Professional
Qualification - Managerial Level
Organisational
Management and Information Systems
First examined in May 2005
Syllabus outline
The syllabus comprises:
Topic |
Study
weighting |
| A |
Information
Systems |
20% |
| B |
Change Management |
10% |
| C |
Operations
Management |
20% |
| D |
Marketing |
20% |
| E |
Managing
Human Capital |
30% |
Learning aims
Students should be able to:
- describe the various functional
areas of an organisation and how they relate to one another,
- apply theories, tools and
techniques appropriate to a functional area in support of
the organisation’s strategy,
- prepare reports and plans
for functional areas,
- evaluate the performance
of functional areas.
Assessment strategy
There will be a written examination
paper of three hours, with the following sections.
- Section A - 50 marks
A variety of compulsory objective test questions, each worth
between 2 and 4 marks. Mini-scenarios may be given, to which
a group of questions relate.
- Section B – 30 marks
Six compulsory short answer questions, each worth 5 marks.
A short scenario may be given, to which some or all questions
relate.
- Section C – 20 marks
One question, from a choice of two, worth 20 marks. Short
scenarios may be given, to which questions relate.
Learning outcomes and Syllabus
content
A - Information Systems -
20%
Learning outcomes
On completion of their studies
students should be able to:
- explain the features and
operations of commonly used information technology hardware
and software;
- explain how commonly used
technologies are used in the work place;
- identify opportunities for
the use of information technology (IT) in organisations,
particularly in the implementation and running of the information
system (IS);
- evaluate, from a managerial
perspective, new hardware and software and assess how new
systems could benefit the organisation;
- recommend strategies to
minimise the disruption caused by introducing IS technologies;
- explain how to supervise
major IS projects and ensure their smooth implementation;
- evaluate how IS fits into
broader management operations.
Syllabus content
- Introduction to hardware
and software in common use in organisations.
- Hardware and applications
architectures (i.e. centralised, distributed, client server)
and the IT required to run them (PCs, servers, networks
and peripherals).
- General Systems Theory and
its application to IT (i.e. system definition, system components,
system behaviour, system classification, entropy, requisite
variety, coupling and decoupling).
- Recording and documenting
tools used during the analysis and design of systems (i.e.
entity-relationship model, logical data structure, entity
life history, dataflow diagram, and decision table).
- Databases and database management
systems. (Note: Knowledge of database structures will not
be required.)
- The problems associated
with the management of in-house and vendor solutions and
how they can be avoided or solved.
- IT - enabled transformation
(i.e. the use of information systems to assist in change
management).
- System changeover methods
(i.e. direct, parallel, pilot and phased).
- IS implementation (i.e.
methods of implementation, avoiding problems of non-usage
and resistance).
- The benefits of IT systems.
- IS evaluation, including
the relationship of sub-systems to each other and testing.
- IS outsourcing.
- Maintenance of systems (i.e.
corrective, adaptive, preventative).
B - Change Management - 10%
Learning outcomes
On completion of their studies
students should be able to:
- explain the process of organisational
development;
- discuss how and why resistance
to change develops within organisations;
- evaluate various means of
introducing change;
- evaluate change processes
within the organisation.
Syllabus content
- External and internal change
triggers (e.g. environmental factors, mergers and acquisitions,
re-organisation and rationalisation).
- The stages in the change
process.
- Approaches to change management
(e.g. Beer and Nohria, Kanter, Lewin and Peters, Senge et
al.).
- The importance of managing
critical periods of change through the life cycle of the
firm.
C - Operations Management
- 20%
Learning outcomes
On completion of their studies
students should be able to:
- evaluate the management
of operations;
- analyse problems associated
with quality in organisations;
- evaluate contemporary thinking
in quality management;
- explain the linkages between
functional areas as an important aspect of quality management;
- apply tools and concepts
of quality management appropriately in an organisation;
- construct a plan for the
implementation of a quality programme;
- recommend ways to negotiate
and manage relationships with suppliers;
- evaluate a supply network.
- explain the concept of quality
and how the quality of products and services can be assessed,
measured and improved.
Syllabus content
- An overview of operations
strategy and its importance to the firm.
- Design of products/services
and processes and how this relates to operations and supply.
- Methods for managing inventory,
including continuous inventory systems (e.g. Economic Order
Quantity, EOQ), periodic inventory systems and the ABC system
(Note: ABC is not an acronym. A refers to high value, B
to medium and C to low value inventory).
- Strategies for balancing
capacity and demand including level capacity, chase and
demand management strategies.
- Methods of performance measurement
and improvement, particularly the contrast between benchmarking
and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR).
- Practices of continuous
improvement (e.g. Quality circles, Kaizen, 5S, 6 Sigma).
- The use of benchmarking
in quality measurement and improvement.
