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Management Misinformation System

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Introduction

Management Information System is a system adopted in a business environment with capabilities of collecting data, process it to information, store and disseminate the information to the decision makers. The information is provided to decision makers at different managerial levels so that they would decide on the appropriate action for the problem. Management Information Systems ease on decision making which improves on quality of decision made and minimizes on the time spent making the decision.

Most managers operate in lack of relevant information

            Managers get a lot of information which most of it is not relevant, due to lack of proper Management Information Systems. They end up with a lot of information which would take them longer to decide on what is required of them to make a conclusive decision. There is need to reduce on the information overload currently provided to the managers so that they would be able to make informed decision. An appropriate Management Information System should be put in place to ensure that relevant information is provided. Appropriate information should be timely, accurate, consistence, complete and relevant which is lacking.

            Information should be provided in a timely manner which prompts a decision to be made on time. The system should be able to provide the current information to relevant users with a speedy collection of data, processing and report generation. The information should have a high degree of accuracy by being properly edited and have proper internal control to ensure it is accurate (Ranganathan and Kannabiran 2004). The information should be consistent and uniform this makes it more reliable and easy to use for prompt decision making. Information should as well be complete for ease decision making the managers should be provided with complete information which is analyzed. Information provided should be of value and relevant, unnecessary information or too much detailed is not required for effective decision making.

Do managers need the information they want?

Most people provide the information which is requested by the manager for decision making. Such information could not be what they need to make a decision. The assumption made by most managers is to have decisions already formulated and all they need is the information then they would act on the decisions which tally with their anticipated results.

The managers would first need to understand each of the decision they would make and the model on how they shall be executed. If they fail to understand that they would end up requesting for more or less information than required, which would lead to making wrong decisions. Management Information Systems designers depend on guidance of the users. If the managers do not know the rightful information required, they end up designing a system which provides more information than necessary to the managers which overloads them with information which slows in decision making as they winnow what is required for them.

They should fast understand the decisions which they shall adopt, which shall in turn dictate the information to be provided by doing so they are able to address the problem by making an appropriate decision.

Does provision of information needed improves decision making?

            Decision making is a process which managers take to determine their course of action. This is achieved by use of mental power to analyze information provided and formulate actions which would in turn lead to a decision. Provision of information only is not enough to enable the managers to improve on their decision making.

            The information presented must be in an appropriate format to ensure that it is easy to analyze it. The manager could be provided with all the information which he needs but the information is presented in a format which he would not be able to analyze effectively to make meaningful decision (Serrano et al. 2005). The information is supposed to be concise and includes accurate information. Simplicity in its presentation makes it much easier for the managers to analyze.

It is also important to put in to considerations, how the managers shall use the information provided. Use of information appropriately is the one which determines success in decision making. If the manager does not analyze it appropriately and instead guessed on the appropriate action then such information is not helpful. There is need to provide the manager with an appropriate management information systems to analyze the information provided to improve on decision making. The manager should be provided with systems which would be able to support their decision making or even automate the process by providing the decisions required based on the conditions feed to it. Such systems are Executive Information Systems, Expert Systems and Decision Support Systems.

Decision Support Systems utilize the information provided to support decision making activities. They are interactive systems developed to make use of the data and information provided to indentify, make decisions and solve the problem. The systems are commonly used in scenarios which are statistical such as inventory, sales comparison and projections. They are able to analyze and propose on what needs to be done such as reorder more goods, payments are due on a certain date and how much. Expert Systems are provided to managers who are expertise in their operations (Salmeron 2002).

The systems have artificial intelligence which enable them make decision in a specific problem domain.  Although the system lacks common sense which would be necessary in making some decisions, the system is capable of consistent answers especially in situations which the decisions are repetitive and utilize information with minimal intervention by the user. Implementation of Executive Information System would assist the top most managers commonly referred to as the executive. The system provides external and internal information which is relevant for strategic decision making. The system provides a summary of the company information to the managers for decision making by filtering only what is required for strategic decision making. Although, it is limited to complex calculations they improves on tracking information, and requires minimal computer skills to operate it effectively.

How better communication improves organizational performance

            Better communication between managers improves on organization cohesion and performance. Effective communication is a productivity and performance issue which should be implemented properly and not just for the sake of communicating. Effective communication ensures that strategic decisions made are well understood and acted upon in a timely manner. Proper understanding on what is required saves on time when acting upon it, because one do not spend a lot of time researching and consulting on what is required. Productivity is increased on sense that, time is not wasted and systems are put in place to ensure that communication is being done effectively to all parties needed to perform a certain task (Mahdon 2007).

