Introduction
Before going any further, it is very necessary to have an in-depth view of the Management Information System (MIS). The Management Information System can be defined as the system, from which the management gets all its information about a particular topic or activity. Information is very critical in the Management Information System as with the help of the information, one gets a great help for setting up, running, survival and the prosperity of a business organization.

With the help of the Information, the organization is able to gain and also then retain the competitive edge and ultimately emerge as the winner.

Definition and the Meaning of Information
Davis and Olson define the Information as “the data that has been processed in to a form that is meaningful to the recipient and is of real or the perceived value in the current or the prospective actions or the decisions”.

Information is obtained from the data and now here one should be clear about the meaning of the data. The data is referred to as the random, un-organized collection of the indications or the measurements of certain qualities relating to an entity, recorded either in an alphabetical, numerical, alphanumerical, voice, image, text or any other form. Data is actually the collection of the raw facts, observations or the unevaluated messages in the isolation that are in the un-structured form.

But the data in such a form is not useful for the organization as the knowledge provided by it is in a very vague form. The un-structured data is generally referred to as the material which is present in the un-finished form and needs to be worked upon for making the proper use of it as like this the data is able to only provide the various facts and the figures that are currently not being used in the decision process.
But different from the data, the information acts as the finished material and hence is defined as the collected, collated, processed, logically organized and also the analyzed data. The correct and the upto date information that is not vague in the nature is very much necessary and it makes a lot of difference in carrying out any type of the activity as with the help of the information, one gets great clarity.

What are the Characteristics of the Information?
The Characteristics of the Information
1. Helps in improving the representation of an entity.
2. Makes updating of the level of the knowledge possible.
3. Also helps in reducing the uncertainty.
4. Offers a surprise value.
5. Helps a lot in the process of the Decision Making.

Features of the Information
1. Cost Effectiveness
2. Accuracy
3. Reliability
4. Timely Availability
5. Periodicity
6. Verifiability
7. Pertinent/relevant
8. Completeness
9. Comprehensibility
10. Clarity
11. Brevity
12. Consistency

Following are the Decision Making Models which can be used depending on the specific requirements:-

1. The Classical Model
On confrontation of a manager with a certain decision making situation, the manager would collect all the critical information and the data that is required for performing a particular activity and also would take the decision that will certainly be for the betterment of the organization.

2. The Administrative Model
a. In such a model, the manager has more concern for himself.
b. On confrontation of a manager with a certain decision making situation, the manager would collect what ever information or the data that will be available and then will take a decision, which may not be in the best interests of the organization but will certainly be good for fulfilling his personal interests.
c. Expediency and the opportunism, both act as the hallmarks of the Administrative Model.

3. The Herbert Simon Model
a. This model is linked with the decision making process.
b. Explains the core of the decision making.
c. Used as the base for explaining the decision making process.
d. According the Herbert Simon Model, the process of the decision making consists of the following phases –

A. The Intelligence Phase – In this phase, the various activities for finding out the problems related to the searching of the operating environment are involved. By this, the identification of the various conditions can be done which ultimately helps in taking the decisions at the different levels. Extensive and the comprehensive database is must for the intelligence phase, making this phase very suitable for searching or scanning of the environment.

In this phase, the type of the environment forms a very major factor and hence the types of the environment can be categorized as the follows –

I. The Societal Environment – Mainly includes the economic, the legal and the social environment and it is this type of the environment in which the organization operates.

II. The Competitive Environment: – Includes the understanding and the analyzing of the characteristics, the trends and the behavior of or at the market place and also the various players of the market in which the organization operates.

III. The Organizational Environment – Includes the various capabilities, the strengths, the weaknesses, the constraints and the various other factors that affect the ability of the organization to discharge or operate its various types of the activities.

B. The Design Phase – The inventing, the developing and the analyzing of the various alternatives or the solutions to the particular problem forms a major part of this phase. The various steps that are to be followed in this phase can be summarized as the follows –

1. Support in getting the in depth knowledge of the problem.
2. A correct model of the situation can be made and the assumptions of the model need to be tested.
3. Support for the generation of the solutions can be obtained by –
I. Manipulation of the model for the development of the insights.
II. Creation of the database retrieval system.

4. Support for testing the feasibility of the solutions.

C. The Choice Phase – The selection of a specific alternative or the course of the action from the ones which have been generated and considered during the design phase, takes place during this phase. The choice procedure and the implementation of the chosen alternative form a very major part of the Choice phase.

