Concepts of Management Information Systems.

The paper attempts to provide a general framework for dealing with management information systems. A well-designed MIS provides valuable aid to decision makers, particularly at the tactical level but increasingly also at the strategic level. The aid can vary from no significant aid, unselective information retrieval, selective information retrieval, man-machine decision aids, automatic decision making, and a completely integrated decision model. The extent to which the MIS is integrated is an exceedingly important issue. Integration has two aspects: integration of data processing functions and integration of organizational activities. Both forms of integration involve increased coupling among subsystems and greater sharing of common resources. The choice of the degree of integration involves a trade-off between independence and coordination: coordination increases efficiency and reduces penalties of suboptimization, but at the cost of greater complexity, and an increased need for information processing. Both forms tend to be favored by advances in information technology. (Modified author abstract)