PSMIS

Public sector Management Information

systems MPA
Introduction
• Information systems knowledge has become essential for public administration managers for various reasons.
• Information systems allow organizations to survive and grow in turbulent times, to reach remote locations, to offer new
products and services, to reshape jobs and work flow processes, and to change the way business is done among other IS
opportunities
• In the world of business, the capability to operate globally lies in IS which offers the communication and analytical
power that businesses need to operate globally.
• The need for MIS in the public sector is now a necessity as public administration gets more knowledge and information
intense.
• MIS cuts across HR, production, sales and marketing, general decision making, international trade relations,
communication, PR, broadcasting, health services administration and local and international reporting among other
organizational functions.
• Generally, MIS offers new possibilities for organizing and managing organizations that now take a less hierarchical format
and depend on instant information to deliver mass products and services.
• Digital organizations or organizations in which all business processes and relationships with all stakeholders are digitally
enabled are becoming a common phenomenon in modern economies hence the most important asset in today’s
organization are Information Technology assets.
• Most organizations are now transforming into digital organizations due to market forces and other opportunities but this
requires insight, skill and patience.
Introduction – The Digital Organization
• The digital organization is one where:
- Relations with all stakeholders e.g. customers and suppliers, are digitally enabled and
mediated
- Core business processes e.g. recruitment and selection, new product development,
and processing new applications for passports etc., are accomplished through digital
networks which span across the whole organization or multiple organizations.
- Key corporate assets are managed through digital means e.g. human, financial,
intellectual, and all physical assets etc.
- Sensing and responding to market changes is rapidly achieved through ICT.
- Any type of information is readily available anytime and anywhere
- There is near total reliance on ICT to organize and manage the organization
What is MIS
• An information system is a set of interrelated components that collect,
process, store and distribute information to support decision making,
coordination and control in organizations.
• Information systems also help employees of the organization to analyze and
visualize problems and complex subjects and create new products.
• Information systems contain important information about people, places and
activities within the organization and in its surrounding environment.
• An information system involves four basic activities which are 1. input 2.
processing 3. output and 4. feedback.
• These ISs can be formal, informal, manual or computer based. The focus of this
course is however on formal and computer based systems.
What is MIS
• MIS is the study of information systems that focuses on their use in business and
management.
• From a business point of view, an MIS is an organizational and management solution to a
challenge faced by the organization.
• One therefore needs to understand the problem for which the MIS was designed to solve.
• A ubiquitous feature of all MISs is that they have an organizational and managerial function.
Managers can literally not afford to ignore ISs because of the critical role they play in shaping
the way managers decide, plan, manage, design and market products etc.
• To be effective as public sector managers, there is therefore need to understand the
organizational, managerial and technological dimensions of information systems –
information systems literacy
• Information systems literacy refers to the broad understanding of organizations and
individuals using information systems and knowledge about computers or ICTs in general.
Information Systems Literacy
The Four Basic Components of an IS
• INPUT
• This process captures or collects raw data from within and from outside the organization
• PROCESSING
• This stage converts raw data into a meaningful form. Data are streams of raw facts that represent
events happening inside or outside the organization.
• OUTPUT
• This process transfers to processed information to the people in the organization who will use it for
decision making, coordination, and control among other activities
• 4. FEEDBACK
• This refers to output returned to the appropriate members and departments of the organization to
help them evaluate or correct the input stage.
• NB: Any computer based MIS requires computers and computer programs/software which form the
technical foundation.
Organizations
• Information systems are an integral part of organizations.
• Organizations are made up of people, operating procedures, politics,
structure, and culture.
• Organizations are composed of different levels and specialties or
business functions e.g. marketing and sales, PR, HR, Production,
finance and accounting.
• The coordination of these business functions is achieved through a
formal structure and standard operating procedures.
Management
• The major role of management in an organization is to scan for
opportunities and challenges in the environment.
• Management sets the operational strategy for the allocation and
application organizational resources
• Managers make sense of the different situations that present themselves
and define action plans
• Management does not only manage what already exists but must
recreate the organization over time – organizational reengineering.
• ICTs play a substantial role in the redesign of the organization.
• Management at different levels perform different functions
Technology
• Technology is one of the many tools that managers use to cope with change in the
organization.
• The firm’s information technology infrastructure are the resources that can be shared
throughout the organization
• Managers must be aware of the computer hardware, computer software, storage,
communication and network requirements of the organization.
• Technology infrastructure provides the foundation on which organizations can build
specific information systems.
