What are the advantages and disadvantages of MIS?

Answer 1

An MIS provides the following advantages.

1. It Facilitates planning : MIS improves the quality of plants by providing relevant information for sound decision-making. Due to increase in the size and complexity of organizations, managers have lost personal contact with the scene of operations.
2. It minimizes information overload : MIS change the larger amount of data into summarized form and there by avoids the confusion which may arise when managers are flooded with detailed facts.
3. MIS encourages decentralization: Decentralization of authority is possible when there is a system for monitoring operations at lower levels. MIS is successfully used for measuring performance and making necessary changes in the organizational plans and procedures.
4. MIS brings coordination : MIS facilitates integration of specialized activities by keeping each department aware of the problems and requirements of other departments. It connects all decision centers in the organization.
5. MIS makes control easier: MIS serves as a link between managerial planning and control. It improves the ability of management to evaluate and improve performance . The use of computers has increased the data processing and storage capabilities and reduced the cost .
6. MIS assembles, process , stores , retrieves , evaluates and disseminates the information.

The disadvantages of MIS:

1. highly sensitive; requires constant monitoring.
2. budgeting of MIS is extremely difficult.
3. quality of outputs governed by quality of inputs.
4. lack of flexibility to update itself.
5. effectiveness decreases due to frequent changes in top management
6. takes into account only qualitative factors and ignores non-qualitative factors like morale of workers, attitude of workers, and so on.