Explain the Evolution of Management Information Systems (MIS)?

Evolution of Management Information Systems (MIS):

To manage these data processing techniques we require an efficient management to handle these jobs perfectly Management Information Systems (MIS) is an old management tool. It was in use by business managers well before the emergence of the computer. Management Information Systems as the name suggests has to take care of the environment and the need prevailing from time to time.

The greater is the complexity of the environment, the lesser would be the simplicity of a system. With the coming up of large business corporations in USA towards the end of the eighteenth century need was felt to enlarge the MIS to cater to the growing and diversified. Information needs of the, corporations to deal with complex and multi variant problems.

To a certain extent it could be said that in most of the organizations, both in public and private sector organizations, the refresher courses and training curriculum’s are being organized and planned to emphasize the fact that we need a new approach to management. There is. a. need for a shift in the:

• Managerial Techniques.
• Managerial Styles.
• Managerial Attitudes.
• Managerial Training.
• Organizational Environment.

There are number of reasons which are responsible for this change. A few of them are listed below:

Improved access to data: With the help of information technology, the access to data, the storage of data and processing of data has improved considerably and this does affect the decision making styles of managers.

Communications: Information technology has provided better communication facilities to the managers. Now the manager need not wait for days to get information regarding his branch office.

Management Support System: With the introduction of better decision support systems providing faster access to stimulated decisions, the decision making has become more underlying principle and logical rather than the spontaneous judgments, managers used in earlier days.

Complexity: Introduction of latest information equipment’s has resulted in a more complex organization environment, which calls for a managerial style different from the traditional ones.

Competition: Managers today face more rigorous competitions because of the more reliable information available with the competitors. Facing such a high-tech competition again requires managerial skills of a different generation. Quick response to the competitors move is very important in today’s environment.

Management Information Systems (MIS) provides the identification of relevant information needs, the collection of relevant information, processing the same to become usable by the business managers, and timely dissemination of processed information to the users of the information for properly managing the affairs of an enterprise by well-versed decisions. MIS in its present form has been evolved from the following disciplines in management.

Managerial Accounting: This branch of accounting is concerned with cost analysis and its behavior which is useful for managerial decisions. Cost analysis is used in managerial accounting to determine the most relevant cost for decision-making. It employs techniques such as capital budgeting, break-even analysis, transfer pricing, etc. It is mainly oriented towards internal management and control and is therefore closely identified with MIS. Managerial accounting knowledge is of great help in ascertaining the information requirements, carrying analysis in designing forms for procuring and providing information.

Management Science: It means the application of scientific method and quantitative analysis techniques to management problems. The use of management science methods emphasizes on the use of systematic approach to problem solving and application of scientific method to investigation. It utilizes mathematical and statistical procedures for analyzing problems.

Management Theory: There are several management theories behavioural, empirical, decision, quantitative and management process. Out of these, decision theory and management process are more relevant to use. According to decision theory, the most important task of managers is to make decisions.

The second theory is management process, is the most widespread approach to management. Under this management is defined in terms of what managers do. According to this management performs the functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.

Computers: Computers were not originally planned for processing information but today this is the major use for which they are applied in business situations. The reasons for this are their speed of processing, calculating and retrieval of data. In fact, computer technology has been considered a major factor in including Management Information Systems (MIS) development. It has come as a significant tool in information processing storage.