| Internal Memories | External Memories |
| internal to person | external to person |
| well organized | have to be well organized to be useful |
| memory decays over time | no memory decay |
| fast | very large |
| might get overloaded | supports internal memory |
| convenient |
Teaching tip: Create lists on the board for internal and external memories.
The things we remember are stored in internal memory and the things we enter on a keyboard or write down are stored in external memory.
Using paper as an example, here are the common features to most individual memory systems:
Several other ways of storing paper were used such as bookcases and filing cabinets
A well-organized student uses the cloud to store details of events, contacts, and so forth. These data are then accessible through a smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Here the students are asked to give a description of a very organized person they know. The differences between this person and themselves could stem from personality differences or from different training. Some people are task oriented and like creating structures to keep themselves organized. Others drift from task to task completing very few. Some may have taken a time management course to learn how to structure their time.
Teaching tip: Create lists on the board to stimulate discussion.
Student identifier, semester, call number of the class, and number of credit hours (if needed). The student's name, the class name, the instructor's name, and other person- or class-specific information do not have to be given since the administration can derive these from the student identifier and the call number respectively.
People are a major component of an organizational memory system because they create, maintain, evolve and use the system. Organizational memory systems would not exist without people.
Attributes of organizational memory are sharability, security, accuracy, timeliness, and relevance. All of these attributes are very important.
Teaching tip: While it is impossible to decide which attribute is the most important, it is useful to get students to give their opinions and justifications.
During transaction processing, all important data concerned with routine transactions are recorded for later processing. For example, a production transaction processing system would record each day when and how much of each product was produced.
Decision making is part of planning for future activities. Often data collected during transaction processing are used to support the decision maker.
Data are relevant when they help to solve an existing problem. The most difficult thing to decide is which data will be relevant for future decisions.
Some organizations maintain very specialized memories, e.g. a library of smells for perfume companies, a color database for paint manufacturers, and a video library for a news network
Teaching tip: Encourage students to go beyond the examples provided in the text. If you find any good examples, send them to rwatson@terry.uga.edu.
Measuring the quality of a decision is not a simple task and this problem perplexes many managers. Most people decide that examining the outcome is the best guide to decision quality:
A key point to note is that you cannot generally measure the quality of a decision until some time after it is made.
Organizational culture is the distinct culture found in a specific organization. This includes shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and norms that influence the behavior and expectations of people in the organization. Companies with distinct cultures are IBM and Apple.
In contrast to linear text, hypertext has built-in linkages between sections of text. These links enable the reader to quickly jump from one part of the text to another. An organizational memory system contains massive amounts of data on various topics. Hypertext can simplify the required data and enable faster access to it.
Imaging enables companies to reduce the amount of paper stored. Received letters and other important documents are scanned into computer files. Thus, the amount of storage space needed is reduced and faster access to these files is enabled. Any area that deals with large volumes of paper (e.g., mutual funds, insurance companies) is suited to an imaging application.
External memories are memory stores outside of the organization. Often it is too much effort for a single organization to collect all potentially relevant data. Some organizations have specialized in providing data to other organizations (e.g, various government departments and credit bureaus).
Organizational memory system is the common name used to refer to systems that help organizations remember data, information, and knowledge.
A DSS is a computer system that supports decision makers through the use of data and mathematical models. Typically, DSSs are used to analyze existing problems and prepare for the future.
The main shortcomings of organizational memory systems are redundancy, poor data control, poor interface, long lead times for query resolution, inability to answer questions about the real world, and lack of data integration.
Perhaps the most significant shortcoming is the inability to answer questions about the real world. An organizational memory system has only very limited value if it cannot answer the important ad hoc queries posed by the users.
Since The Expeditioner is quite an old company, we can speculate that existing memory systems are almost totally paper based and not very well organized. Much valuable information is stored in people's heads. Among the memory systems implemented at The Expeditioner, we can expect the following:
Since all these memory systems are most likely paper based or partly in people’s minds, we will discuss these two broad types of memory systems.
Paper based memory systems:
| a. | Paper based systems are not easily shareable. Typically, the records are kept in one specific place, where a few people have access to the data. They have to be organized this way since anybody who has access to the data can easily change or destroy the data. Thus, to access even publicly available parts of the data one has to go through the responsible person. |
| b. | Paper is not easily transportable. Of course, this depends on the amount of information and the distance it has to be carried. It is easy enough to carry a piece of paper to another office down the hall, but not so easy to send a whole file full of information to another country. Also, before it can be transported, a copy of the original has to be prepared which can be complicated depending on the technical equipment available for this purpose, i.e., copy machines. |
| c. | Depending on the system, paper based systems can be very secure or very insecure. Often there is a tradeoff between security and convenient access. Stored in a bank safe, the information is quite safe but also much less convenient to access, whereas storing the paper in a filing cabinet in an office is very convenient but not very secure. |
| d. | The accuracy of paper based memory systems depends largely on the accuracy of the data that were stored in the system. The person responsible for entering the data has to make sure that correct data are entered. |
| e. | Often it takes a long time to extract the relevant data from a paper based system. For example, finding all sales to one specific customer in a sales file ordered by date can take a very long time. |
| f. | The relevance of data stored in the paper based system depends on what type of data has been stored. In many paper based systems, humans tend to store all paper based data, never considering if the data are relevant or not. Data that are not in paper based form but might be relevant are often forgotten. |
People’s internal memory systems:
| a. | People's memories are only shareable if these people are willing and able to share the information by speaking to another person or writing it down. It is not directly shareable. |
| b. | To transport data from a person’s internal memory system, the person has to speak or write to another person. |
| c. | The security of the information in a person’s internal memory system depends on the integrity of this person. However, unless some brainwashing techniques are used, the information inside a person’s mind cannot be falsified by another person. |
| d. | The data stored inside a person’s brain decays over time. Thus with time the accuracy will also be reduced. Also, especially with qualitative data, the data might be influenced by personal opinions about the source, the situation, etc. |
| e. | Data stored inside a person’s brain can be instantly accessed as long as the person is available and has not forgotten the data. |
| f. | People tend to save a lot of irrelevant data in their minds, e.g. what color shirt the boss wore yesterday. |
Since The Expeditioner is a rather unique and old company, it is very likely that it has developed a unique and strong organizational culture. In fact, the employees at The Expeditioner may be quite proud of their company's long history and interesting products. Procedures for every aspect of the organization's activities have long been defined and ingrained in people's minds.
It would be likely be hard to change the organizational culture. The current culture has long been ingrained in people's minds and the company has survived many years with the way it is doing things. It might be difficult to convince the employees that it is time to change without some controversy.
Teaching tip: Here students are asked to talk to people working in organizations. They will probably find it difficult to find a highly organized company. Instead, it is very likely that they will find lack of integration between systems and many personal spreadsheets.
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