DATA, INFORMATION AND INTELLIGENCE IN A COMPUTER BASED MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM.

A management information system (MIS) is broadly defined herein as a formal structure within an organization which is designed to provide information to decision makers in a timely fashion. As a further constraint this discussion is concerned only with MIS's which have as their central coordinating and processing component a digital computer. It is argued that a clear differentiation between the concepts of data, information and intelligence within the context of computer based management information systems must be made. It is further argued that there are serious implications of this differentiation for the design and implementation of such MIS's. An MIS is viewed as a tool to support managerial decision making. Within an organizational context, decision making can be categorized as encompassing a spectrum of levels with characteristics which are not constant across this spectrum. V. C. Hare, Jr. refers to operational, tactical and strategic levels. The present paper makes use of Hare's terminology to describe a taxonomy of managerial decision making.