preview

Case 1.2 Ackoff’s Management Misinformation System Essay

Good Essays

The Ackoff’s Management Misinformation Systems is a case written by Russell L. Ackoff and it appeared in Management Sciences. Ackoff identified five assumptions regarding Management Information Systems and he explained why he disagreed with the assumptions. The five assumptions were:
1) Management needs more Information
2) Managers need the information they want
3) Giving Managers the information they need improves their decision making
4) More communication means better performance
5) Managers need only to understand how to use an information system

On the first assumption listed “Management needs more information” and Ackoff’s contention I have to disagree with certain parts of it. The assumption that MIS systems are …show more content…

I do agree with the assumption as well as Ackoff’s contention. If you provide a manager with the correct information their decision making becomes easier to handle. The manager doesn’t have to be looking for the information in multiple places from multiple people to be able to make the decision if the information needed is readily available. Ackoff’s conclusion it completely makes sense. Yes, it is true that it is necessary to determine how well managers will use the information to make decisions. Managers always learn from their decisions made either wrong or right.
The fourth assumption was “More communication means better performance” which to certain point I do agree, but I have to agree with Ackoff’s statement. Ackoff’s state that “when organizational units have inappropriate measures of performance that put them in conflict with each other, as is often the case, communication between them may hurt organizational performance, not help it.” I do agree with more communication across organizations is better, but that doesn’t mean the performance will improve. Let’s just say that the performance is not guarantee to improve. A department can communicate all day about their KPIs but another department might not make improvements to meet the needs of the department that is reporting the KPIs due to a

Get Access