Stetson School of Business and Economics

TGM 600 Technology & Information Management

Instructor - Office Hours - Course Description - Objectives - Materials
Requirements - Grading Scale - Outline & Schedule

Office Hours

My office hours are on Mondays, from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. I will also be available before each class. However, I encourage you to address questions to me via email. Concerns and more extensive consultations can also be handled via the telephone or by appointment. 

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Course Description 
A consistent challenge to modern businesses is to optimize organizational member performance. One approach is to improve the probability that members will make appropriate decisions and follow these decisions with effective actions. Such an approach requires that both information and technology be focused to support member decision processes. This course integrates basic management principles with techniques in information systems and technology. Emphasis is placed on the application of combined information, hardware, and software solutions to business decision processes.

Instructional Design 
This course is designed to acquaint students with the general aspects of technology management, including the management of  product, process and information technologies -- as well as the management of technical professionals.  The program of study starts broadly, addressing the question of what are the functions of management in general and progressing to what is the focus of technology management in particular.   Information technologies are highlighted to give this focus context.

The pedagogical approach is one of active learning -- where the student takes responsibility for his/her learning experience by setting educational goals, extending course content, and contributing to the class' processes.  The role of the instructor is that of a facilitator, enabling the students to purse and attain their goals for this course.  Such an approach has been shown to engender better mastery of course content and to provide better personal development than a traditional instructor-centered paradigm. 

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Course Objectives 
Upon the successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Identify the roles of technology in an enterprise for supporting the functions of management
• Illustrate the strategic management of technology
• Describe current information technologies and systems
• Discuss emerging issues in the management of information and technology
• Develop a technology brief by gathering appropriate academic and business references to research information/technology-related topics

To be successful in this class, you are expected to:

• Read the assigned materials in preparation for each class.
• Participate in group exercises and class discussions.
• Leverage supplemental resources such as the library and the Internet.
• Allow adequate time to prepare written materials.

In this learning environment, you are challenged to challenge yourself.

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Course Materials 
Required

The following materials are required for the course.

Khalil, T. (2000).  Management of technology: The key to competitiveness and wealth creation. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. 

Harvard Business School Press cases: "Clare McCloud", "Designing and Managing the Information Age IT Architecture", "Cisco... Corporate Intranet",  "Electronic Commerce at Air Products", "Knowledge Management at Ernst & Young", and "Hillcrest Research Associates, Inc."

Lacity, M.C., Willcocks, L.R., and Feeny, D.F. (May-June 1995). IT outsourcing: maximize flexibility and control. Harvard business review.

Optional

The first two optional books are supplemental to the course materials and may enhance your understanding of the material that is covered in class lectures and assignments.

Hoffman, G.M. 1994. The technology payoff: How to profit with empowered workers in the information age. IL: Irwin. (available in the campus bookstore)

For people struggling with the information systems terminology, a good basic textbook on information systems management is:

Laudon, K., and Laudon, J. (1999). Essentials management information systems, 3rd edition.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Our class website can be found at

http://www.mercer.edu/webct/ 

You are expected to subscribe to the class list server using electronic mail over the Internet. To do, login to your preferred electronic mail service and send an email message to:

Mailserv@mercer.edu

In the body of your message, type:

Sub tgm600-L first name lastname

You will receive a confirmation back from the server. To post messages to the server, send an electronic mail message to:

Tgm600-L@mercer.edu

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Course Requirements 

Grading
Your final grade will be based on several indicators of performance.

You are expected to prepare the reading and case assignments in advance of each class. Class discussions will be based on these materials, with individuals sharing their questions, ideas and experiences. Group exercises will be done in small groups, with the results reported back to the class as a whole. The class list server and website will be used to augment these interactions. Your participation grade will be based on your contributions to the classes, both in-person and electronically. Guidelines for effective class participation can be found on the class website.

The assignments are designed to be active learning experiences, supplementing class discussions and reading assignments.

The assignments are to be completed in writing and submitted before 6:00 p.m. the days they are due. Late assignments lose 2 points each day that they are late.

You may discuss the assignments with your classmates; however your work should be original. Plagiarism is the use of ideas, facts, phrases, or additional information such as charts or maps, from any sources, without giving proper credit to the original author. Using direct quotations, paraphrases, or reproductions of any material which is not the student's own authorship is also considered plagiarism. Failure to reference any such material used is both ethically and legally improper.

^* Plagiarism or collusion will result in a grade of 0 for the assignment.

There will be a final exam in the last class session.

Learning is a transformation process, connecting new information with existing knowledge and making tacit impressions into explicit understanding.  A journal provides a vehicle for enabling -- and monitoring -- this transformation process.  You will create a journal as an ongoing exercise in your course experience.  Contents should include (but not be limited to) course goals, insights, ideas, issues, references to remember, and goal attainment assessment.  The journal may be handwritten neatly.

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Grading Structure

Course Outline and Tentative Schedule

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