• Information technology infrastructure must therefore be carefully designed and
managed if effective information systems are to be built for the work to be achieved by
the organization.
Modern Approaches to Information Systems
• There are multiple perspectives to information systems
• No single theory dominates the field of MIS because several fields of study such
as computer science, management science, psychology, operations research,
sociology and economics contribute most of the issues and insights addressed by
information systems.
• Two major approaches are the technical approach and the behavioral approach.
• The third approach is the socio-technical approach which is a hybrid approach.
• The basic underlying fact is that though information systems are made up of
hard physical technologies, they require substantial social, organizational, and
intellectual input for them to be effective.
•
The Technical Approach
• This approach emphasizes mathematical models to the study of information systems.
• Fixation is with the physical technology and capabilities of the technologies.
• The disciplines that contribute to this approach are computer science, management science and
operations research.
• Computer science focuses on theories of computability, methods of computation, and methods of
data storage and access.
• Management science focuses on models of decision making and management practices.
• Operations research deals with methods of optimizing selected organizational functions such as
transportation, inventory management, financial reporting and data capture.
• This is an approach based purely on technology, which often conflicts with those that favour the
involvement of participants in the specification, design and development of information systems.
• The technical approach is linked to catastrophic failures of information systems hence the
argument for alternative approaches.
The Behavioral Approach
• This approach deals with behavior issues which relate to the development and long term
maintenance of information systems.
• The technical approach and its models can not adequately deal with issues such as strategic
business integration, design, implementation, resource utilization and management.
• Systems are affected and affect groups and individuals, information systems are influenced
by the perception of decision makers, and information systems affect internal controls and
cost structures adopted by organizations. Dealing with these aspects of IS can not be
conclusive when the technical approach is adopted.
• Though this approach does not ignore technology, its focus is not generally on technical
solutions to organizational problems.
• The technical approach is actually the stimulus of the behavioral problems in that the
inadequacies of the technical approach raise behavioral questions which help us to focus on
policy, behaviour and management aspects of organization.
The Socio-Technical Approach
• MISs focus on business and management challenges
• No single perspective captures the reality of IS hence the need for a multi-perspective is imperative. There should
be tolerance of the different approaches to gain a full appreciation of MISs.
• Business and management challenges are not all technical or all behavioral
• Problems with systems themselves are not all technical or behavioral
• This challenge is overcome by avoiding a purely technological and a purely behavioral approach to IS.
• Both the technological and behavioral approaches need attention.
• This approach emphasizes that technology must be designed in ways that match or fit the organizational and
individual needs.
• In some instances, technology may have to be de-optimized to accomplish this fit.
• Organizations and individuals on the other hand need to be prepared through training, learning, and planned
change programs for technology thrive.
• Implied is that people and organizations adjust to take advantage of technology.
• This approach stresses the need for mutual adjustment to the final designs of both technology and the organization
The Impact of Information Systems on
Modern Organizations
• Over time, information systems have played an important role in the life of an organization – from
technical changes in the 1950s, managerial control in the 1960s and 70s, to influencing core
institutional activities such as managerial control and behavior since the 1980s and a focus beyond
the enterprise since the year 2000.
• What organizations can do now and may plan to do in the future depends on what their systems
can do.
• For example planning to establish a national real time disease data management center, planning to
establish an online birth registration platform, planning to launch an online ICT skills training
programme for teachers, and planning to launch a national credit reference database etc.
• There is an obvious interdependence between the organization and information systems
• Information systems influence an organization’s business strategy, rules and procedures which rely
on software as an intermediary between hardware, databases and telecommunication platforms
necessary for the proper functioning of the organization.
• Technology now inspires new organization models of offers new approaches to doing business but
the most notable benefits are discussed below.
IS Creates Flatter Organizations
• IS breaks down bureaucratic structures, common in government, but
blamed s archaic and inefficient.
• IS reduces the number of levels in an organization’s structure
• In essence IS creates optimal and efficient hierarchies which give
greater decision making powers to lower level employees.
• In this instance, IS supports lean structures in which the speed of
decision making and collaboration is phenomenal
• Many organizations have now eliminated middle levels of management
resulting in them operating more efficiently and profitably.
IS Separates Work from the Office Location
• Through communication technologies, distance no longer affects many types
of work.
• Many government health workers can now spend more time in the field for
example but with up to date information. Sales persons, ICT technicians
likewise can work remotely, even from their homes and cars but with access
to real time and up to date information.
• Organizations can now reserve space for central offices while entire parts of
the organization disappear.
