Recap (Session 1 -4)

Organizations have realized the importance of Managers who can understand the MIS. The
higher ups in cannot work in silos anymore. The organizations IT department must work in
tandem with the mangers to align to the goals of the management and work towards the same
goals. Often, the IT department has been described as the occasional bee that disturbs the
main function of the organization with strange suggestions and managers without
understanding the importance deploy their suggestions not taking the situation of the
organization into consideration.
Deriving insightful information from the data has become more important in the current
times. The example of the Karnataka Government using a 200 page report for a information
that can be given in a 2 page report is one such example of deriving important information
from the data. Data is termed as new oil by Bill Gates. In this context MIS has become
important.
But there are some of the myths that are associated with MIS:
Give them more
Information makes a good decision maker
Manager need not know how MIS works
More communication means better management
The information systems are a vast jungle of ideas and it is pertinent for the managers to
understand the birds eye view and make decisions accordingly. In this context we have learnt
the three basic components of decision making
1. Intelligence
2. Design
3. Choice
During the class we also discussed about the concept of system ( Men, Material and ideas)
and the concept of cybernetics ( The science of monitoring feedback and control). Every
organization has a boundary in which it operates and it works towards a purpose as given in
the diagram below.

Boundary

Inputs Outputs
Process Purpose
Matter or
energy

Control
Information
Feedback

Environment