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Information Management 109
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Keywords: information systems, decision making, management functions, managerial roles.
!"#$%#&#%'$'
1. Introduction
Transition from industrial society to in-formation
and knowledge society has its im-pact
on social, economic and cultural aspect
of life. There are only few aspects of life now-adays
which are unaffected by information
technology . In recent years, information sys-tems
technology have become crucial and
is playing a critical role in contemporary
society and dramatically is changing econ-omy
and business. Business is conducted in
a global environment and simply could not
serve without computer based information

110 Information Management
systems. Furthermore, we are entering the
information age because of information tech-nology
and information systems usage. The
use of information systems especially is often
understood to be changing the way business
and organisations work as well as help man-agers
reduce uncertainty in decision making.
It is interesting to note that most au-thors
(Lucey, 2005; Hicks, 1997; Gordon and
Olson, 1985; Ward and Peppard, 2002) would
agree that information systems are playing
an increasingly important role in organisa-tions
of all types, regardless of their size. It
is often stated that information systems is a
tool to help improve management by using
available information for decision making.
According to Thompson and Beer (2000) in
addition to more traditional systems which
assist in the day-to-day business operations,
information system is increasingly providing
a competitive adventage for the organisation
. Several studies have found and reported
diverse findings regarding information sys-tems
usage in decision making (Davis and
Olson, 1985; Hicks, 1997; Kumar and Mittal,
Jawadekar etc.). We should emphasize that
although decision making it is one of the ar-eas
that information systems have sought
most of all to affect, there have been only a
few existing studies that have dealt and ex-amine
the role of information systems in
management decision making. To place this
study in context, we turn to the papers by
Lucey et al. (2005) and Haag and Cummings
(2006). They noted that information systems
support decison making in organisations and
vary among managerial levells . Information
systems usage to support managers in deci-sion
making falls into one of two general cat-egories
of systems that help users to analyze
a situation and leave the decision up to him/
her and systems that actually make some sort
of recommendation concerning what action to
take (Lucey, 2005; Haag and Cummings, 2006).
!"#$%#&#%'$'
In this paper the focus is to give an un-derstanding
of the role that information sys-tems
have in managers decision making and
to discuss the possibilities how managers of
organisations can make best use of informa-tion
systems. This study provide researchers
with a framework of information systems us-age
in decison making and offers the ways
how information systems can help manag-ers
reduce uncertainty in decision making.
Furthermore, we consider that our study is
important since it helps not only to under-stand
the role that information systems have
in decision making, but also help to under-stannd
how this technology support major
components of management and decision
making functions. Information systems is es-pecially
important to managers at the lower
or operational level since it appears that they
receive the most aid, since computers and in-formation
systems are best able to deal with
well-structured problems for which these
!"!#$%&'!%$'%$&()"&*+,$'-.!"*/0'12234'5!6*&'
and Olson, 1985).
The paper also intends to provide a bet-ter
understanding of management functions
and roles and offers an alternative approach
to investigate the role that information sys-tems
have in management decision making
in organisations. The rest of article is organ-ised
as follows. In the following section we
provide the functions of management and
managerial roles and we than describe infor-mation
systems and three levels of decision
making. Lastly, we conclude our study with
a suggestions that althought information sys-tems
intend to support management decision
making and have made great contributions

The management process has four
functions and is executed through a variety
of decisions taken at each function of man-agement
(Jawadekar, 13-14). According to
Kumar and Mittal planing function of man-agement
it is the formulation of what is to
be done. Organising function is a means
by which human resources, physical as-sets,
money and time are co-ordinated into
efficient production of goods and services.
The most vital function of management is
directing or motivating function, which calls
for the practice of high degree of skills based
on sufficient knowledge. While, controlling
function as the last stage in management
tends to complete the full cycle of the process
of management through which managers ac-complish
Fig. 2 - Functions and tasks of management
!"#$%#&#%'$'
results (Kumar and Mittal, 20-22).
to organisations, until recently these coun-tributions
of information systems have been
confined to narrow, transaction processing
area. Much work needs to be done in broad-ening
the impact of information systems on
profetional and managerial life and further
research are needed.
9:# !"# ';)1,(%)-# %'# *+)+/"*"),# +)0#
managerial roles
Information systems claim to support
managers, but they cannot be built in busi-ness
and organisations unless we understand
what managers are, what thay do and how
they do it. An individual who gets the things
done is a manager . It is necessary to distin-guish
between this tasks of managers and the
functions of management. While managing,
a manager may perform the activities such as
accounting, selling, manufacturing, purchas-ing
etc. These activities are called as tasks
and not as functions. The activities that are
performed through the managerial function
are presented with the classical model of
what managers do, espoused by writers in
the 1920’s such as Henry Fayol who identifies
the following functions as the parameters of
what managers do: planning, organising, di-recting
(motivating) and controlling (Fig.1).
Fig. 1 - Functions of management
Fig. 2-Functions and tasks of management

