Organizational analysis and information-systems design: A decision-process perspective

Acquiring relevant information, processing it sensibly and acting rationally on the results is central to proper functioning at all management levels of an organization. To improve these capabilities is a major concern of developers of management information systems, yet a growing consensus indicates that it is infeasible to initiate system development by modeling a total organization's information system. Thus, many systems designers— drawn less from the ranks of technologists than of experienced managers—have scaled down aspirations, and are thinking of parts of an organization rather than of the whole. This change of philosophy has emerged most clearly in marketing, where Chambers comments that “attempts to construct large scale models in marketing have generally resulted in failure… the management scientist has now recognized that it is usually better to begin by solving smaller segments of the total problem” 9].Failure of systems designers to adapt their efforts to the structure of the organization and to the people in it also has impeded successful development of information systems. Researchers and managers long have recognized the necessity for such adaptation 25, p/ 483] and also have been concerned by other behavioral problems raised by information systems 25, 3].This study presents a structure for development of “partial” information systems in their organizational context. It utilizes a growing body of empirical knowledge—drawn mainly from marketing—to help analyze organizations in terms of operational guidelines for the development of information systems.