MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Information is the basis for every decision taken in an organization. The efficiency of
management depends upon the availability of regular and relevant information. Thus it is
essential that an effective and efficient reporting system be developed as part of accounting
system. The main object of management information is to obtain the required about the operating
results of an organization regularly in order to use them for future planning and control.
The old techniques like intuition, rule of thumb, personal whim and prestige, etc. are now
considered useless in the process of decision taking. Modern management is constantly on look
out for such quantitative and such information, which can help in analyzing the proposed
alternative actions and choosing one as its decision. Thus, modern management functions are
information-oriented more popularly known as management by information. And the system
through which information is communicated to the management is known as management
information system (MIS). The management needs full information before taking any decision.
good decisions can minimize costs and optimize results. Management information system can be
helpful to the management in undertaking management decisions smoothly and effectively.
Management information system can be analyzed thus:

1.
Management: management covers the planning, control, and
administration of the operations of a concern. The top management handles
planning; the middle management concentrates on controlling; and the lower
management is concerned with actual administration.
2.
Information: information, in MIS, means the processed data that helps
the management in planning, controlling and operations. Data means all the
facts arising out of the operations of the concern. Data is processed i.e.
recorded, summarized, compared and finally presented to the management in
the form of MIS report.
3.
System: data is processed into information with the help of a system. a
system is made up of inputs, processing, output and feedback or control.
Thus MIS means a system for processing data in order to give proper information to the
management for performing its functions.

Importance of MIS in Organizations

In today's scenario MIS plays a pivotal role in Organizations. Organizations worldwide makes
extensive use of MIS. Its desgined by the top management of an organization, is a tool to
assembling & accumulating facts & figures of all the important business processes.
MIS is a very vast topic, its very difficult to cover the whole in one article. Thus here are some of
the major importance / advantages of MIS in organizations:
The organization that uses MIS is able to record ,process, route & tabulate all important
business transactions. As & when need arises the organization is able to incorporate the
needed changes & improvements in the area of concern.

MIS facilitates informed DECISION MAKING.It usuallly represents a number of options

from which one can choose the best.
The top management ANALYSES whether its resources are being utillized optimally.
A TWO WAY COMMUNICATION FLOW is greatly enhanced by the MIS. The
management freelytells the jobv responsibilities to its employees.The employees in return
discuss their doubts & grievances.
MIS supports the planning & controlling function of managers in the
organization.Managers use past/historical data as well as the current data to analyse the
performance & hence apply controlling measures.
MIS encourages DECENTRALISATION in the organisation.Decentralisationis possible
when there's a system to measure operations at the lower levels.
It brings COORDINATION.It facilitates integration of specialized activities by keeping
each department aware of the problems & requirements of other departments.
Hence, in some way MIS keeps the organization binded.

PHYSICAL VIEW OF MIS

The physical view of MIS can be seen as as assembly of several subsystems based
on the databases in the organisation. These subsystems range from data collection,
transacion processing and validating, processing, analysing and storing the
information in databases. The subsystems could be at a functional level or a corporate
level. The information is evolved through them for a functional or a departmental
management and it provides the information for the management of business at the
corporate level.All the systems shown in the above diagram together are MISs.
CONCEPTUAL VIEW OF MIS

The concept is a blend of principles, theories and practices of management,

information and system giving rise to a single product called MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION SYSTEM.
The concept of management gives high regard to the individual and his ability to use
the information. MIS gives information through data analysis. While analyzing the
information, it relies on many academic disciplines like management science, OR,
organization behavior, psychology, etc.
The foundation of MIS is the principles of management and its practices. MIS uses
the concept of management control in its design and relies heavily on the fact that the
decision maker is a human being and is a human processor of information.
A MIS can be evolved for a specific objective it is evolved after systematic planning
and design. It calls for an analysis of business, management views and policies,
organization culture and the management style.
The MIS therefore relies heavily on systems theory. The systems theory offers
solutions to handle complex situations of the input and output flows. It uses theory of
communication which helps to evolve a system design capable of handling data
inputs, process, the outputs with the least possible noise or distortion in transmitting
the information from a source to destination.

