Module 8: ACQUIRE Evidence from the Organization

Question 1

For each item, determine whether it concerns data, information, or evidence.

1. The number 12, representing the times that a beer bottling plant had to stop the production process because of human error incidents
2. A list with codes and definitions used to categorize the reason why the production process of a beer bottling plant was stopped.
3. The number 20, representing the percentage that the total number of process stops is below the average in the sector, confirming the assumption of the Chief Operations Officer that the plant is doing worse than its competitors.

Answer 1

1 and 2 are information while 3 is evidence

Question 2

Consider the following scenario:

During a board meeting of a large German automotive manufacturer the report of an external consultant is discussed. The report states that in the last quarter the number of sales has decreased relative to its competitors. The CEO warns that this could seriously damage the company’s market share, and therefore demands immediate action. The company’s head of marketing thinks the decrease is due to the unfavorable economic situation, so she suggests lowering the prices of the luxury cars. The head of sales, however, thinks that the decrease is caused by the high number of young, inexperienced sales agents, so he suggests sending them to a training course to improve their sales techniques. Finally, the Chief Operation Officer thinks that the decrease can be attributed to a decline in production that is caused by the implementation of a new production process.

What evidence from the organization should the board collect first?

Answer 2

External data regarding the average number of sales in the sector and whether the company’s sales have decreased relatively in the past quarter.

Question 3

Consider the following scenario:

Information from the industry body and the national census bureau confirms there is indeed a serious problem: in the last quarter the company’s number of sales has decreased by 20 percent relative to its competitors. As a result, the company’s market share has decreased too. Thus, next step would be to identify the possible cause(s) of this problem. As mentioned, the head of marketing thinks the prices of the luxury cars should be lowered, whereas the head of sales thinks that sales numbers will increase after sending young, inexperienced sales agents to a sales training course. Finally, the Chief Operation Officer suggests first the implementation problems of the new production process should be solved.

Based on this information, what evidence from the organization would you collect next?

Answer 3

Nothing, I first need more information.

Question 4

Determine the place where you most likely could obtain the following types of evidence:

1. The number of part-time workers at a small insurance company.
2. The average number of medical errors per month in a large university hospital
3. The (assumed) market share increase of a airline company

Answer 4

1. HR
2. Quality and safety
3. Marketing and Sales

Question 5

Read the two scenarios and determine whether it concerns big data.

Scenario 1

A British political consulting firm collects consumer data for use in election campaigns around the world. The company routinely collects the data of 220 million US citizens who are eligible to vote and claims it has more than 5,000 unique data-points per person. These data-points include static information such as demographics (age, gender, country of birth), but also dynamic data such as information from Facebook and other social media (posts, likes, clicks, uploaded pictures), peoples’ browsing behavior, and frequent website visits.

Scenario 2

The integrated database of a British airline company contains the records of more than 80 million customers. The database not only contains customers’ contact details (name, address, phone number, email address, etc.), demographic information (age, gender, country of birth), but also information such as travel history, frequent flyer status, contacts with the call center, visits to the website, total amount of money spent on flight tickets, customer profitability, etc. On average, the database contains more than 100 unique data-points per customer.

Answer 5

Only scenario 1 can be considered an example of big data

Question 6

Consider the following scenario :

The Chief Nursing Officer of a large Canadian hospital that has around 15,000 employees, notices that an increasing number of nurses suffer from burnout. Given the impact of burnout on nurse absenteeism and the quality of care, she decides to consult the new hospital’s integrated information system to get a better idea of the seriousness of this problem. In particular, she wants to know how many nurses have been absent from work in the past year due to burnout, and whether this number has increased. Although the information system provides accurate and detailed information on nurse absenteeism in general, it does not contain information on whether nurses were absent due to burnout, because this is considered medical information, which is protected by privacy laws. The Chief Nursing Officer therefore decides to consult other sources of organizational evidence.

What would be the source that MOST likely would have information on the number of nurses that were absent due to burnout?

Answer 6

Professional associations, unions, and census bureaus

Question 7

Add the correct category (operational data, organizational information, metrics or benchmarks) to the following descriptive measures:

1. The number 2, representing the percentage of nurses that were absent from work in the past month.
2. The number 12, representing the percentage that a department’s monthly absentee rate was under the company’s target.
3. The number 20, representing the percentage that a company’s annual absentee rate is above the average in the sector.

Answer 7

1. Metric
2. KPI
3. Benchmark

Question 8

Consider the following scenario:

The new CEO of a large mental healthcare organization with 26 locations announces that his strategy for the next four years will be to make the transition to e-health. According to the CEO, the medical treatment of most mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and personality disorders don’t require in-person sessions, so online therapy is a quicker, better, and – most important – cheaper solution. About six months after online therapy is implemented at six locations, a group of senior psychiatrists notices that the number of new patients has decreased. Because they suspect that this may be due to the fact that most patients prefer in-person sessions rather than online therapy, they ask the head of the patient administration department for an overview of all new patient registrations in the past six month, broken down by location.

What could be a potential barrier to acquiring this organizational evidence?

Answer 8

Organizational politics