CHAPTER
10
Management Information Systems
Classic Models and New Approaches
Classic Management Functions
- Planning: Devising short-range and long-range
plans for the organization.
- Organizing: Deciding how to use resources such
as people and materials.
- Staffing: Hiring and training workers.
- Directing: Guiding employees to perform their
work in a way that supports the organization's goals.
- Controlling: Monitoring the organization's progress
toward reaching its goals.
Flattening the Pyramid
- As more managers use computers for more functions, less specialization
is required and the number of managerial levels decreases.
MIS
- A management information system (MIS) can be
defined as a formal business system designed to provide information
for an organization.
- Although MIS departments no longer control all computing resources
in an organization, they still usually control corporate data.
Decision Support Systems
- A decision support system (DSS) is a computer
system that supports managers in nonroutine decision-making tasks.
- DSS's make use of models, mathematical representations
of real-life systems, often using simulations.
- An executive support system (ESS) is a DSS especially
made for senior-level executives.
Managing Personal Computers
- Personal computers first entered businesses with little warning
and very little planning.
- Over time, management problems such as incompatibility grew.
- Many organizations have since established acquisition policies,
limiting the number of vendors, establishing standards, and limiting
support to specific hardware and software.
- Tracking where computers are remains a problem.