As shown in Figure 2, which sum-marises
functions and tasks of management
in his planning function management estab-lish
goals and develope strategies and tactics.
Individuals and groups differ in their ap-proaches
to thinking and decision making.
Knowing these differencies in their organis-ing
function managers assign respossibility
to individuals and groups. Lead by motivat-ing
and communicating in the function of di-recting
(motivating) they evaluate and adjust
organisational performance (directing and
controlling functions). Information systems
as a tool for information processing can sup-port
these functions.
The activities of managers is char-acterised
by decision making, which is a
critical managerial function (Shajahan and
Priyadharshini, 34). Managers need infor-mation
to take decisions, but also in order
to act in a variety of management functions.
Therefore, it is usually that information sys-tems
are required when organisations grows
and management function is performed by
people who are specialized and may be re-moved
from day-to-day activities. The at-tention
of managers increase rapidly from
one issue to another, with very litlle pattern.
When problem accures all other matters must
be dropped until it is solved. Therefore, usu-ally
there is simply not enough time for man-agers
to get deeply involved in a wide range
of issues. Research suggests that a manag-er’s
day is characterised by a large number
of tasks with only small period of time de-voted
to each individual task. Furthermore,
Crawford (1997), observed that given the na-ture
of the work, managers tend to rely upon
information that is timely and verbal even if
this is likely to be less accurate then more for-mal
!"#$%#&#%'$'
and complex information systems.
According to Henry Mitzberg cited by
Hicks (1997) managers play at least three sep-arate
managerial roles: interpersonal, infor-mational
and decisional. Information systems
can support these roles in varying degrees.
Managers need information from different
sources in order to facilitate their ability to
act in a variety of roles. A manager’s inter-personal
role flow directly from his authority
and status and involves directing and coor-dinating
the tasks to subordinates. Manager
should be the best informed individual in the
organisation. In informational roles manager
gather and process large amounts of infor-mation
as well as distributes information to
others in the organisation. Decisional role in-clude
the enterpreneur role, in which manag-er
initiates new projects and makes changes
(Hicks, 1997). Information systems has less to
countribute in the case of a managers’s infor-mational
role than for the other two.
3. Information systems and levels of
management decision making
The development of information sys-tems
technologies has accelerated changes
to economy, organisations and in all areas
of businesses. Traditionally, information
systems were used to support operational
functions, whith the emphasis on achieving
information systems efficiency and effective-ness.
Furthermore, the emergence of infor-mation
systems goes back to the 1950’s and
1970’s when information systems were main-ly
transaction applications, named simply
because they invovled processing accounting
transactions. Advances in technology made it
possible to access data more quikly and new
programming systems helped to develop and
refine operating systems, which provided the

organisational data necessary to run an or-ganisation
more efficiently on a day-to-day
basis. Information systems started to provide
reports and information that enabled man-agers
to make more effective decisions and
have become tools to support management.
Today, information systems is more
complex than in 1970’s or even in 1980’s,
when the emphasis was on operational needs.
One reason for this is the recognation that
information systems plays different roles in
organisations and businesses and help man-agers
reduce uncertainty in decision making
(Thompson and Beer, 2000). With the rapid
development of information systems technol-ogy
prior to the 1980’s, the role of informa-tion
systems in businesses and organisations
has changed, went out of style and was rep-liced
with the term management information
systems which was used to refer to the com-plete
computer based information systems of
a organisation (Hicks, 1997). Thus, in the past
two decades from it’s conventional function
of supporting business operations, informa-tion
systems role emerged as a strategic tool
for decision making. This new role is high-lighted
in several studies (Davenport and
!"#$%#&#%'$'
Short, 2004; Porter and Millar,1985).
Lucey (2005) emphasises the decision
focus of his definiton of information systems.
He observed that “information systems is a
system to convert data from internal and ex-ternal
sources into information and to com-municate
that information in an appropriate
form to managers at all levels in all functions
to enable them to make timely and effective
decisions for planning and controlling the
!78*6*8*$&' 9)%' :;*7;' 8;$<' !%$' %$&()"&*+,$='
(Lucey, 2005). We consider that his definition
express the essence of information systems
usage to assist managers in decision making
in three levels of management. Hicks (1997)
observed that today, in many businesses the
information systems have become a crucial
asset and information systems are used ex-tensively
not only to support management in
decision making, but it may also be designed
to provide decisions for repetitive classes of
problems (Hicks, 1997).
Nowdays, information systems are the
means by which organisations and people,
using information technologies, gather, pro-cess,
store, use and disseminate information
(Bocij, Chaffey, Greasley & Hickie, 2003).
Whereas, firms are using information sys-tems
as a strategic weapon to gain competi-tive
advantages and many business processes
are redesigned to take advantages through
the use of information tachnology and infor-mation
systems (Hicks, 1997).
As noted earlier, decision making is often
seen as the centre of what managers do, some-thing
that engages most of managers time. In
order to take decisions, managers need the
right information to serve a wider range of
needs. In fact, information has long regarded
as a very important aspect of decision mak-ing
in the business environment because in-formation
gives power to decision makers.
Combs (1995) poitned out that accurate, rapid
and relevant information are considered to
be vital to improving performance and com-petitive
advantages of business and organisa-tions
(Combs, 1995). On the other hand Lucey
(2005) suggests that relevant information is es-sential
to any business decision (Lucey, 2005),
and information systems have become an im-portant
factor in decision making. A systems
approach to managing this demand can be
met through information systems.
In fact, it is often stated that an infor-mation
systems is a tool to help improve

