FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
THE IMPORTANCE OF USING INFORMATION
SYSTEMS AS VEHICLES FOR KNOWLEDGE
PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT
Magwena Thabang
1
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
INTRODUCTION
The paper contents that the use of information systems such as
Management Information Systems (MIS) and Student Tracking
System (STS), Decision support system, knowledge management
systems, in higher institutions can be used as vehicles for
Knowledge Production and Management in Student Affairs and
Services.
2
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
DEFINITIONS
•Information system: group of hardware, software, data,
procedures and people that interact to produce knowledge.
•Tacit knowledge: is knowledge that include experience and
cannot be easily accessed by others for their own use.
•Explicit knowledge: is what is being documented that can be
transferred to others to use. For example manual for operating a
machine.
3
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR
KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND
MANAGEMENT
•Knowledge management systems
•Management Information systems
•Decision Support systems
•Student Tracking System
4
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
•Systems designed to facilitate the storage and sharing of
knowledge.
•Alavi and Leidner (1999) define KMS as the systems that are
concerned with activities that involves the creation, collection,
organizing and disseminating an organization knowledge.
•Knowledge is distributed to other members in the organization
and used as new knowledge to them.
5
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEMS:
•Information systems that assist in providing periodic reports, that
includes summaries of events that took place and comparison of
information supplied.
•Kronke (2013), the use of information systems to achieve
organizational strategy, can create knowledge through the
creation and comparison of information as it changes from month
to month
•The reports that are created by MIS will also reflect critical areas
that need attention and these could be communicated amongst
6
co-workers.
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEMS:
MIS also provides the following knowledge skills:
1. Abstract reasoning
2. System thinking
3. Collaboration
4. Ability to experiment
5. The ability to study the changing trend of activities also assist
in managing knowledge so that it becomes available.
7
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
•Bhatt and Zaveri (2002) point that for new knowledge to exit the
organization must continue learning the changing environment.
•Decision support systems play a crucial role in the production
and management of knowledge since they promote collaboration
for the purpose of organizational learning.
•The sharing of knowledge regarding the kind of effective
decisions that needed to be made further result in a decision
making model that is followed throughout the organization
8
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Huber (1991) pointed out the key requirements for learning new
knowledge as follows:
1. Information acquisition
2. Information Distribution
3. Information interpretation
4. Organizational Memory.
9
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
STUDENT TRACKING SYSTEM
•The system automatically create an alert of any student that
needs intervention and this alert is based on the academic
progress of students when writing class tests during the course of
the year.
•This alert will be sent by the system before examinations can be
written.
•Such information enables practitioners to have knowledge of
challenges that persist and that knowledge can be shared to other
practitioners.
10
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
CONCLUSION
•The paper highlighted how information systems can be used to
produce knowledge and manage that knowledge in the student
affairs and services, providing information systems as perfect
vehicles for such.
•Bhatt and Zaveri (2002) posits that sharing of leant knowledge
becomes new knowledge to other co-workers, therefore
promoting collaboration within the organization using information
systems.
11
FACULTY OF Management Sciences
Department of Office Management and Technology
THANK YOU
12