Information System Managers and Their Information Needs

Data Attribute Data Sources

Information needs

Level of Management Type of information

Data attribute
Data Characteristics determine where and how the data will be used. Time span refers to how long a period of time the data covers. Level of detail is the degree to which the information generated is specific.

Data Sources
Internally or externally sourced.
Structured data are numbers and facts that can be conveniently stored and retrieved in an orderly manner. Unstructured data are drawn from meeting discussions, private conversations, textual documents, graphics, graphical representations, and other non uniform sources.

Information needs
Information is needed for decision making at all levels of management. Managers at different organizational levels make differenct types of decisions, control different types of processes, and have different information needs.

Level of Management
Three classical levels of management include:

Next

Operational Level
Operational managers are responsible for daily operations. They make decisions concerning a narrow time span about the deployment of small groups of clerical and/or shop floor workers

Tactical Level
Middle, or tatical, managers receive strategic decisions from above as general directives. Using those directives as guidelines, they develop tatics to meet those strategic directives. That is, they make decisions concerning how and when specific resources will be utilized. Usually, a middle manager will be responsible for several operational managers.
Middle

Middle Level
Operational Tactical Responsible for finding the best operational measures to accomplish their superiors' strategic decisions. Tactical Strategic While a tactical decision concentrates on how to do something, a strategic decision focuses on what to do.

Strategic Level
Strategic managers, and directors, that make decisions that affect the entire organization, or large parts of it, and leave an impact in the long run. The decision making process of middle managers and above is less structured than that of operational managers

Information Needs (cont.)

People in different management levels have different information needs. Most of the information that managers require is used to make decisions. The higher the manager, the less structured the decisions that a manager faces.

Characteristics of Effective Information

Certain types of information can be grasped more quickly when presented graphically.
Many applications allow the user to select how the data will be selected. Three dimensional graphics are an option now as well.

Dynamic representation usually includes moving images that represent either the speed or direction of what is happening in real time.

Type of Information Systems

Transaction Processing Systems --- Operational Decision Support and Expert Systems --- Middle Managers Executive Information Systems (EIS) --- Top Managers