The flow of the activities takes place from the intelligence phase to the design phase and then finally to the choice phase. But one very important point that must be remembered here is that at any phase there may be a return to a previous phase.

Limitations of the Simon Model
1. This model does not go further than the choice model.
2. Does not include the cognizance of the implementation and also of the feedback aspects.

Different types of the tools and techniques are used in the decision making process, which have been explained in previous posts but besides these techniques, there are some principles which are used widely in the, as explained above making process and these can be summarized as the follows –

1. The Principle of the Bounded Rationality – Our rationality is very widely conditioned by the large number of the factors or the constraints which may include the following –
a. Financial
b. Technical
c. Administrative

The decisions are and should be generally based on the rationality and in such a scenario; the Principle of Rationality plays a very critical role. According to the Principle of Rationality, taking a complete rational decision is very much difficult, in – fact the possibility of this is nil, so the Principle of the Rationality implies that it is not at all possible to achieve any type of the scientific solution and as a result of this it is better in any way to carry on and arrive at the workable decisions which fit in to the Principle of the Bounded Rationality. The workable decision acts as the starting point of a scientific solution, which in turn is the ultimate goal that one thinks to get.

If any case, a scientific decision cannot be taken or cannot be implemented, then the decision would actually be only ideal, hypothetical in the nature but also the decision would be very much impractical in nature.

So in such a scenario, it is very much necessary that the workable solution is worked out while still continuing to work on the development of the scientific solution.

2. The Principle of the Logic and Intuition – The type of the scenario existing today involves the availability of a huge amount of the information and hence in any case, it cannot be ignored while taking any type of the decision. The Principle of the Logic and the Intuition helps in taking the decisions based on their own logic and intuition / hunch. The main aim should be to arrive at a decision based on the data or the information and one very important thing to keep in the mind here is that the due weight age should be given to the data or the intuition.

Now days, the various professional managers tend to take the decisions depending widely on the data, facts and the figures.

The decisions based on the intuitions can be defined as the decisions where the logical explanation is not at possible though the decision makers think that their approach is and would be absolutely the right one.

Various decision making tools are :-

1. Pay Off Matrix :– The main characteristics of the pay off matrix can be summarized as the follows –
a. Very commonly used method.
b. Acts as a very good quantitative technique.
c. Helps in summarizing the various interactions of the various alternative actions and the various events.
d. Explains about the probability in a very good manner.
e. The probability is expressed in terms of the percentages.
f. The probability can also be expressed in terms of the number of the times the particular event is appropriate to occur in a hundred trials.
g. With the help of the probability, the pay off matrix can be prepared.
h. The pay off matrix helps the decision maker a lot as it provides him with the quantitative measures of the pay off for each of the possible consequences and also each for the alternatives, which are under the consideration this is generally referred to as the Expected Value (E.V).

But the pay off matrix also has some weaknesses and these can be summarized as the follows –
a. The pay off matrix is very largely dependent on the decision maker’s judgment about the possible outcomes for each of the alternative and also the values, which are assigned by the Decision Maker to each of them.
b. The decision maker is forced by the pay off matrix to make a firm judgment about what he thinks may happen and the worth to him to those outcomes.
c. The pay off matrix doesnot make a decision but instead it forces the Decision maker to be more realistic about the various outcomes that are possible.

2. Decision Tree
a. This technique is also referred to as the Decision Tables.
b. Is a very simple technique.
c. Helps in the representation of the sequential multistage logic of a decision problem.
d. Shows the various decision paths that may be taken in – to account rather than the criteria used for the selection of a given path.
e. The main concept of the technique is actually based on the extension of the probability theory.
f. Decision Tree technique generally mathematically factors the degree of the risk into a business decision.
g. Very helpful in representing the various probabilities for the outcomes.
h. Helps the decision maker in working out the various options and along with this also helps a lot in taking care of the different types of the odds and further helps in making a reasonably precise comparison among the various alternative courses of the action.
i. Helps in the presentation of the analysis, when the decision maker has to make a sequence of the decisions and this is referred to as the Decision Node.
j. Then after this movement takes place on to the various options emanating points and this is referred to as the Chance Nodes.
k. The various steps that are to be followed in the process of this technique can be summarized as the follows –
A. First of all, the tree has to be made with the help of the various types of the decision points.
B. After this, the branches are to be added mainly for the external states of the events, which have the possibility of occurring.
C. Then the probability of each of the state has to be included and then followed by the assignment of a value for each of the unique branches.
D. Then one has to work in the backward direction as this step helps a great deal in analyzing the various consequences at each node of the tree.

