The Hierarchy of needs Abraham Maslow
July 9, 2008
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In his motivation theory Maslow argued that man has 5 innate needs. These needs can be arranged in a hierarchy as below.
(1) Physiological Needs
This are needs for food, shelter, heat, clothing i.e. basic needs etc. This must be satisfied for a person to survive.
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Safety Needs
This is the freedom from threat, need for security, order and predictability.
(3) Social Needs
Most people desire love and affection they want to belong to a community and to feel waned i.e. they need a sense of belonging.
( 4) Esteem Needs
This includes needs for recognition, authority and influence over others. It also includes needs for appreciation, status, and respect etc.
(5) Self –Actualization Need:
This is the fulfillment of personal potential or the desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming.
In his motivation theory Maslow put forward certain positions about the motivating power of these needs and how they actually dictate the process by which they are fulfilled.
These are:
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A person’s needs can be arranged in a hierarchy
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Each level of need is dominant until satisfied, only then does the next level of need become a motivating factor.
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A need which has been satisfied no longer motivates an individual’s behaviour and the need of self actualization can never be satisfied.
In short Maslow suggested that individuals are motivated! by the 5 levels. When the 1st level is satisfied, the individual will try to satisfy the next level and so on.
Criticism or Problems of Maslow’s Approach:
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Some needs might no exist in certain people. What is considered important by one person could be regarded as trivial by another.
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Assuming all the needs are present, they might not be ranked in the order outlined. Also Needs can exist simultaneously and horizontally as well as sequentially and vertically.
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The theory states that individuals will seek to attain higher levels only when lower levels are satisfied. Many people however are actually conscious of higher needs even though their fundamental, physiological needs have not been met.
IT Internal Controls
July 9, 2008
These are policies, procedures, practices and organizational structures designed to provide reasonable assurance that an organization’s objectives will be achieved, undesired risks presented, or detected and corrected.
Internal control objectives are statements of desired results or purposes to be achieved by implemented control procedures.
Control is the means by which control objectives are addressed: the control objectives include:
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Safeguarding of IT assets
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Compliance to corporate policies and legal requirements
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Authorization/input
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Accuracy and completeness of processing of transaction.
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Output
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Reliability of process.
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Backup/recovery.
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Efficiency and economy of operations
Controls can be classified as:
Preventative Controls:
This involves:
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Detecting problems before they arise.
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Monitor both operational aspects and input process.
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Attempts to predict potential problems before they occur and make adjustments.
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Prevent an error, omission or malicious act.
Preventative controls include segmentation of duties, controlling access to physical facilities, audit checks, use of access control software that allow only authorized personnel to access sensitive files.
Detective Controls
These controls report the occurrence of an error, omission or malicious act. These controls include harsh totals, checkpoint in production jobs, internal audit function, error message over tape labels, duplicate checking of calculations.
Corrective Controls
These controls minimize the impact of a threat. It helps to identify the cause of a problem and correct the error arising from a problem. It also helps to modify processing systems to minimize future occurrences of the problem.
These controls are contingency back up procedures and rerun procedures.
The objectives of IS controls include:
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Safeguarding Assets: This involves securing information systems from improper access and keeping that information up to date.
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Assuring integrity of general system environments including network management.
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Assuring integrity of sensitive and critical application system environments including accounting/financial and management information through.
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Authorization of inputs.
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Accuracy and completeness in processing of transaction.
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Reliability of overall information processing activities.
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Accuracy, completeness and security of output.
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Database integrity.
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Ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of operations.
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Complying with user’s requirements and with organizational policies and procedures as well as laws and regulations.
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Develop business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
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Developing an incidence response time.
IT Governance
July 9, 2008
Corporate Governance can be defined as ethical corporate behavior by directors or others charged with governance in the creation and presentation of wealth.
Corporate Governance spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. This helps in providing a structure through which company objectives are set and means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance.
IT Governance tries to ensure that the organization and related technology support its resources i.e. resources are used responsibly, and its risks are managed.
IT has long been considered as an integral part of the overall organization’s strategy. IT helps achieve this overall strategy by efficiently and effectively deploying secure and reliable technology. The intent of IT Governance is to ensure:
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Integrity of IT systems.
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Inclusion of independent audit.
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Inclusion of appropriate controls for monitoring IT risks, controlling IT assets, compliance with laws and regulations and record management.
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Enable the enterprise by exploiting opportunities and maximizing benefits of IT
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Ensure IT resources are used responsibly.
Factors driving IT Governance are:
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Expanding role of IT into corporate/enterprise governance support, strategy initiative, knowledge management, privacy/security/continuity.
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Proliferation of technology solutions.
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Increased emphasis on accountability
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Need to manage the management process.
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Focus on organizational capital, value and balance.
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Rapid advance of technology.
The key elements driving IT Governance are:
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IT strategic planning
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IT control performance
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IT project management
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IT asset management
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IT policies/standards/processes i.e corporate, business units, information services.
IT Governance is concerned with two issues i.e. IT delivers value to the business and that IT risks are mitigated. The first issue is driven by strategic alignment of IT with business this is driven by embedding accountability into enterprise.
IT governance is the responsibility of the Board and Executive management. It is an integral part of the enterprise governance and consists of the leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure that the organization’s IT sustains and extends the organization’s strategy and objectives.
A key goal of IT governance is aligning of business and IT to achieve business value.
This key goal is achieved by aligning IT governance frameworks with best practices. Such a framework should be composed of:
IT governance .
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Structures, processes and relational mechanism.
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The key governance practices are:
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IT strategic committee.
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Risk management
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Standard IT balanced scorecard.
BEST PRACTISES FOR IT GOVERNANCE:
Corporate governance is a set of responsibility and practices used by an organization’s management to provide strategic direction thereby ensuring that goals are achievable, risks are properly addressed and organization’s resources are properly utilized. IT Governance is a structure of relationship and processes used to direct and control the enterprise towards achievement of its goals by adding value while balancing risk vs return over IT and the processes.
