CONDICIONES NECESARIAS PARA EL ÉXITO DE LOS CUASIMERCADOS

It was stated in p.60 that a considerable amount of research has been undertaken to explore the reasons for MIS failure. For example Swanson (1974, p.178) argued that "failures in the implementation of Management Information Systems ... can be attributed in part to a lack of manage­ rial involvement [in MIS design] and appreciation [of MIS]". Swanson wanted to assess whether MIS failures can be explained in part by lack of managers1 involvement and appreciation of MIS.

Swanson's (1974) research was based on data collected after the design and implementation of the MIS. The MIS known as Activity Reporting Information System (ARIS) was an internally developed system. The "ARIS system gathers data on the planned and actual work activity of the Group [department] members, and makes it available to management on a need to know basis" (Swanson, 1974, p.180). This implies that ARIS is a file interrogation MIS i.e. it stores large volume of data which managers can then have access to as and when required.

Swanson (1974, p.179) perceived MIS as a purposeful system. He states "both a manager and an MIS are regarded to be purposeful systems, i.e. systems which display will through the selection of ends as well as means". Swanson also presented conceptual definitions of MIS involvement and appreciation. The concept of involvement was defined in terms of purposeful activities thus:

"1. A manager and an MIS are cooperatively involved to the extent that the activities of each facilitates (rather than frustrates) the attainment of the ends of the other.

2. The inquiry involvement of a manager consists of his cooperative involvement with the MIS inquiry process.

3. The a priori involvement of a manager consists of his cooperative involvement with MIS design, implementation, and operation processes".

The above concept of involvement implies that a manager and MIS are two separate entities with different ends and activities. And through mutual interaction both will benefit from each other.

Swanson (1974, p.179) defined the concept of appre­ ciation in terms of the managers cognitive state. He states: "The MIS appreciation of a manager consists of his manifold beliefs about the relative value of the MIS as a means of inquiry ... if a manager believes his MIS reports to be timely, informative, easy to understand, and so forth, we might say that he appreciated the system's re­ ports" .

Swanson used the above concepts of involvement and appreciation to postulate and test three hypothesis. Ac­ cording to Swanson (1974, p.179) "the result of the [hy­ pothesis] tests indicate that managers who involve them­ selves with the MIS will appreciate the system, and that managers who are uninvolved will be unappreciative. Neither manager nor researcher is likely to find this too surpris­ ing. What should be of interest, however, is the research methodology. For the approach described here can be gener­

ally applied to measuring the acceptance of MISs by their users". Swanson's (1974) research fits what we described in Chapter Two (p.61) as MIS assessment or evaluation re­ search. As stated in Chapter Two this thesis is not about MIS evaluation and has to be approached using research strategy different from those employed in evaluation re­ search. The main interest of this thesis in Swanson's

(1974) work is in his concept of MIS i.e. his concept of MIS as a purposeful system.

Swanson (1974) derived the concept of purposeful system from the work of Ackoff (1971). Ackoff (1971, p.666) states: "a purposeful system is one which can pro­ duce the same outcome in different ways in the same (inter­ nal or external) states. Thus a purposeful system is one which can change its goals under constant conditions; it selects ends as well as means and thus displays will".

The above statements by Swanson indicate that: 1. MIS is an entity;

2. It has a will;

3. It carries out a set of activities and; 4. It has an end or purpose.

Swanson conceives a manager as an entity possessing the above characteristics of MIS. This enabled Swanson (1974, p.179) to examine the relationship between a MIS and a manager in terms of "their entanglement in the pursuit of their respective ends". This thesis supports and extends the above characteristics of MIS so as to provide a new and a richer perspective of MIS.

The argument that "an organisation is a purposeful 99

system that contains at least two purposeful elements [e.g. two human beings] which have a common purpose" (Ackoff, 1971, p.669) implies that a purposeful system can transcend purposeful entities or elements. From this statement one can argue that MIS as a purposeful system transcends a manager, therefore a manager can be regarded as part of a MIS rather than differentiate between a manager and a MIS in the way that Swanson did. That is, instead of regarding a manager and a MIS as two separate purposeful systems interacting with each other, a manager can be regarded as an element of MIS. Following this line of argument, Ack­ off 's statements above and Swanson's characteristics of MIS I propose that MIS is a purposeful system which emerges whenever purposeful entities integrate for a common pur­ pose . The rest of this section will briefly examine this notion of MIS and outline its characteristics.

In Chapter Two (p.49-58) it was argued that there are three things that can be found both in a human being and an organisation: will, knowledge and existence. It was stated that the difference between an organisation and an individ­ ual in terms of the will, being and knowledge is that at an individual level the three things can be described as elementary items while at the organisation level there is a synthesis of the three things (i.e. a fusion of wills, existence and knowledge). Since MIS is a purposeful system which emerges from the aggregation of purposeful entities much like an organisation it is argued that MIS contains the three things: will, existence and knowledge. As in the case of an organisation (Chapter Two, p.54-58) one will

view MIS as a unit that contains a synthesis of will, existence and knowledge.

Following the discussion about the functioning of a person or an organisation (Chapter Two, p.42-58) it is argued that the conduct of the will, being and knowledge of a MIS has to be studied to understand the nature and the mode of functioning of the MIS. As in the case of an orga­ nisation they cannot be directly observed but they can be understood by examining the product of their conduct. The product of their conduct constitutes the characteristics (purpose, history, identity, activity and culture) of the MIS. For a discussion on why purpose, history, identity, activity and culture are functions of the will, existence and knowledge see Chapter Two (p.51-54). It was stated ear­ lier that structures (e.g. procedure, role or equipment) are not part of the characteristics of an entity that has a will, being and knowledge. They are seen as devices that facilitate the process of achieving or exercising the characteristics of the entity. Because of their importance in the functioning of an entity they will be included as an element of MIS. The next Chapter will give a detailed theoretical discussion of this concept of MIS as a purpose­ ful system and a framework for its development. The Chapter will demonstrate that this perspective of MIS accommodates both the social and technical perspectives of MIS.