Explain why even well-designed information systems do not always help improve a firm's decision making

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Student answers will vary but should include the three main reasons for information systems not always producing positive results:
1. information quality,
2. management filters, and
3. organizational inertia/politics.
A sample answer is:
There are three main reasons that implementing a well-designed information system might not result in better decisions. First, the information produced by a system may be incomplete and inaccurate. The quality of information will depend on the quality of data gathered, and may require a minimum amount of data to be gathered. Inaccurate data and incomplete data can degrade the quality of decision making. Second, management filters can also stymie good decision making—a manager who has a bias against some types of activities or solutions, or is overly optimistic or pessimistic will make decisions that are skewed towards their own perspective rather than actual facts. Finally, organizational inertia and politics can hamper decision making. Information systems can require organizational change in roles and business processes that employees want to resist; or a system can produce information that suggests that a change is necessary but employees ignore in order to maintain the status quo in roles and responsibilities.