Essay on Management Information Systems

Question 1

The flow of information in a typical organization hierarchy and the examples of information at each level

The flow of information in an organization is significant since it shows how people are organized and how well they cooperate (Westrum, 2014). There are various ways in which information flows in an organization. One of the ways information flows in an organization is the vertical flow of information. Vertical flow of information leads to employees identifying themselves with a higher entity or a higher entity (Bartels et al., 2010). Information may flow either downwards or upwards in verticle communication. When there is a downward flow of information, the information is from the top management to the low-level employees. One of the characteristics of the downward flow of information is that the sender of the information does not expect responses. For example, a manager might give instructions to be carried out. Other examples of downward information include making announcements, reading a speech, to mention a few.

The other form of verticle communication is the upward flow of information. Upward communication is the transfer of information from low-level employees to management. One of the applications of upward communication is when the low-level employees request information or opinions from the management (Kalogiannidis, 2020). Additionally, upward communication helps employees communicate about their working conditions with the management. Also, the employees express their opinions and feeling regarding the type of work that they have. Upward communication may be informed of responses triggered by the management. Some of the forms of upward communication include submitting reports, budgets, and proposals, to mention a few.

The other way in which information flows in an organization is the horizontal information flow. The horizontal flow of information occurs when different employees are in the same hierarchical level (Bartels et al., 2010). One of the main aims of horizontal communication is to propel collaboration between employees or ask for support from another employee. Hierarchical communication promotes teamwork between the different employees. For example, a purchasing manager may communicate with an accounting manager to clarify an issue with the stock purchased in a particular month, both in the finance department.

The other form of communication is diagonal communication. Diagonal communication is the communication across the different levels of an organization and the different units (Wattanapanit, 2019). For example, a manager in the manufacturing department may communicate with an employee in the purchasing department concerning a machine that the company has purchased. Diagonal information is essential in that it encourages teamwork between workers from different departments and units. Moreover, it promotes the flow of information in an organization.

Top managers (and executives) do not have time to study and analyze large volumes of data. Instead, they need an information system to analyze the data and present it quickly and elegantly to make quick and effective decisions.

The management uses various technological Information Systems (IS) in decision making. One of the information systems used by the top management is the Decision Support System (DSS) (Islam, 2018). A DSS is a human and computer decision-making system that helps decision-makers in making decisions. The system does not replace the decision-makers. The system analyzes raw data, business models, personal data, and documents, to mention a few to solve problems that help in the decision-making process. The other system that is commonly used is the Management Information Systems. The Management Information System (MIS) is a system that is composed of various components. Some of the multiple components of the MIS include software, hardware, people, Databases, and procedures. The different parts must work together in the decision-making process, which involves several activities. Some of the activities involved in decision-making include information gathering, processing, and analyzing, to mention a few.

The various forms of the Information System are crucial in the decision-making since they help the top managers save time. One way IS systems help in saving time is through the identification of a problem. Additionally, it helps in understanding a particular problem. Information Systems are essential in providing essential data that will quickly understand the problem at hand. More information about a specific problem is necessary for helps one get a deeper understanding of a particular problem in question (Islam, 2018).

The other way in which IS helps in saving time is through information gathering. The process of information gathering is tedious. The decision-makers would require more time to gather the information that would be needed in the decision-making. Depending on the decision-makers to collect information would be costly and counterproductive. However, with the assistance of a good IS system, information gathering is less time-consuming. Sometimes, the necessary information to make a particular decision could be accessed with a button click.

The other way in which IS helps in saving time in data analyses and processing. The IS systems process vast amounts of data before the information is presented in an elegant way for decision making. It would require several teams of human data processors to process the immense amounts of data. Therefore the IS systems help in saving time in the data processing. As such, the managers can concentrate on other management duties.

The other way IS systems help save time for the managers is that it increases the efficiency of the decision-making process at every stage. For example, information gathering is crucial in decision-making since it may affect the whole process if it goes wrong. It is essential to gather the correct facts before deciding (Tilahun et al., 2021). The IS reduces human error in the process. It helps save time since reduced errors imply that the managers will have more time to do other managerial duties.