The systems being adopted by the organizations should ensure that it uphold good communication channels among the managers and their subordinates to improve on their productivity. Good communication is characterized by being complete, concise, considerate, concrete, clear, courteous, and correct. The information must be complete and addresses the question at hand and if possible give even more than what is requested if it is beneficial. Incomplete information is misleading and would lead to one doing contrary to what is expected, these would result to misuse of resources and delay in delivery of what is being done. It prompts the recipients of such information to give a wrong feed back or pass over the wrong information to the next level which result to miscommunication all along the channel of communication.

The information should be concise by use of short statements and inclusion of relevant statements which avoids unnecessary repetition. It makes it easy to read and comprehend, hence saving time in decision making. The information should be considerate, it should also emphasize on the recipients by addressing them directly by presenting beneficial information which has facts, ethics and integrity to the recipient. The information should be concrete; this ensures that, it is specific and accurate by assisting the managers to make reliable decisions which improve on their productivity. Clarity in formation is supreme and should not be omitted in good communication it ensures that the information being relayed to the managers and subordinates is short and easily understood by use of illustrations, visual aids and examples to elaborate it further when desirable.

Communication should be courteous; this forms a conducive, working environment which embraces a culture which minimizes on expression which would irritate the recipient. The message being communicated is structured to be appreciative and apologetic to improve on relationship and cohesion of the managers which in turn improves on productivity. Accurateness of information being communicated is fundamental for any successful communication which would improve on productivity. It ensures that, right language is being used which improves on the quality of the information. Good communication also makes every one involved feel free to share their ideas because it encourages on openness. Sharing of ideas among the managers saves on time while working on a task and also improves on quality of work being done, ultimately improving on their productivity (Salmeron 2002). It also minimizes on conflict of information, duties or responsibility because they are timely and accurately provided at hand before any task is done.

Managers should understand and use Management Information Systems

Managers at different levels of management have different needs based on their area of specialty and operation. It’s important that they are able to understand how Management Information Systems works. It saves on time and control by the managers if they know how to use the systems on their own because they could be able to generate their reports without delegating it to someone else. By the managers not being able to use the systems they are at the mercy of their subordinate staff and the system designers. They will have to keep on calling them for assistance or even delegate the reports to be generated for them. Such delegations violate the principles of confidentiality which should be highly maintained by the management.

Information should only be accessible to those who are using it only, any diversion of information which pertains to the management to the subordinate staff is a breach of confidentiality which would sabotage any move which the management would be willing to advance on to improve on the operation of the organization. The managers should be able to evaluate the management system. These could only be achieved if they understand how the system works. Systems are updated frequently to meet the ever changing requirements in business operations such changes are requested by the users who are composed of the managers and the subordinate staff. By the fact that the managers don’t understand the systems, they will not be in a position to suggest meaningful adjustments or upgrades which would improve on their decision making. Such an oversight would bring forth a system which does not meet the requirements of the manager.

The managers delegate much of the control to the systems designers. The systems designers have the technical knowhow but they don’t have the management skills and competent of what is paramount to the managers in their decision making. Managers should lead in the system development and it’s upgrading by advising the designers on how they want the system to be. They should as well be involved in all stages of system development, testing and implementation to ensure that what the organization has spent on would be able to meet the exert requirements. The managers should be fully trained to understand how the systems operate and how they should be using it effectively in their decision making.

Management information system is not only useful in data analysis and generating of statistical reports, but it is also used as Management by Objectives tool. The tool enables the managers and subordinates agree on the objectives which they shall attain. The objective set must be specific, measurable, agreed, realist and time bound (Trigo, 2007). The management information systems are used to measure the performance indicators of the preset objectives if they are being met or if what is being done is in line with achieving the same. Tracking of performance is important, and it’s done by generation of management reports which are highly customizable.

References

Mahdon, M. 2007, Internal Communication Improves Organizational Cohesion & Performance, Available at http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/communication/internal-communication.htm

Ranganathan, C and Kannabiran, G 2004, ‘Effective management of information systems’, Journal of Information Management, Vol. 24, No 3, pp. 240-261

Salmeron, J 2002, ‘Information analysis from an evolutionary study’, Journal of Systems & Software, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 94-112

Serrano, N., Santos, J and Sarriegi, M 2005, ‘Functions of Web-based management information systems’, Internet Computing Journal, Vol.9, No.2, pp 38-45

Trigo, A 2007, Tools for Information Systems Function & Management, Prentice-Hall, Sydney

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