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52 TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS RESEARCH

used for nefarious purposes. Third, care should be taken to ensure that incor-
rect information is not distributed across the many different files of the company.
Fourth, those who collect data for the company should be honest, trustworthy,
and careful in obtaining and recording the data in a timely fashion. The respon-
sibility of organizations rests in the fact that technology should go hand in hand
with the ethical practices followed by their members as they pursue their daily
ongoing business activities.

SUMMARY

In this chapter we have examined some aspects of computer technology that facilitate
research and decision making by managers in organizations. We have specifically exam-
ined some of the current possibilities for research afforded by the use of software—from
simple data collection to the development of information systems to facilitate further
research and decision making.
We described the role of information technology that readily makes available to man-
agers the data they need and also indicated that functionally rich data marts and data
warehouses expand the scope and quality of decision making. We mentioned Manage-
ment Information System, the Decision Support System, Executive Information System,
and Operations Research as facilitators of managerial decision making.
The obligations of the users of technology in organizations were noted. With the devel-
opment of ever-increasing levels of sophisticated software packages that are easy to
understand and use, you as a manager will have in your possession the tools to face the
challenges and solve the problems that businesses encounter.
Now that we have had a broad overview of what technology can do to facilitate
research, we will examine the steps in doing research in the next chapter.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND POINTS TO PONDER

1. As a manager, what kinds of information do you think you will explore through the
Internet for research?
2. How can audit capabilities in software help organizations?
3. How do you think you will apply the concepts of data warehousing and data mining
in a company doing retail business?
4. How does technology help in information gathering as well as its dissemination?
5. How can technology be misused? Give some hypothetical instances where this could
occur.
6. Specify the types of information that may be stored in a data warehouse in a univer-
sity, and offer three purposes for which data mining might be used in this context.
7. How would an institution safeguard vital information when it sends important data or
discharges payments over the Internet?
8. An article in Fortune says: Video conferencing won’t take the place of business travel,
because it shouldn’t. The two have to work together. Can you comment on why this
would be so?