The Illusion of Effective Management Information: A Critical Perspective

The availability of effective management information is essential when coping with today’s complexity and dynamism, both within and around organizations. Information technology can be used to derive such information. The enormous amount of electronic data currently available, and the development of new technologies like data warehousing and data mining, have intensified efforts to support organizational control. However, the contribution of the management information generated is disappointing. Many projects do not produce the results that organizations expect and the added value of the implemented technology seems to be limited. This paper examines the effectiveness of management information for organizational control. Through literature research and field experiences, we identify important shortcomings of current methods, techniques, and supporting technologies. On this basis, four design guidelines for the specification of effective management information are presented. Their application is illustrated in a case study at the Dutch Internal Revenue Service.