MODEL FOR PLANNING EFFECTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS.

As the staff responsibility of the information manager grows and information strategies and plans become the expected and delivered output, it seems obvious that practical tools must be developed, tested and implemented. Concurrently, the information manager's understanding of broad organizational objectives and of the behavioral characteristics of the people within the entire organization must also increase. The communication and persuasion skills of the information professional will have to be better developed as well. The purpose of this article is to present an informational system model that possesses diverse capabilities. The model's most apparent value lies in its ability to direct effective system planning and design. However, it also presents an intellectual framework that can assist informational managers in explaining themselves meaningfully to their peers. In the first part of the article, the model itself is unfolded. In the second, a practical application within Alcoa Laboratories is described. In the final section, some useful facets of the model are related to successful staff behavior.