management by using available informa-tion
for decision making. Underlying this is a
number of assumption. Firstly, the aim of an
information systems is to produce informa-tion
for action and secondly that if available, it
will be used to facilitate decision making. This
implies a relationship between information
systems usage and management anddecision
making. The main job of managers is to make
decisons and information produced by infor-mation
systems is linked to decision making.
Furthermore, information systems are
designed to support management activities,
in particular better decision making. To un-derstand
the relationship betweeen infor-mation
systems and management decision
making, we must look at several studies of
well known and leading authors on infor-mation
systems, such as Lucey (2005), Hicks
(1997), Davis and Olson (1985) etc. who found
that decision making is a complex proces and
managers are involved in a complex and
diverse contacts with customers, competi-tors,
colleagues, government officials, and so
forth. They should be able to define the type
of information they need and require in each
level of decision making. Managers should
understand too what information systems is,
and what information systems can and can-not
do in order to help their organisation suc-cedd
(Haag, Baltzan and Philips, 2006).
Decision making is a complex process
involving many variables that we do not
yet fully understand. However, many as-pects
of business decision making are clear
and business decisions take place at each
level of management in an organization al-though
there are different characteristics at
each level within organization. Gorry and
Morton (1989) provide a useful framework
for exploring the nature of managerial work
that includes an understanding of both the
purpose of management activity (involv-ing
!"#$%#&#%'$'
planning and control at strategic, tactical
and operational levels) and tha way in which
managers solve problems and make decisions
(Gorry and Morton, 1989). Decision making
can be divided or distinguished from one an-other
into three types: strategic, tactical (or
control) and operational. Information are re-quired
at three different levels of management
decision making and information systems has
to support each level of decision making.
Decision making is an integral part of
management and occurs in every function
and at all levels of decision making. Decision
making is based in information. Information
is needed to define and structure the prob-lem,
to explore and choose between the alter-native
solutions and to review the effects of
the implemented choice. Figure 3, summaris-es
the main chatascteristics and information
requirements of the three levels of manage-ment
decision making .
The strategic level of management deci-sion
making occupies long term horizons of
decisions. Strategic management (executives
and directors) is responsible to develop or-ganizational
goals, strategies, and policies as
part of a strategic planning process.Decision
making is much more dependent on human
factors and judgement. At the tactical level
of management decision making manag-ers
and business professionals in self-direct-ed
teams develop short and medium range
plans, schedules and budgets and specify the
policies, procedures and business objectives
for their subunits. At the operational level of
management decision making decisions are
short term and managers or members of self-directed
teams have clear objectives and de-cision
rules and develop short-range plans
such as weekly production schedules.

!"#$%#&#%'$'
4. Conclutions
Information systems form an integral
part of modern organisations and businesses
and are designed to support management ac-tivities,
in particular, better decision making.
Management has four distinct functions and
each requires support from an information
systems, as well as information are required
at three different levels of decision making
and information systems has to support each
level. Although, effective use of information
systems in management decision making
gives power to managers and help organ-isation
succeed, it is necessary to claim that
there is not enough empirical studies and
results that examine the role of information
systems technology in decision making and
much work needs to be done in broadening
the role of information systems on profe-tional
and managerial life.
Finally, it is possible to state while in-formation
systems have made great contri-butions
to organisations, managers should
rise their understanding what information
systems is, and what information systems
Individuals make two general types of
decisions: structured or programmed deci-sions
and unstructured or nonprogrammed
decisions . According to Lucey, (2005), Hicks
(1997) and Davis and Olson (1985), in a pro-grammed
decisions the rules for making the
decisions are explicit and decision can be
specified in advance. The term does not nec-essarily
mean that the decision is automat-ed,
althought many programmed decisions
are automated. Nonprogrammed decisions
deal with nonrepetitive and nodefined prob-lems,
and require human decision making.
Nonprogrammed decision has no decision
procedure, either because the decision is too
infrequent to justify the organizational cost
of preparing a decision procedure or because
the decision procedure is not understood
well enough (Lucey, 2005; Hicks, 1997; Davis
and Olson, 1985).
6
Fig. 3 - Levels of Management Decision Making

can and cannot do. Today, undertanding the
role of information systems as information
processor has on an organisation, is crucial to
running a succesful business. In the future in-formation
to business survival.
!"#$%#&#%'$'
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