Information Science in Management Science—The Quest for a Theory of Management Information Systems

At the June 1968 symposium on Management Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University, Charles Kriebel, discussing theoretical frameworks for MIS, predicted that it would be “unlikely that a major breakthrough will occur during the 1970s.” He also predicted that he would “expect the major change to be an increasing awareness for the need for … and explicit framework.…” Today most agree that there is need for a theory, but few would say that such a theory exists or is even in the making. Yet it appears there are some theories on the horizon that deal with information and management scientists should be interested in the nature of these theories.

In my August 1973 column, when discussing Semantic Pollution in Information Systems, I used the word theory to illustrate Trap #7 of semantics: One symbol—one meaning. So, using my own recipe, before discussing a theory of Management Information Systems, I should explore the meaning of theory.