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Introduction to Management Information Systems
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All individuals, companies and, in general, all organisations are continuously
capturing data, many of which are of no significance to them at all. However,
other data are available that would afford them a better understanding of their
own environment and of themselves. These data – what we know as information –
enable them to make more accurate decisions. For this reason, the right amount of
information at the right time is a key factor for every organisation.
Company managers take decisions, prepare plans and control their company’s
activities using information that they can obtain either from formal sources or
through informal channels such as face-to-face conversations, telephone calls,
social contacts, etc. Managers are challenged by an increasingly complex and
uncertain environment. In these circumstances, managers should theoretically be
able to define and obtain the type of information they require. However, this is not
what happens in practice; rather, the way managers perform their work depends
on the available information that they have access to. Most decisions are therefore
made in the absence of absolute knowledge, either because the information is not
available or because access to it would be very costly.
Despite the difficulties in obtaining information, managers need relevant
information on which to base their planning, control and decision-making
functions.
Although the terms data and information are sometimes used indiscriminately,
they do have different meanings. Data are non-random symbols that represent the
values of attributes or events. Hence, data are facts, events and transactions stored
according to an agreed code. Data are facts obtained through reading, observation,
calculation, measurement, etc. The amounts and other details on an organisation’s
invoices, cheques or pay slips, etc, are referred to as data, for example. Data are
obtained automatically, the result of a routine procedure such as invoicing or
measurement processes.
Rafael Lapiedra Alcamí and Carlos Devece Carañana - Personal Name
1st Edition
978-84-695-1639-0
NONE
Introduction to Management Information Systems
Management
English
2012
1-57
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