Monday, June 22, 2009

MIS versus LMIS

Let's start first with the meaning of MIS. MIS stands for Management Information System.

A management information system (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. -wikipedia.org

So that means a Management Information System helps the company/business by utilizing its people, documents, technologies and procedures. It also means that a MIS plays an important role in a company.

Let's dissect MIS. What is "Management"?

Management
in all business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.-wikipedia.org

And what is "Information System"?
In a general sense, the term Information System (IS) refers to a system of people, data, records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes.

So, basically, MIS is all about planning, directing, organizing and controlling(PDOC, from Sir Gamboa) the information system of a certain company or organization.

And what's LMIS? It's MIS with the word Leadership added to it.

I know that if you add leadership to it, it would be nicer because we all know that if we talk about managing, it also means like controlling someone. But, leadership is also a part of managing, because you can't be a good manager if you aren't a good leader. There's no need to transform MIS to LMIS. Managing isn't just like you're making puppets out of your underlings. It's just controlling them so that things won't get out of hand and no mess would be made. You would just basically be guiding them and just instructing them what to do and what not do, and of course, they would just be doing what they're told because that's the job that they applied for, right?
As what Mintzberg said on the different roles of managerial work, there was a "LEADER" there, with the definition "fosters a proper work atmosphere and motivates and develops subordinates". That simply puts it. No need for LMIS because MIS is a good enough subject description.

No comments: