needed is considered to be useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned. Next would be useable. An information systems plan should be useable for all projects. Meaning it can be utilized anywhere it is needed. Maintainable, new business opportunities, new computers, new business mergers, and etc. all affect the information systems plan so it must be able to adopt and change quickly to the estimates technology employed and possibly to the fundamental project sequences. Quality and reproducible, the information systems plan should be as is and should not vary to staff that is using the system.

Integration of the business plan and the information systems plan is undoubtedly very essential because of the reason that one benefits the other. An information system helps an organization with its processes and optimization of work flows and also eases their work and at the same time a business plan helps an organization manage their tasks in order to achieve their goals. The two should be well made and integrated to the point of having harmonious relations with each other in order for a company or an organization to grow and prosper. Unwell made business plan affects the information systems plan and the same goes to the business plan is the information systems plan is not well plotted.

There is however other kinds of planning that used in some companies and I just want to put it here in my post. Tactical Planning is the process of taking the strategic plan and breaking it down into specific, short term actions and plans. The relative length of the planning horizon will vary from one market to another but typically the strategic plan will cover a period greater than three years while the tactical plan covers the period from today through to the end of year three. The content of any business plan will depend on why the plan is being produced. Some plans are for internal use only and act as a common reference during the preparation of budgets and appraisals. Some plans are basically sales documents aimed at persuading banks to provide loans and investors to provide equity. The process of producing a useable tactical plan is not easy as some flexibility is required to allow response to unplanned events. There are a large variety of strategic planning models and organizations that provide strategic planning consulting. Some of these are useful and can be used a check lists to ensure completeness and as facilitators to ask the awkward questions that people would prefer to leave unanswered. It is important that the tactical plan should be checked to ensure it is aligned with the strategic plan and that all activities are aimed at moving closer to the goals defined in the strategic plan. It is very easy for the tactical plan to diverge at a tangent because of someone's interests or disagreement with the strategic plan.

In all the things we do, planning is a part of activities for it guides every step that can give satisfaction to our work. And we can't deny the fact that planning is so difficult. Here comes now the relationship between business plans and IS plan. It's because business goals and systems plans need to align. Strategic systems plans need to align with business goals and support those objectives. It will be difficult if CIO is not part of senior management. Technologies are rapidly changing. And continuous planning based on monitoring and experimenting new technologies. Certain companies need portfolios rather than projects. It is for the evaluation on more than their individual merit. On how they fit into other projects and how they balance the portfolio of projects. In planning, infrastructure is included in which the infrastructure development is difficult to fund. It is often done under the auspices of a large application project. One of the challenges for this is to develop improved applications and improve infrastructure over time. Systems planning has become business planning, not just a technology issue. Responsibility needs to be joint. It is better done by a full partnership of C-level officers. Other planning issue is planning culture in which the systems planning must fit.

This relationship, I think, is observed by companies and organizations. However, despite the importance of the alignment of the business plan and the information systems plan, some companies still come up or demonstrate limited or awry on the alignment of the plans. This happens because of some factors, factors like resistance, lack of knowledge, negative or neutral view of the ability of IT. However there are many companies especially the IT companies who are knowledgeable of the current trends and are currently employing information systems plan into their systems. These companies have properly integrated their business plan with their information systems plan and these companies have achieved their goals so far (at least that is what I think)