Question 2

Organizational function

One of the main categories is the organization function information system. The function information systems are also called the operational information systems. Additionally, they are also called support management systems (Al-Mamary et al., 2014). The function of information systems is applied in the operations of a business. Examples of operational information systems include transactional process systems, enterprise collaboration systems, and process control systems. The transactional system is responsible for conducting and recording day-to-day transactions(Al-Mamary et al., 2014). The primary purpose of a transactional system is to keep track of transactions in an organization. Some examples of the activities that a transaction system plays include monitoring payrolls, recording receipts, recording sales, and making cash deposits, to mention a few.

A Process Control System is applied in industries where manufacturing activities occur, such as in power generation plants, production of steel, to mention a few (Al-Mamary et al., 2014). Additionally, they can also be found in the petroleum refining industry. The Process Control System comprises machines, procedures, and a computer with relevant software programs that regulate a specific process. The management uses an enterprise collaboration system to manage information flowing in an organization. Generally, the enterprise collaboration system is used for general office duties that involve the communication of individuals. Some of the responsibilities include mailing, video conferencing, discussions, and transfer of files, to mention a few.

Organizational level.

Organization-level systems are systems used in the administration process of an organization. These systems mainly help managers in the decision-making of an organization. These information systems collect data from the organization’s function systems and processes and analyze the data managers can use in the decision-making process (Al-Mamary et al., 2014). Some examples of the systems at this level include the Decision Support System and the Management Information System. In simple terms, this system monitors how well the business is doing. In some cases, some organizational-level information systems support non-routine decision-making. Some of the non-routine tasks include making predictions in a company. For example, what would be the number of sales in an organization if the number of employees was increased.

Question 3a)

Question 3 b)

There are only two types of network architecture. One of the network architectures is the client-to-server network architecture. A client-server architecture is an architecture that is composed of a server and client computers. The client sends requests to the server while responding to the request (Oluwatosin, 2014). The other type of network architecture is the peer-to-peer network architecture. Peer-to-peer network architecture is where two or more computers are joined together. The computers share various resources. For example, they may share the same printer, data, network bandwidth, processing power, and storage, to name a few.

The best network architecture for the above business is the client-server architecture. There are various reasons why the client-server architecture is the best fit for the above company. One of the reasons is that it will allow sharing of resources from the clients to the servers. For example, the client’s data can be stored on a central database. When the data is stored on the server, it would mean that many clients can access the server simultaneously. The main advantage of this feature is that the system may be modified so that the tenant may access the server directly without physically going to the office to make inquiries or payment of rent. The other advantage of using this network architecture is that it ensures data security for customers or tenants, unlike a peer-to-peer system where data moves through different computers, interfering with the customer’s confidentiality.

Requirements for server-client architecture

There are various hardware and software requirements required for this architecture. One of the hardware requirements is a computer with very high processing power. The computer required must have a high processing power to process the multiple requests from multiple client computers. The other crucial hardware requirement is a large data storage size to store data from various client computers. The other hardware requirement is a strong network. A strong network will help interface or create a link of communication from the client to the server. The other hardware requirement is the client computers to access the data. One of the software requirements is the server’s operating system. The server s operating system will ensure efficient management of resources. The other software requirement is the client’s operating system to help the client’s computer make server requests.

References

Al-Mamary, Y. H., Shamsuddin, A., & Aziati, N. (2014). The role of different types of information systems in business organizations: A review. International Journal of Research, 1(7), 333-339.

Bartels, J., Peters, O., De Jong, M., Pruyn, A., & van der Molen, M. (2010). Horizontal and vertical communication as determinants of professional and organizational identification. Personnel Review.

Islam, M. R. (2018). IMPACTS OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM ON DECISION MAKING OF THE ORGANIZATION.

Kalogiannidis, S. (2020). Impact of Effective Business Communication on Employee Performance. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 5(6).

Oluwatosin, H. S. (2014). Client-server model. IOSRJ Comput. Eng, 16(1), 2278-8727.

Tilahun, B., Teklu, A., Mancuso, A., Endehabtu, B. F., Gashu, K. D., & Mekonnen, Z. A. (2021). Using health data for decision-making at each level of the health system to achieve universal health coverage in Ethiopia: the case of an immunization programme in a low-resource setting. Health Research Policy and Systems, 19(2), 1-8.

Wattanapanit, N. (2019). An Investigation of the influences of Organization Communication Patterns upon Team Effectiveness among Private Universities in Thailand: A Multivariate Analysis. Journal of Institutional Research South East Asia, 17(1).

Westrum, R. (2014). The study of information flow: A personal journey. Safety Science, 67, 58-63.