Abstract

The view that a business firm is an operating or functioning, integrated whole, or total, system is rapidly gaining acceptance in many companies as a top management operating philosophy. One of the many subsystems that leads to an effectively operating total business system is the flow of information and analysis to facilitate decisions, whether such decisions are for purposes of prediction (planning and development), control, or problem solving. When viewed as the conversion of information into action through the decision-making process (as controlled by various policy directives), it is obvious that management success depends to a great extent on the availability and timely use of information at all organizational levels. The flow of information makes the entire organization an effective, integrated whole. Information as used here is not restricted to the types produced by the accounting system, but includes all the data and intelligence needed by the decision makers. The information subsystem of a total business system is made up of a number of different specific information systems.