- Different methods of quality
measurement (i.e. operational, financial and customer measures).
- The characteristics of lean
production: flexible workforce practices, high-commitment
human resource policies and commitment to continuous improvement.
Criticisms and limitations of lean production.
- Systems used in operations
management: Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Optimised
Production Technologies (OPT), Just-in-Time (JIT) and Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP).
- Approaches to quality management,
including Total Quality Management (TQM), various British
Standard (BS) and European Union (EU) systems as well as
statistical methods of quality control.
- External quality standards
(e.g. the various ISO standards appropriate to products
and organisations).
- Use of the Intranet in information
management (e.g. meeting customer support needs).
- Contemporary developments
in quality management.
- The role of the supply chain
and supply networks in gaining competitive advantage, including
the use of sourcing strategies (e.g. single, multiple, delegated
and parallel).
- Supply chain management
as a strategic process (eg. Reck and Long’s strategic positioning
tool, Cousins’ strategic supply wheel).
- Developing and maintaining
relationships with suppliers.
D - Marketing - 20%
Learning Outcomes
On completion of their studies
students should be able to:
- explain the marketing concept;
- evaluate the marketing processes
of an organisation;
- apply tools within each
area of the marketing mix;
- describe the business contexts
within which marketing principles can be applied (consumer
marketing, business-to-business marketing, services marketing,
direct marketing, interactive marketing);
- evaluate the role of technology
in modern marketing;
- produce a strategic marketing
plan for the organisation.
Syllabus Content
- Introduction to the marketing
concept as a business philosophy.
- An overview of the marketing
environment, including societal, economic, technological,
physical and legal factors affecting marketing.
- Understanding consumer behaviour,
such as factors affecting buying decisions, types of buying
behaviour and stages in the buying process.
- Market research, including
data gathering techniques and methods of analysis.
- Marketing Decision Support
Systems (MDSS) and their relationship to market research.
- How business to business
(B2B) marketing differs from business to consumer (B2C)
marketing.
- Segmentation and targeting
of markets, and positioning of products within markets.
- The differences and similarities
in the marketing of products and services.
- Devising and implementing
a pricing strategy.
- Marketing communications
(i.e. mass, direct, interactive).
- Distribution channels and
methods for marketing campaigns.
- The role of marketing in
the strategic plan of the organisation.
- Use of the Internet (e.g.
in terms of data collection, marketing activity and providing
enhanced value to customers and suppliers) and potential
drawbacks (e.g. security issues).
- Market forecasting methods
for estimating current (e.g. Total Market Potential, Area
Market Potential and Industry Sales and Market Shares) and
future (e.g. Survey of Buyers' Intentions, Composite of
Sales Force Opinions, Expert Opinion, Past-Sales Analysis
and Market-Test Method) demand for products and services.
- Internal marketing as the
process of training and motivating employees so as to support
the firm’s external marketing activities.
- Social responsibility in
a marketing context.
E - Managing Human Capital
- 30%
Learning Outcomes
On completion of their studies
students should be able to:
- explain the role of the
human resource management function and its relationship
to other parts of the organisation;
- produce and explain a human
resource plan and supporting practices;
- evaluate the recruitment,
selection, induction, appraisal, training and career planning
activities of an organisation;
- evaluate the role of incentives
in staff development as well as individual and organisational
performance;
- identify features of a human
resource plan that vary depending on organisation type and
employment model;
- explain the importance of
ethical behaviour in business generally and for the Chartered
Management Accountant in particular.
Syllabus Content
- The relationship of the
employee to other elements of the business plan.
- Determinants and content
of a human resource (HR) plan (e.g. organisational growth
rate, skills, training, development, strategy, technologies
and natural wastage).
- Problems in implementing
a HR plan and ways to manage this.
- The process of recruitment
and selection of staff using different recruitment channels
(i.e. interviews, assessment centres, intelligence tests,
aptitude tests, psychometric tests).
- Issues relating to fair
and legal employment practices (e.g. recruitment, dismissal,
redundancy, and ways of managing these).
- Issues in the design of
reward systems (e.g. the role of incentives, the utility
of performance-related pay, arrangements for knowledge workers,
flexible work arrangements).
- The importance of negotiation
during the offer and acceptance of a job.
- The process of induction
and its importance.
- Theories of Human Resource
Management (e.g. Taylor, Schein, McGregor, Maslow, Herzberg,
Handy, Lawrence and Lorsch).
- High performance work arrangements.
- The distinction between
development and training and the tools available to develop
and train staff.
- The importance of appraisals,
their conduct and their relationship to the reward system.
- HR in different organisational
forms (e.g. project-based firms, virtual or networked firms).
- Personal business ethics
and the CIMA Ethical Guidelines.
|