Importance of Management
Information System
Management information system is an integrated set of component or entities that interact to
achieve a particulars function, objective or goal. Therefore it is a computer based system that

provides information for decisions making on planning, organizing and controlling the operation
of the sub-system of the firm and provides a synergistic organization in the process.
The component of an information system includes. a hardware which is used for input/output
process and storage of data, software used to process data and also to instruct the hand-ware
component, data bases which is the location in the system where all the organization data will
be automated and procedures which is a set of documents that explain the structure of that
management information system.
There are various driving factors of management information system for example:Technological revolutions in all sectors make modern managers to need to have access to large
amount of selective information for the complex tasks and decisions.
The lifespan of most product has continued getting shorter and shorter and therefore the
challenge to the manager is to design product that will take a longer shelf life and in order to do
this, the manager must be able to keep abreast of the factors that influences the organization
product and services thus, management information system come in hardy in supporting the
process.
There are huge amount of information available to todays manager and this had therefore
meant that managers are increasingly relying on management information system to access the
exploding information. Management information services helps manager to access relevant,
accurate, up-to-date information which is the more sure way of making accurate decisions. It
also helps in automation and incorporation of research and management science techniques
into the overall management information system for example probability theory.
The management information services are capable of taking advantage of the computational
ability of the company like processing, storage capacity among others.
Based on this relevancy, management information system should be installed and upgraded in
various organizations since todays managers need them to access information for managerial
decision making and also management functions.

Questions
1. Identify nature of impact of MIS on people, organisation and the management
style? Illustrate the positive as well as negative impact.
2. Discuss the external and internal constraint of implementing MIS in an
organisation?
3. Manager has leadership role to play in an organisation. MIS provides support to
manager in his functional responsibilities. Explain with example?

4. Explain the role of performance standard and feedback on it in effective

management of business. How can feedback help in management control system?
5. Show the relationship of organisation effectiveness and management
effectiveness to MIS?
6. What do you understand by goal displacement? What are the possible situations
when displacement occurs?
7. Why does the organisation structure and MIS differ from company to company
even though they are in same business and industry?
8. What do you understand by rational decision making? Explain different types of
rational decision with examples
9. Why is more time spent in program analysis and problem definition as compared
to the time spent on decision analysis?
10. Explain the role of a model in problem solving. Explain process of abstraction
used for constructing the model?
11. List out different criteria to be used in decision-making?
12. Explain the support role of MIS in implementing Herbert Simon model. Identify
various systems in MIS which contribute in the three phases of the model.
13. Explain with example how MIS helps to change decision making scenario from
uncertainty to risk to certainty?
14. Identify systems in MIS that contribute to organisation learning?
15. Explain the following terms:
a. Rational Decision
b. Payoff Analysis
c. What If Analysis
d. Sensitivity Analysis
e. Organisational Learning
f. Perfect rationality

16. Can quality of decision making be improved? Explain how it can be improved?
17. What are the different type of Information Systems available ?

18. What are the major information systems and subsystems applicable to a bank?
19. Differentiate between following:
a. Programmed and Non-programmed Decision
b. Structured and Unstructured Information
c. Information and Data
20. Can value of information be improved? Can information have a value which is
person independent?
21. Explain the difference between data processing and information processing?
22. Consider a car manufacturing firm. Identify information in the following classes
of organisation:
a. Organisational
b. Strategic
c. Planning
d. Control

23. Identify key information and knowledge in following cases:

a. Hospital out patient department(OPD)

b. 5 star hotel
c. Machine shop

24. Explain how knowledge gives competitive advantage to the organisation.

25. What are the different components of a system? Explain.
26. What are the different information system and subsystem in a bank?
27. What are the major classifications of a Decision Maker? Is the procedure of
taking decision similar in all these classes?
28. Discuss Simons problem solving model in detail?

29. Discuss the use of Influence Diagram and Decision Tree in detail. Illustrate with
examples.
30. Describe the active based typology of Decisions giving example of each class?
Discuss the hierarchy of Organizational decision level and discuss the complexity of
decision that is to be taken at each level.
31. What is the role of Heuristic in modelling? Discuss the various kind of
biasness which influence a decision.
32. Why is input design important? Can it always be linked to output design?
33. Models are classified as Strategic, tactical or operational. What is the
purpose of such a qualification? Give an example for each.
34. What are the five components of a DBMS ?
35. Discuss objectives of a DBMS?
36. Discuss the three best known approaches to define a DBMS?
37. What are major sources of design information?
38. Identify 10 specific factors that should be considered in forms design?
39. Give three reasons for severe problems n the area of MIS maintenance?
40. Consider any MIS prepare a test specification for the same?
41. Identify some planning problems which can impact working a MIS?
42. Identify different types of System and explain them in detail?
43. What is the difference between Open and Closed decision making systems?
44. Draw logical model and data flow diagram for following systems:
a. Fixed Deposit System
b. Credit card bill processing ..
45. Suggest input validation in following cases:
a. Fixed Deposit System.
b. Credit card bill processing.
c. Order configured by the customer.

46. Why is the purpose of system flow chart? How is it different from DFD?
47. What is data mapping and how it is done?
48. Explain following terms:
a. Data Design
b. Process Design
c. Output Design
49. What are the components of a system? How is the system model improves from
simple Input-process-Output model to complex control model?
50. Discuss the various kinds of Decision Models in detail giving examples of
each.