A Program for Research on Management Information Systems

An information system consists of, at least, a PERSON of a certain PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPE who faces a PROBLEM within some ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT for which he needs EVIDENCE to arrive at a solution, where the evidence is made available through some MODE OF PRESENTATION. This defines the key variables comprising a Management Information System (MIS). It is argued that most research and development to date on MIS has assumed only one underlying psychological type, one class of problem types, one or two methods of generating evidence, and, finally, one mode of presentation. Other states are suggested for all these key variables. The result is the outline of a systematic research program on MIS.