Levels of management and characteristics of information

Information characteristics
Level of
Typical responsibilities Planning horizon Decision types Accuracy
management Orientation Source Aggregation
required
 Definition of objectives, polices for whole
organisation
Wide i.e. External and
Strategic  Long-term planning Unstructured External Aggregated Low
increasing scope future
 Large-scale investment decisions
 Middle management appointments
 Establishment and monitoring of budgets
 Acquisition of resources Internal
Internal-
Tactical  Developing operational policies and Medium Semi-structured achievement Medium
external
objectives future/historical
 Appointing staff
 Effective use of existing facilities and
Internal
resources within budget constraints and Narrow i.e.
Operational Structured transactions and Internal Detailed High
prescribed objectives decreasing scope
historical
 Making routine day-to-day decisions

Levels of decision making

Management level Decision examples Information requirements
Long term horizons, large-scale resources, much creativity and Largely external, informal sources important, forward looking,
Strategic judgement, usually unstructured, problems difficult to define, qualitative information important, precision unimportant, instant
infrequent, much uncertainty access not vital, wide ranging incomplete
Tactical Medium term horizons, medium-scale resources in between the two levels
Repetitive, short time scale, small-scale resources, usually Largely internal, mainly historical, detailed, often quantitative, high
Operational structured, clear objectives and decision rules, little or no precision, instant availability often critical, narrow in scope,
discretion comprehensive

MIS support, Decision and information examples

Management level Decision examples Information requirements
Market and economic forecasts, political and social trends,
Strategic – ESSs, DSSs Mergers and acquisitions, new product planning, capital
legislative, environmental and technological constraints and
and Expert systems investments, financial structuring
opportunities
Tactical - DSSs and Pricing, capacity planning, budget preparation, purchasing Cost and sales analyses, performance measures, summaries of
Expert systems contracts operations/production, budget/actual comparisons, etc.
Operational – TPSs Sales orders, production requirements, performance measures,
Production scheduling, maintenance, credit approval
(conventional EDP) customer credit status, deliveries, despatches, etc.

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