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..24 " Management Infonnation Systems

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staffing. directing. and controlling. to put proper emphasis on functions lperformed by different level managers. these functions may be classified as l'

strategic planning. management control. and operation~l planning and ~control. t

Organisational Functions. Subsystems of an organisation as a system

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can be identified on thp basi.g...ef-fH.fl-etie~Hs:ta-at:tJ:;re:ar.gan1sa1i.Q!l~"~:required.~

to perform In Order to achieve Its objectives. Depending on the nature of J

organisations. there may be different types of functions. However. in the hcase of a business organisation. these functions can be grouped into four j,-- Ii'

broad categories-pro~.D."m~~~e. ano per&u:u)e!. ~ach' ofr~these functions can be furth~r~~~(L uu: example. Brodu.,ction fiito tmanufacturhtg. Im~.:..control.quality~~conqQ)r plant maintenance. ~-research and developmel!~!. ~~~;,Qr~mfU:kejJJ:)giQt~L.:5.alea.~&aJ,e,...l2[Q!.Il,j>tiot

produ~~butI9R~;:marketing~!~s~Pl:!!:.~e-. Such a classification can go '!on till we arrive at the level Droperatives involved in a particular broad ~.function.

.MIS Support Facilities. In order to perform various functions. MIS need

certain support facilities. For example. in computer-based informationQsystems. we need computer hardware. computer software; databases. and

oi~IS professionals. All these subsystems of MIS support faciliti~s perform'? different functions.

Interconnecting Subsystems r,fJ;t~

For a system to be effective.. it is not ust eno ". t'.- as various I;;

subsystem but it is essential t - . hese sul?yst~..!!!.,.ari~.anged. in a ~~proper way and interconnections are provided amQn~em.~r~onnectio~:, Iamong various subsystel!!.~c--a~.hi.~ve_~~or

eac1L subs~s~~. the systefn g~,!l!:!.a!~~~m~J:gy. a~p:henQm~nQn.ilL w1!!shthe total contribution of the system ~.!!lQE--tb.illJ._JJ1~,1QtaLQ(,~..QnltlQ!l..!ionrn~de oJa1r-su6system~B"I~~Y:iiot ~t>eel}coordinated. .

In i~terconnecting various ,~n}.bs}l'~leJns!~.~~a~:peEts_JIlust be takeninto consideration-differe iation and integration. Differentiation refer~differences in specific feature.J>f.a,.sub$Y-S1~IllJat differentiate a subsystem

from ~o that after interconne..!jng..lt_w.fili~>.others.-~abe identif!.,ed. Integration re~il"n:

Based on th; tdentlficatron of various subsystems. MIS architecture,can be designed as shown in Figure 1.2. .

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An Overview of Management Information Systems~

Management

, levelsI

Top

Managementfunctions

"Strategic

planning

Managemencontrol

Middle Operational

planning anControl

I,

I LowerII

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Information systems

Executive support

systems

Decision support

systems

Expert Systems

Structured information

Systems

Transaction processingSystems

FIGURE 1.2: MIS architecture

Generally, the MIS structure is designed from bottom to top in which

MIS support facilities J?J.ovide b~~e" f~~1~evel-E!!lg various inforn;tati~n -'sy~ tbt.QJlg~!!9n ~~transaction prOceS$ln~stemsJJ?L~ariousorganisational functions. For each of these functions,. informati!l sysi~s

ar~pe~lgD'~4

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Management Information Systems I AII

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positions at the end of the period. Its reports are more oriented towardsinvestors. As a result. it has limited usefulness for manag~rial decision

making. In contrast to financial accounting. management accountingincludes the' methods and concepts necessary for effective planning. I

choosing among alternative business actions and control through the

evaluation and interpretation of performances. Thus. management

accounting provides inputs for decision making in the areas of planningand control. The MIS concept includes much of management accounting:

however. the support systems which provide users With access to data and

models are beyond the scope of traditional management accounting. .Contemporary organisational practices are to retain the cost and budget

analysis within the management accounting function and to have the MISfunction provide dat~ and model support.

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Management and Organisation Theory

MIS is a support system for effective organisational functioning. Therefore. ., , . I

it draws heavily from manag~ment and organisation theory. The fields of .~..management and organisation theory provide several concepts which are ..~. .key to understanding of the functions of a MIS in an organfsation. Some..~ !of the major concepts are behaviour~ theory of organisational and individualdecision making. group processes and group decision making. individualmotivation. leadership process. orgranisational change process. aorganisation structure design. T~e knowledge of these concepts helps the

designer of MIS to ascertain the types of decisions maq.e at different levelsof an organisation and to align the MIS tQ provide relevant information formaking these decisions. .

Operations Research

Operations research is applied decision theory where the managers seekrationality while dealing with problems through the use of scIentific. logical.or mathematical means. In operations research. various elements of a

problem on which decision is to be made are expressed in numericalforms. the relationships among these elements are established. and thedecision is made on the basis of analysis of these relationships. Operations

research is quite relevant to MIS because it has developed procedures for

the analysis and computer-based solutions of many types of decisionproblems. The systematic approach to problem solving. use of models. andcomputer-based solutions are generally incorporated in the decision supportsystem concept of MIS. . .

Computer Science ,Computer science deals with the hardware and software of computer

systems. The knowledge of computer science has enabled speedy

information storage. processing. and retrieval. Computer science 1,simportant for MIS because it covers topics such as algoritpms.computatiOli.