Management Information Systems: Why Are They Underutilized in the Social Services?

Social service organizations are commonly asked to account for services, and increasingly, to measure the outcomes of the work with vulnerable populations. Since the advent of the personal computer, software and hardware to assist professionals in collecting both process and outcomes data have improved exponentially. Yet, in mahy cases, organizations implement computerized management information systems which are underutilized or poorly utilized. The reasons that social service organizations do not use MISs are not well understood. Using a case example of the development of a computerized management information system, this paper suggests that understanding MIS utilization involves examining specific aspects of leadership, technical capacity and systems readiness in the real-world settings of social service organization [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]