Misassumptions made by management information systems.
- Managers need more relevant information: They actually need less irrelevant information, since drowning in information leads to a reduction in information use in decisions.
- Managers perform better when they have the information they want: Good managers manage systems they don’t understand, but giving them all the information they’d need to explain the system again leads to ignoring data.
- Managers perform better when they have the information they need: If we knew what information a system/decision needed to be solved, the problem would be readily solvable without the manager.
- Organizations perform better when managers share more information: Managers are usually at odds with one another and sharing information allows them to harm each other more effectively. Sharing less information lets them protect their interests.
- Managers don’t need to understand information systems, just their outputs: The designers don’t understand management’s needs however, and therefore inadvertently manage management. Management needs this context to interpret.
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Russell Ackoff, “Learning and Legacy of Dr. W. Edwards Deming - Continuous Improvement,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEeIG8aPPk. (See notes.)