MANAGEMENT MISINFORMATION SYSTEMS*

Five asffumptioDS commonly made by designers of management information systems are identified. I t is argued that these are not justified in many (if not most) cases and hence lead to major deficiencies in the resulting systems. These assumptions are: (1) the critical deficiency under which most managers operate is the lack of relevant information, (2) the manager needs the information he wants, (3) if a manager has the information he needs his decision milking will improve, (4) better communication between managers improves organizational performance, and (5) a manager does not have to understand how his information system works, only how to use it. To overcome these assumptions and the deficiencies which result from them, a management information sjrstem should be imbedded in a management control system. A procedure for designing such a system is proposed and an example is given of the type of control system which it produces.