Bilgi faaliyetlerinin stratejik yönetimdeki rolü ve Türk imalat endüstrisinde bir araştırma /
Yazar: FATMA KÜSKÜ
Danışman: DOÇ.DR. İSMAİL HAKKI BİÇER
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü
Derece: Doktora, 1996
Konu: Mühendislik Bilimleri = Engineering Sciences ; İşletme = Business Administration
Dizin: Bilgi teknolojisi = Information technology ; Stratejik yönetim = Strategic management ; Üretim endüstrisi = Production industry

Özet:
ÖZET Bu çalışmanın amacı bilgi faaliyetlerinin örgütsel etkinlik ve verimlilik üzerindeki önemini vurgulayarak bu faaliyetlerin stratejik yönetimdeki rolünü sorgulamak, Türk Sanayi İşletmeleri'nde bilgi faaliyetlerinin durumunu gözlemleyerek stratejik yönetim açısından önemli ve yönlendirici bir unsur olup olmadıklarım incelemektir. Günümüzün ekonomik, sosyal, teknolojik ve politik olarak çok hareketli ortamlarının hızlandırdığı yoğun rekabet koşulları örgütlerdeki işlevsel birimlerin örgütsel hedef ve amaçlar doğrultusunda bir bütün olarak birlikte karar almalarını gerektirmektedir. Bu bütünleştirme örgütteki kaynakların, sistemlerin, ürünlerin/ hizmetlerin ve çalışanların aynı hedef ve amaçlar doğrultusunda yönlendirilmeleri ile mümkün olabilir. Bu araştırmada örgütün bir bütün olarak varlığını sürdürmesini ve verimliliğini artırmasını amaçlayan bu bütünleştirme işlevini oluşturan her türlü eylem "bilgi faaliyetleri" olarak adlandırılmaktadır. 1950'lerin sonlarından itibaren "veri/ bilgi işlemeye" yönelik olarak örgütsel fonksiyonları desteklemek amacıyla gerçekleştirilen, 1960'ların sonlarından itibaren "yönetim faaliyetlerini de destekleyen", 1980'lerin ortalarından itibaren ise mevcut örgüt stratejilerini desteklemenin ötesinde örgüt için yeni fırsatlar yaratmak, stratejik faydalar sağlamak amacıyla yönlendirilen "bilgi faaliyetleri", günümüz koşullarında varlıklarını devam ettirebilmek için tüm işletmelerin üzerinde önemle durmaları gereken konular olmaktadır. Türk Sanayi İşletmelerinden, örnek olarak seçilen 82'sinde soru formlarının doldurtulması (476 soru formu) ve çeşitli yöneticilerle yüzyüze görüşmeler yapılması ile gerçekleştirilen bu araştırma ülkemizdeki işletmelerde Avrupa Birliği'ne girme çabalarının artması ve bunun getireceği yoğun rekabet koşullarının hissedilen baskılan nedenleriyle bilgi faaliyetlerine verilen önemin arttığını göstermektedir. AR-GE faaliyetlerine önem veren ve bilgi faaliyetlerinden sorumlu birimi örgütsel hiyerarşide üst seviyelerde yer alan işletmelerde bilgi faaliyetlerinden stratejik yönetim amacıyla yararlanılabildiği ortaya çıkmaktadır. Ancak bilgi faaliyetlerinin, mevcut stratejileri destekleyici olarak rol oynadığı halde, stratejileri şekillendirici bir rol oynamadığı ortaya anlaşılmaktadır. Çeşitli ekonomik ve sosyal birlikler ile hızla bütünleşmeye doğru giden dünyamızda başarılı olabilmek için bilgi faaliyetlerine gereken önemin verilmesi ve bu faaliyetlerden örgüt stratejilerini destekleyici ve yönlendirici faaliyetler olarak yararlanılması gereklidir. XII

Abstract:
SUMMARY THE ROLE OF INFORMATION ACTIVITIES AT STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND A RESEARCH IN THE TURKISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES This study aims to reveal the present state of information activities and to investigate the role of information activities at strategic management in the Turkish manufacturing industries and elucidate the modes, trends, and problems encountered in the practice. Briefly the purposes of this study are: - to establish how information activities operate, - to establish the participation level of top management teams in information activities, - to determine revisions and improvements of the information activities and to establish the factors affecting this revision and improvement, - to make clear that how people in the corporations evaluate the information activities and to determine the important components affecting the evaluation thoughts, - to establish the roles related to the information activities and to determine which roles are accepted by whom and to establish the primary elements affecting the acceptance of these roles, - to determine the basic elements which cause conflicts among people affected by the information activities, - to search training policies related to information activities and to determine the components affecting the policies of training, - to determine influential people to use information activities for strategic management, - to analyze the strategic aims which benefit from the information activities. This study has several strong components. First, this study used theory based on existing work in the field of information activities. Second, the data analysis used a large base of data and sophisticated techniques to test the mode. Third, not only the top management team and the managers of the departments of information activities but also the managers of other functional departments and the employees of the departments of information activities participated in this study. Fourth, not only the present state of information activities in manufacturing industries but also thoughts and attitudes of participants were investigated. Finally the strategic dimension of information activities was searched. X1UThis study consists of five chapters. In the introduction chapter, the general meaning of the information activities was explained. The definition, the purposes and the evolution of the information activities was investigated in this chapter. Getting advantages gained by the information activities depends on the characteristics of the organization and the employees. Hence, in the second chapter, the interaction between organization and information activities were investigated. In this chapter, it was explained how different characteristics of information activities, such as the general structure of organization, the competitive strategies, affect the operation of information activities. Then it was investigated how the progress and development of information activities affects the structure, employees1 behavior and strategies of the organization. In the third chapter, the interaction between employees and information activities was investigated. In the first section of this chapter, the responsibilities related to information activities were explored. Then, the basic elements causing conflicts among employees affected from the information activities were determined. In the last section of this chapter, the importance of training policies related to information activities was explained. In the fourth chapter, the strategic importance of information activities and the strategic fields supported by information activities was explained. Then, the roles of information activities in strategic management was determined. Also, in this chapter, the elements causing information activities to be unsuccessful were searched. After completing literature survey on information activities, a research was done to realize how these activities were presented in Turkish manufacturing industries. The methods and results of this research were presented in the fifth chapter. The data for this study were gathered by means of a questionnaire survey. The survey instrument was carefully developed by referring to previous literature and by making use of the personal interview with the managers of the units responsible for information activities and pretested to ensure that the questions were understood. After reviewing and refining it, the survey instrument was send to 82 companies operating in manufacturing industries in Turkey. The 82 firms were randomly selected from the 1994 list of the 500 largest companies in Turkey. The survey instrument was responded by both the users of information activities, top management team and the managers of other functional departments, and people responsible for operating these activities, the managers and other employees of the department of information activities. As a result, 50 general director or assistant general directors, 82 managers of information activities, 210 managers of other functional departments, 134 employees of the department responsible for information activities participated in this study. Some important results of this survey can be summarized as follows: XIV- Most of the corporations have a department responsible for operating information activities. There has been an increase in establishing these departments since 1985 because of the increasing activities to participate in Common Market by custom unions. - The departments responsible for operating information activities directly are generally in the middle level management. Since the level of these departments in corporations affects the importance of the information activities, it can be said that, the benefits from these activities are not sufficient in Turkish Companies. - Generally, people suggesting to establish a department responsible for information activities are the members of the top management. This indicates that the top management team need more support of information activities for their job. It follows from this that the top management has an important role in the development of information activities in their organizations. - According to the results of the research, the publications about information activities are followed by more than half of the employees responsible for these activities. Since the variety and the scope of information activities are increasing rapidly as a result of innovations and progress which are coming into being continually in the world, the number of people following the publications about information activities is insufficient to leam the progress and to put them into practice. The benefits of the information activities and services presented by the department responsible for the information activities change from one organization to another organization. The most presented services are a) to solve the problems of the users especially for using the technology and system, b) to support the management for decision making, c) to support the other departments for using the information technologies. - Although the training on information activities are given to the users in almost half of the corporations, these training programs cannot be considered enough to get productivity desired from the activities. - The tendency to profit by the services of the department responsible for the information activities are increasing in the corporations where employees are using the computer technology directly and where the research and development activities are given importance. - Services of the department responsible for the information activities are considered sufficient in nearly half of the corporations in Turkey. But, some characteristics of employees such