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Monday, June 22, 2009
Good day everyone…
We are coerced to make a reflection based on Management Information System, which is one of our subject under the instruction of Dr. Randy S. Gamboa. As what I have comprehend and realize of what he tackled last meeting and based on my research on the internet I have found out the different ideas concerning the subject matter. Below is the discussion and explanation of what I have discerned.
First and furmost before understanding the wide-ranging scope of the Management Information System, we should define first what does Management means. According to Wikipedia, when we say management it comprises the interlocking functions of formulating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing the firm's resources to achieve the policy's objectives. The size of management can range from one person in a small firm to hundreds or thousands of managers in multinational companies. In large firms the board of directors formulates the policy which is implemented by the chief executive officer.
More to the point, Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), who wrote on the topic in the early twentieth century, defined management as "the art of getting things done through people". She also described management as philosophy. One can also think of management functionally, as the action of measuring a quantity on a regular basis and of adjusting some initial plan; or as the actions taken to reach one's intended goal. This applies even in situations where planning does not take place.
If we can still bear in mind the past lessons that Dr. Randy S. Gamboa articulated, that management comprises of planning, directing, organizing and controlling: an important keywords when relating to management. It is also a must to be acquainted with this different keywords so that we can further scrutinize the topic.
A plan can play a vital role in helping to avoid slip-ups or recognize veiled opportunities. Preparing a satisfactory plan of the organization is fundamental. The planning process allows management to grasp more clearly what they want to accomplish, and how and when they can do it.
Meanwhile, organizing, is the act of rearranging elements following one or more rules. In companies point of view, is the management function that usually follows after planning. And it involves the assignment of tasks, the grouping of tasks into departments and the assignment of authority and allocation of resources across the organization.
On the other hand, directing is indistinguishable with leading. It is the act in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.
Controlling is one of the managerial functions like planning, organizing, staffing and directing. It is an important function because it helps to check the errors and to take the corrective action so that deviation from standards are minimized and stated goals of the organization are achieved in desired manner.
According to modern concepts, control is a foreseeing action whereas earlier concept of control was used only when errors were detected. Control in management means setting standards, measuring actual performance and taking corrective action. Thus, control comprises these three main activities.
Henry Fayol uttered that “Control of an undertaking consists of seeing that everything is being carried out in accordance with the plan which has been adopted, the orders which have been given, and the principles which have been laid down. Its object is to point out mistakes in order that they may be rectified and prevented from recurring.”
Above and beyond, Stafford Beer stressed out that “Management is the profession of control.”
So after defining what management is, let’s take a peek on what is Information System all about. In a general sense, the term Information System (IS) refers to a system of people, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes according to Wikipedia. In a narrow sense, the term information system (or computer-based information system) refers to the specific application software that is used to store data records in a computer system and automates some of the information-processing activities of the organization. Computer-based information systems are in the field of information technology. The discipline of business process modelling describes the business processes supported by information systems.
If we combine the two terms Management and Information System a new by product will arise. Reminiscing the past lesson we have learned that Information System (IS)= Hardware(HW) + Sofware(SW). So, when we amalgamate Management and Information System a new formula will crop up. This formula is Management Information System (MIS) = Hardware (HW) + Software (SW) + Peopleware (PW).
Wikipedia affirmed that “A management information system (MIS) is a subset of the over-all internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy.”
Furthermore, MIS refers broadly to a computer-based system that provides managers with the tools for organizing, evaluating and efficiently running their departments. In order to provide past, present and prediction information, an MIS can include software that helps in decision making, data resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support systems, people management and project management applications, and any computerized processes that enable the department to run efficiently.
In addition, it is a planned system of the collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information needed to carry out the functions of management
All of those elements play a vital role in MIS thus; they are indispensable and reliant to each other. Without PW it cannot be equated to MIS rather this is called as Information System. Moreover, there would be an absence of information that is one of the ingredients in MIS and on the same way without HW or SW the information accumulated cannot be processed, stored and disseminated.MIS are divergent from regular IS in that they are used to scrutinize other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization.
A query has been thrown in the midst of the class discussion that does Management Information System is the correct description of the subject. Apparently, I can say that it is appropriate in the sense that management of information technology tools assists executives and the general workforce in performing any tasks related to the processing of information. MIS and business systems are especially useful in the collation of business data and the production of reports to be used as tools for decision making.
Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods binds to the computerization or support on human decision making.
They also provide a valuable time saving benefit to the workforce. Where in the past business information had to be manually processed for filing and analysis it can now be entered quickly and easily onto a computer by a data processor, allowing for faster decision making and quicker reflexes for the enterprise as a whole.
Hope you comprehend the discussion written on this blog....
Till next post... God Bless us all..
