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40 Part 1 • SyStemS analySiS FundamentalS

COnsUlting OppORtUnity 2.2

Where There’s Carbon, There’s a Copy

“I don’t know what we do with the pink ones yet,” Richard Three weeks later, an assistant to Richard’s boss, Carol
Russell admitted. “They’re part of a quadruplicate form that rips Vaness, appears. Richard is happy to see a familiar face, greet-
apart. All I know is that we keep them for the filing clerk, and he ing her with, “Hi, Carol. What’s new?”
files them when he has time.” “Same old thing,” Carol sighs. “Well, I guess it isn’t old
Richard is a newly hired junior account executive for Carbon, to you, because you’re the newcomer. But I need all those
Carbon & Rippy, a brokerage house. You are walking through the pesky pink forms.”
steps he takes in making a stock purchase “official” because his Almost in shock, Richard exchanges looks with Harry,
boss has asked you to streamline the process whereby stock pur- then mumbles, “You’re kidding, of course.”
chase information is stored in the computer system and retrieved. Carol looks more serious than Richard ever thought possi-
After you leave, Richard continues thinking about the pink ble, replying, “No joke. I summarize all the pink forms from all
forms. He tells his clerk, Harry Schultz, “In my two months here, the brokers, and then my totals are compared with computerized
I haven’t seen anyone use those. They take up my time and yours, stock purchase information. It’s part of our routine, three-month
not to mention all the filing space. Let’s pitch them.” audit for transaction accuracy. My work depends on yours.
Richard and Harry proceed to open all the old files kept by Didn’t Ms. McCue explain that to you when you started?”
Richard’s predecessor and throw out the filed pink forms, along What systems concept did Richard and Harry ignore when
with those accumulated but not yet filed. It takes hours, but they tossing out the pink forms? What are the possible ramifica-
make a lot of room. “Definitely worth the time,” Richard reassures tions for systems analysts if general systems concepts are
Harry. ignored?

Operational control forms the bottom tier of three-tiered management. Operations managers
make decisions using predetermined rules that have predictable outcomes when implemented
correctly. They make decisions that affect implementation in work scheduling, inventory con-
trol, shipping, receiving, and control of processes such as production. Operations managers over-
see the operating details of the organization.
Middle management forms the second, or intermediate, tier of the three-tiered management
system. Middle managers make short-term planning and control decisions about how resources
may best be allocated to meet organizational objectives.
Their decisions range all the way from forecasting future resource requirements to solving
employee problems that threaten productivity. The decision-making domain of middle man-
agers can usefully be characterized as partly operational and partly strategic, with constant
fluctuations.
Strategic management is the third level of three-tiered management control. Strategic man-
agers look outward from the organization to the future, making decisions that will guide middle
and operations managers in the months and years ahead.
Strategic managers work in a highly uncertain decision-making environment. Through
statements of goals and the determination of strategies and policies to achieve them, strategic
managers actually define the organization as a whole. Theirs is the broad picture, wherein the
company decides to develop new product lines, divest itself of unprofitable ventures, acquire
other compatible companies, or even allow itself to be acquired or merged.
There are sharp contrasts among the decision makers on many dimensions. For instance,
strategic managers have multiple decision objectives, whereas operations managers have single
ones. It is often difficult for high-level managers to identify problems, but it is easy for opera-
tions managers to do so. Strategic managers are faced with semistructured problems, whereas
lower-level managers deal mostly with structured problems.
The alternative solutions to a problem facing the strategic managers are often difficult to
articulate, but the alternatives that operations managers work with are usually easy to enumerate.
Strategic managers most often make one-time decisions, whereas the decisions made by opera-
tions managers tend to be repetitive.