as education level and information level on the benefits which can be obtained from the information activities affect these considerations. The higher the education level and the higher the information level of employees, the tendency for thinking that services of the information departments are decreasing. - Since the changes in information activities bring about high cost, applying new information activities can be succeeded by getting approval and support of the top XVmanagement team. According to the most of the participants, the top management team make their decisions on the changes of the information activities by having a discussion with the employees reponsible for the activities directly. Thus, it can be said that the top management team of the corporations in Turkey participate in information activities but this participation can not be considered enough to get all advantages from the activities. - There has been a revision about information activities in almost all the corporations involved in the research to adapt themselves to the changing conditions of the environment and to compete with the competitors. Generally this revision causes those changes mentioned below:. Expert people about information activities are employed.. New departments are established.. The work of some employees are revised to realize new information activities.. The communication style in organization is replaced. Although these changes have been realized especially in the last few years, the efforts of changes in the corporations cannot be considered enough because of today's dynamic conditions. - According to both top management team and employees responsible for the information activities, information activities are used for strategic management in their corporations. These considerations are changed according to five elements mentioned below:. Information level of the employees about informmation activities,. Some organizational properties such as the number of empleyees and the importance given to the research and development activities,. Some properties of the department responsible for the information activities such as the existence of this department, the level of this department in the organization, following the publication about information activities,. The variety and scope of the services of the department responsible for the information activities. - According to the most of the participants, information activities are used to achieve various strategic aims in their corporations. However, when the proportions of advantages which are obtained from the information activities are noticed; it is seen that some of the proportions for the objectives classified as "improving services and products" and "evolving the services of users" are not enough for today's competitive conditions. On the other hettid, information activities are used sufficiently for the services classified as 'seeking an opportunity in the market', and 'communications with users and companies where inputs are procured'. These results show that information activities in the corporations in Turkey are used to support the decisions and to make other functions easy in comparison with forming new strategies. XVIBased on these results some recommendations can be provided for the corporations. Some important recommendations are summarized as below: - The departments which are directly responsible for the arranging and realizing information activities should be established in all corporations. And this department should be in the top level of organization. - Research and development activities should be given importance because of the dynamic conditions of the world. - Technological developments should be given importance. - Since outputs of a department are the inputs of another department, the accomplishment of information activities can be achieved only when all departments work together as a whole. Thus, working as a team among the different departments should be achieved - Since the internal and external environment of the corporations is changing very rapidly, employees should be made conscious about advantages provided from the information activities. In order to be succesful, a training program on the information activities should be provided to all employees in the corporations. Especially in the period of time that new information activities are established, the training programs should be given highest importance. - Especially the managers of the departments responsible for information activities should follow the publications about information activities in order to follow the developments in information activities. - The variety and scope of the information activities should be increased so as to meet the increasing information demands of the employees. - Top management should participate in the team of information activities so that these activities can play a supportive and orienting role in the organization. As a summary, if there are appropriate conditions such as strategies, structures, and culture, the tendency for using information activities for the purposes of strategic management is rising. And all corporations in Turkey should leam to struggle with the competitive conditions of the world and should prepare themselves to these conditions extremely rapidly. For this reason, required importance should be given to the information activities. XVII