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Q1-3 What Is MIS?

2012 Median Job Growth (%) Job Growth (N) 47
Pay 2012–22 2012–22
Business Managers
Marketing Managers $115,750 12% 25,400
Information Systems Managers $120,950 15% 50,900
Financial Managers $109,740 9% 47,100
Human Resources Managers $ 99,720 13% 13,600
Sales Managers $105,260 8% 29,800
Computer and Information Technology
Computer Network Architects $ 91,000 15% 20,900
Computer Systems Analysts $ 79,680 25% 127,700
Database Administrators $118,700 15% 17,900
Information Security Analysts $ 87,170 37% 27,400
Network and Systems Admin. $ 72,560 12% 42,900
Software Developers $ 93,350 22% 222,600
Web Developers $ 62,500 20% 28,500
Business Occupations
Accountants and Auditors $ 63,550 13% 166,700

Figure 1-6 Financial Analysts $ 76,950 16% 39,300
Bureau of labor Statistics Management Analysts $ 78,600 19% 133,800
occupational outlook 2012–2022 Market Research Analysts $ 60,300 32% 131,500
Source: Based on Bureau of Labor
Statistics, “Computer Systems Logisticians $ 72,780 22% 27,600
Analysts,” Occupational Outlook
Handbook, accessed April 16, 2015, Human Resources Specialists $ 55,640 7% 32,500
www.bls.gov/ooh.

Q1-3 What Is MIS?

We’ve used the term MIS several times, and you may be wondering exactly what it is. MIS stands for
management information systems, which we define as the management and use of information
systems that help organizations achieve their strategies. MIS is often confused with the closely related
terms information technology and information systems. An information system (IS) is an assembly
of hardware, software, data, procedures, and people that produces information. In contrast, infor-
mation technology (IT) refers to the products, methods, inventions, and standards used for the
purpose of producing information.
How are MIS, IS, and IT different? You cannot buy an IS. But you can buy IT; you can buy or
lease hardware, you can license programs and databases, and you can even obtain predesigned pro-
cedures. Ultimately, however, it is your people who will assemble the IT you purchase and execute
those procedures to employ that new IT. Information technology drives the development of new
information systems.
For any new system, you will always have training tasks (and costs), you will always have
the need to overcome employees’ resistance to change, and you will always need to manage the
employees as they use the new system. Hence, you can buy IT, but you cannot buy IS. Once your
new information system is up and running, it must be managed and used effectively in order to
achieve the organization’s overall strategy. This is MIS.
Consider a simple example. Suppose your organization decides to develop a Facebook page. Face-
book provides the IT. It provides the hardware and programs, the database structures, and standard
procedures. You, however, must create the IS. You have to provide the data to fill your portion of its
database, and you must extend its standard procedures with your own procedures for keeping that