Management Information System And Its Effects In An Organization.

Information is always seen as the lifeblood or one of the key intangible assets of any organization. It determines the effectiveness and efficacy of management. Quality information is needed by managers to harness internal resources to tap into opportunities and manage threats in the external environment regardless of the type of organization.

Information is a major raw material that must be combined with other resources to produce a want satisfying product.

Management Information system (MIS) can be defined as a system that gathers comprehensive data, organizes and summarizes it in a form valuable to functional managers with the information they need to do their work-Griffin(1990).

MIS is a computer-based information system that transforms internal and external sourced data into information needed by employees to enable them to make appropriate decisions for planning, decision making, communication, and human resource management and controlling. It helps managers to analyze the past, make decisions for the present and projection for the future.

The following are ways that management Information system can impact an organization’s performance:

1. Management information system changes the way that people communicate and relate with one another or their organization.
2. Computer-based information reduces and eliminates middle managers, thereby enabling top management to retain planning and controlling.
3. It gives room for access to useful information, flattens the organizational hierarchy and allows decentralization of decision making.
4. It helps to reduce the number of employees needed to perform business operations and the cost of production definitely.
5. MIS enhances the competitive position of a firm through the provision of timely, relevant, accurate, and comprehensive information.
6. It gives a firm the opportunity to enter into the global market through importation, exportation, joint ventures, etc.
7. MIS creates an opportunity for managers to monitor and measure individuals and groups performance, comparing the actual results with the performance standards.

In other words, Management Information System helps to make available accurate and timely information necessary to facilitate the decision-functions to be carried out in an effective way to the management.