Describing an organisation Group task INF 5250 Fall 2005

Describing an organisationGroup task INF 5250Fall 2005

Pål Sørgaard, Telenor R&D and IfI

August 29, 2005

29 August, 2005 Pål Sørgaard, Telenor R&D 2

Short welcome

INF 5250 Information systems development in organisations

Lectures given in English Feel free to ask in Norwegian, English or other If you need to mail me, mail to my address in Telenor


Learning by doing

An important part of the course is to learn about organisations and organisation theory

One of the best ways to learn a theory is to apply it to a real case

So we start immediately with a project


The task

The task is to describe an organisation. You should describe the organisation in your own words, you are supposed to use the terminology of Henry Mintzberg’s book Structure in Fives, and you may also use material from the organisation you describe. The description should be written in a fluent language, and should be readable for an audience that does not follow this course. The purpose of the group task is to get a concrete feel for what an organisation is (or can be), and to get experience from trying to analyse an organisation.


Selecting an organisation

You select the organisation yourselves. To give you a hint, we have written a list of possible organisations at the end of this group task description. As we do not want to have more than one group approaching each organisation, we kindly ask you to inform Miria Grisot about the organisation you try to get in touch with.


Doing it

You are in other words supposed to select an organisation, contact it yourselves (most organisations have a unit for external information), obtain material from it (web, written documents, annual reports, etc.), get interviews with some people there (e.g. head of administration, who can describe the organisation to you), figure out what it does, its history, etc. In order to finish on time you will need to start working with this group task immediately (collecting material and obtaining appointments for interviews take time). You should have established contact with your case organisation during the first week.

Work in groups, 2-3 students in each group


Examples of organisations

LHL Møllergruppen Oslo trygdekontor The American Embassy

Trioving Norsk Hydro Statistics Norway A plumbing company

Agenda Narvesen National Library Freia sjokoladefabrikk

OBOS Oslo lufthavn Heitmann marin Directorate of Taxes

Peppes Rikshospitalet Bydel Nordre Aker Ministry of Finance

Veritas Opera Software Norsk Regnesentral

Telenor Kirkens bymisjon Berg videregående

Norad Nordstrands blad ICA Ullevål stadion

Høgskolen i Oslo Sentrum Røntgen


Timing

Early in the course Read Mintzberg’s book yourself Use the lectures to discuss difficulties with the text or the

group task Fixed deadline: Friday October 7th (we do this to learn

Mintzberg, not to do the whole course) Don’t wait to get started!


Approaching an organisation

Use public sources (make your homework!) – web

– annual report

– various news sources

– encyclopaedia etc

Take official contact– call/mail the information officer or some responsible manager

– ask for material, a visit, and for permission to interview persons who know how they are organised (and why)

– send them a description of the group task

– send them your report afterwards

Be prepared for a “no” Be polite


Deliverable

A textual description of an organisation Approx 10 pages of text plus illustrations and other material English, Bokmål or Nynorsk Electronic file in PDF-format, check that it’s OK Make sure it looks OK graphically To be sent by mail to Miria


Writing quality text

Should be readable by people outside the class (try it on friends and family!)

Should use important concepts from Mintzberg Spelling and grammar should be OK. Should be fluent to

read. Writing skills are important Experience needed to prepare for Master and future jobs

Documents

Describing an organisation Group task INF 5250 Fall 2005