s by which it is communicated and, most important of all, the meaning attached to the message received and the use made of it. This final link in the communication chain is clearly of critical importance to both the information system designer and user and again emphasizes the pervasive nature of human and behavioral factors in MIS. A theme that is developed in this Article is that the value of information can only come from the results of decisions and actions based on the information. In Summary data incur costs, information – which is properly communicated and acted upon – can create value. General System Concepts Many of the concepts of Central Systems Theory (CST) have direct applicability to organizations and MIS. CST emphasizes that not only is it necessary to examine and analyze the individual parts of the system or organization but also it is vital that the system is viewed as a totality where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts - known as the holistic approach. Systems are composed of sub-systems, or expressed in commercial terms, organizations consist of departments and sections, and these parts interact and are interdependent. Accordingly it is necessary to consider these inter-relationships otherwise the system or organization as a whole will not function efficiently and will be slower to adapt to changing conditions, which is a primary requisite to survival. The reductionism approach ignores these vital inter-relationships by treating the individual parts as self-contained entities - which they are not. A simple organizational example of this would be if a stock control system in a firm was to be analyzed in order to make it more efficient and it was decided that no attempt was to be made to consider the linkages which exist between the production control system, the replenishment system and the stock control system itself. In such circumstances even if the stock control system operated at peak effic...