• IS in this context facilitates collaboration of teamwork across continents –
cross continent collaborative models have potential for all foreign office
business (embassies) in different countries.
IS Reorganizes Workflows
• Information systems are rapidly replacing manual work processes
with automated procedures, work flows and processes
• Information systems continue to reduce operations costs for all types
of organizations as they displace paper based and manual processes.
• IS improves work flow management and this enables organizations to
cut substantial costs and to benefit from improved operational
efficiency
• E.g. turn around times may be reduced from weeks and months to
days and hours
IS Creates Flexible Organizations
• ICT enables organizations to organize in more flexible ways and to be able to sense and respond to
changes in the market place with rapidity/speed.
• ICTs are credited for decomposing or demolishing rigid organization models e.g. bureaucracies in the
public sector
• ICTs enable large and small organizations to overcome limitations posed by their size
• Small companies for example can compete effectively with large companies in the global market place
• Large organizations can gain the agility and responsiveness of small organizations through IS.
• IS therefore creates dynamically responsive organizations with greater ability to custom make
products for clients
• This helps organizations to avoid production cost overruns for example if GMB had an IS and clients in
Gutu district were all able to place their orders online, GMB would know with precision the number of
5kg, 10kg, 20kg and 50kg packets of maize meal required by customers and produce just that.
IS Imposes Changes on Management
Processes
• Alternations to management processes are inevitable when IS are implemented
• ICT provides new capabilities that help managers to plan, organize, lead and control
• Managers can now know with precision all transactions done by the organization for example,
it is now possible to know how many units of a company’s product have been sold at any
given time or how many orders have been confirmed at any given time. It is also possible to
know in real time terms the number of employees leaving or joining the organization.
• IS also makes it possible to provide current information to all employees almost instantly
thereby allowing new leadership possibilities for modern managers.
• IS also provides new remote management possibilities for example supervision of field teams
in the health sector e.g. corona virus monitoring or testing teams can be remotely supervised,
NGO sector can be remotely managed using the power of ICTs.
• Working from home arrangements can also be effectively managed through IS.
IS Redefines Organizational Boundaries
• With IS, business is no longer possible within the organization’s physical boundaries only
• Instead, organizations can efficiently and effectively conduct business across
organizational boundaries.
• Through networked information systems, organizations can coordinate activities with
other organizations in distant locations.
• Transactions, business data and mail can now be exchanged electronically thereby
reducing the cost of dealing with other organizations.
• Inter-organizational systems automate the flow of information across organizational
boundaries e.g. information systems that connect organizations and their clients,
suppliers, distributors and competitors in some cases
• Networked information systems therefore create new efficiencies and relationships that
eliminate old methods of doing business.
Challenges of Information Systems
• Creating ICT enabled firms is a long and painful journey as many organizations end up failing to realize the benefits
associated with becoming a digital firm despite huge investments in ICTs.
• Many organizations need to be redesigned in order to realize the full benefits of ICTs such as increased productivity, for
example fundamental changes have to be made to the organizational behavior and the business model and this requires
undoing outmoded structures or moribund organizational structures that belong to the past and have clear inefficiencies.
• Information systems are linked to the HR challenge. A mere automation of what organizations are currently doing means
organizations will miss a lot on the potential of ICTs but it also means eliminating jobs that are currently done by people.
• The globalization challenge is an obvious predicament for most organizations – organizations must strive to create
information systems that cut across national boundaries and satisfy the requirements of each jurisdiction. If this is not
done, IS leads to chaos.
• Developing information systems is linked to infrastructure challenges. Technologies change rapidly and organizations must
cope with rapid changes in ICTs fit for specific specialties. It is critical for businesses to ensure that ICTs meet specific
functional requirements and whether information systems should be centralized or decentralized with clear islands of
applications. Management should continually assess ICT infrastructure requirements to avoid being crippled by outdated
and incompatible ICT equipment.
• Developing information systems is also linked to ICT investment decision challenges. Strategically positioning an
organization through massive organizational and systems changes is complicated and expensive. Managers must always
ask whether the organization is getting its return on all ICT investments
• Developing Information systems is also linked to ethical challenges. Organizations need to ensure that the they have
control over their ICT systems as these can potentially introduce new problems such as the distribution of illegal materials,
hacking, violation of privacy and theft of intellectual property e.g. where I work, ICT personnel that resigned would send
spy emails with infected attachments and once you open it your computer would crash and while you are dealing with that
problem they would be taking all the data and information they need from the organization.