ng into programmed and non-programmed areas. Programmed decisions are those that are routine and repetitive and where the decision rules are known. Conversely, non-programmed decisions are novel and unstructured and the natures of the problem and decision rules are complex and little understood. It follows from these brief descriptions that radically different information and procedures are required for the different decision types, which has obvious implications for MIS design. To create value from information, changes in decision behavior must result and consequently there must be a decision focus to the MIS. This means that the MIS must be designed with due regard to the types of decision, how decisions are taken, how the decision maker relates to the organization, and the nature of the organization, its environments and so on. Acceptance and understanding of this emphasis by both managers and information specialists is the primary requisite to effective MIS design. Managers, and the MIS, which supports them, must distinguish between effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness means doing the right thing i.e. producing the desired results. Efficiency is a measurement of the use of resources to achieve results. Thus an organization may be producing the wrong output efficiently and is thus an ineffective organization. Good management concentrates on what must be done before considering how it should be done and the MIS should help them do this. Control Principles - Feedback and Feed forward Control has already been mentioned as one of the main management tasks. Much of the lower and middle management effort, and consequently much of the routine output of MIS, are concerned with control activities. Control is the process of ensuring that operations proceed according to plan and at the most basic level this is done by comparing the actual results or output of the system against a target and using any differences found to adjust the inp...
