The organizational culture is a combination of attributes that accrue to a company or an organization to make it unique and easily differentiable from other organizations (Heathfield, 2013).
These attributes may include, but are not limited to the organization’s philosophies, expectations, and its codes of conduct, i.e. the organization’s rules and regulations. It may exist in the form of written or unwritten rules, based on mutual customs, beliefs, and attitudes of the employees towards their customers, their employers, and to their peers (Scholl, 2003).
It is important to consider the corporate culture of a partner organization because it determines how the concerned parties will interact with each other within and without the organization. It also affects the company’s profitability due to the fact that it determines the outside world’s perception of the organization.
When developing a Decision Support System for partner organizations, it is important to analyze the corporate culture of the concerned parties, especially the way power and information flows within the organizations’ managerial hierarchy (Bouwman et al, 2005).
For example, one will need to consider where (in terms of the organizations’ geographical location) the information from the Decision Support System will be used/ needed most. Assume a case where a manufacture has partnered with a retail supermarket. Information such as the number of units of a particular product being produced per unit time would not be of much use to the supermarket’s management.
However, information about the number of units sold per unit time will be useful to the manufacturer since it can be used to determine when, and by what quantity and quality to supply the supermarket.
In addition, we need to analyze how the employees within the different organizations access and share information. This will help to determine the structure of the Decision Support System.
For instance, it will determine the kind of information that can be accessed by certain employees, and how these employees gain access to the information in question (Hitt et al, 1998). Will they be allocated access passwords, or will the information be supplied to them by their supervisors when the need arises?
This brings us to the next consideration which must be made, which is how these organizations maintain their information systems. Do they have internal technicians or are they outsourced? Who audits their information systems? Are these auditors internal or external, and what is the nature of the information that they get access to during the course of conducting their assessments?
This will aid in determining where to locate the data servers. For security purposes, it is advisable to locate them within the organization that experiences the least amount of outside interference in order to lessen the risk of data fraud and leakage of sensitive information. But this presents yet another problem!
Computers need electricity, and electricity needs fuel which in most cases either leads to the destruction, or pollution of the environment. Before a location for the information servers is selected, we will have to evaluate the organization’s concern for the environment.
Because these servers need to be operational 24hours a day and for 365days a year in order to facilitate the access of information as and when it is required, it would not be wise to locate them in the organization that is more keen on the conservation of the environment.
There are many more factors to consider when it comes to the corporate culture of partner organizations, but those mentioned above outlines the most important factors as pertains to the development of Decisions Support Systems for partner organizations and for the entire industry where applicable.
References
Bouwman, H., Van Den Hooff, B., Van De Wijngaert, L., & Van Dijk, J. (2005). Information & Communication Technology in Organizations. CA: SAGE Publications.
Heathfield, S.M. (2013). Human Resources Management and Employment Information and Advice. What Is Culture?. Web.
Hitt, M.A., Ricart, J., & Nixon, R. (1998). Managing Strategically in an Interconnected World. NY: Wiley and Sons.
Scholl, R.W. (2003). University of Rhode Island | Think Big. We Do. Organizational Culture. Web.