According to the dictionary, the verb ‘decide’ means ‘to determine, to end, to resolve, to settle and to make up one’s mind’, while the noun ‘decision’ is ‘the act of settling, making up one’s mind’, etc. Someone in a position of power is said to be a ‘decision-maker’ and we refer to those who do make up their mind as ‘resolute’ or ‘decisive’.
The Latin root of the word means to ‘cut away’. This points to what a decision really is: to cut away the surrounding clutter, to enable one to see a path to an objective and, by taking a decision (or a series of decisions), to follow that path with all of its implications.
A decision is not allowing events to take their course willy-nilly. If you did, an outcome would still occur - but one not influenced or decided upon with due regard to the surrounding circumstances. Such an outcome represents an inability or lack of desire to analyse and reach a conclusion; control has been surrendered. This might not matter - for example, when merely choosing what perfume to wear - but can be of major consequence where commercial or other vital decisions are required.
Todays managers depend on information systems for decision making. The managers have handful of data around them but manually they cannot process the data accurately and with in the short period of time available to them due to heavy competition in modern world. Therefore mangers depend on information systems.
Management has been defined in a variety of ways, but for our purposes it comprises the process or activities what managers do in the operation of their organization: Plan, Organize, Initiate and Control operations.
Data are facts and figures that are not currently being used in a decision processes and usually take the form of historical records that are recorded and filed without immediate intent to retrieve for decision making.
Information consists of data that have been retrieved, processed or otherwise used for information or inference purposes, argument, or as a basis for forecasting or decision making.
System can be described simply as a set of elements joined together for a common objective. A subsystem is is part of a larger system with which we are concerned. All systems are part of larger systems.
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References:
Information System for Modern Management – ROBERT G. MURDICK, JOEL E. ROSS, JAMES R. CLAGGETT.
Management Information Systems: The Management View – ROBERT SCHILTHESIS and MARY SUMNER.
The Decision-making Pocketbook By Neil Russell-Jones,
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