3. Decision Rules –
a. The decision rules and the decision tables find their use together in the process of the decision – making.
b. Are generally used for the programmable or the routine / operating decisions.
c. With the help of the Decision Rules, one is able to make the various decisions very economically and also in a very much efficient manner.
d. Also the decisions taken are more accurate and also faster in the nature.
e. The decision rules are documented in the nature.

4. Decision Table –
a. Is very much precise and also very compact in the nature.
b. Is very critical for the analyst as it helps the analyst to take in to account the various options, conditions, variables and the alternatives.
c. Documents the rules that are used for the selection of one or more actions based on one or more conditions from a set of the various conditions that are possible.
d. Can include both the qualitative and the quantitative bases for the decision making.
e. Decision Tables are in the form of “IF” LISTINGS and “THEN” LISTINGS.
f. The “IF” listings stipulate the required conditions.
g. The “THEN” listings offer the actions that are needed to be taken if the suitable conditions are present.
h. The “IF” LISTINGS form the ‘CONDITION STUB’ and the “THEN” LISTINGS form the ‘ACTION STUB’.
i. But this technique can only be used in the conjunction with the other techniques.

Various types of decisions are taken by managements. Some of these are given below:-

1. Programmed Decisions
a. Very structured in the nature.
b. Are for short term
c. Work according to some of the norms that have been laid down.
d. The various situations of such a scenario are known.
e. Such Decisions are taken at the operating or the lower levels of an organization.
f. Are generally routine decisions.
g. Can be repetitive in the nature.
h. Certain particular procedure is needed to be followed.
i. The programmed Decisions can be taken with the help of the following techniques –
A. Habit
B. Computers
C. Operational research
D. Organizational Hierarchy or structure
E. Standard operating procedure

2. Non Programmed Decisions
a. New situations
b. Novel not cut
c. Dried
d. Very innovative in the nature
e. Long term
f. Strategic
g. Important and critical
h. Complex situations
i. The different techniques for taking the non programmed Decisions can be summarized as the follows –
A. Judgment
B. Intuition
C. Creativity
D. Business acumen
E. Training executives
F. Complex / specially designed computer programs.

The process of the Decision – Making
The whole process of the Decision – making needs to be very much accurate in the nature as only then the correct Decisions can be taken and ultimately then only the company or any department of the company can work properly and in an efficient manner. The process of the Decision – Making mainly involves the following set of the steps that are very much essential and need to be followed with great concentration.

The various steps are –
1. Determining the existence of the various problems.
2. Following this step with the generation of the alternative courses of the action.
3. Then one needs to analyze a particular course of the action.
4. After this, a particular course of the action is to be selected.
5. After this the implementation of that course of the action is to be done.
6. Following this step by the step, involving the monitoring and the following up.
7. Then at last, the course corrective action is initiated.

According to Griffin, the Decision – Making process consists of the following steps –
1. Recognizing and Defining the situation – An indication is provided by the stimulus suggesting to make a decision but a very critical point to be kept in mind here is that the stimulus can be either positive or negative in the nature.

2. Identification of the alternatives – It is very desirable that both the obvious alternatives and the creative alternatives become a part of the Decision – making.

3. Evaluation of the alternatives – It is very much necessary to evaluate each of the alternatives as with the help of this evaluation, one is able to get a complete knowledge about the feasibility, satisfactoriness of the various alternatives.

4. Selection of the best suited alternative – The best suited alternative is needed to be selected and this has to be done very carefully by keeping in mind the various situational factors.

5. Implementation of the chosen alternative – Once the suitable alternative is selected; it is then implemented in the system of the organization.

6. Following up and the evaluation – This step involves a great participation of the manager as he needs to work out and calculate the degree to which the alternative chosen in the above steps has worked.

What are the Styles of the Decision Making?
A decision can be taken at the various stages whenever it is required and the Decision can be made by the various functional executives of an organization. So it can be said that the Decisions can be –

1. Taken by the individual manager responsible for that particular department and work.
2. Can be consultative in the nature: – can further be either formal or informal in the nature.
3. The various group decisions can be taken with the help of the –
a. Co actions
b. Task groups
c. The interacting groups
d. Brainstorming
e. Delphi techniques
f. Nominal grouping technique
g. Consensus mapping