REFLECTION/Learnings...

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
Robert Byrne

My regret was that I wasn’t able to attend the first meeting with our professor Randy S. Gamboa for the MIS class. That was Thursday, June 18, 2009. I was sick that time (not very sick) but was very confident that there was no classes (again) like the past few days where I came to school early than my schedule. If only I knew that our professor for that subject was Mr. Gamboa, I would probably jump out of my bed and went to school though I’m not feeling well. I was very much aware that being absent either late must be a big, big, and big NEVER!!! Unfortunately and honestly, I wasn’t informed very well. Poor me!!! I was just surprised when my classmates asked me why I wasn’t around during the first day discussion knowing that were much afraid to miss the class with Mr. Gamboa. Well, it was too late to mourn and rather to blame myself for what I’ve missed. That’s why all I can do to cope up is seek information on what was happened in that span of hours.

As its usual manner, it was started with a prayer. And since there were new faces coming from USEP-Tagum, there was a short self-introduction. Then the formality of discussions followed.My Gosh! I was horrified to know that were going to make a blog site and have to post three assignments to be checked sooner. I can hear the loud beat of my heart especially when I started to ask what would be the topic to be posted. Nosebleed!!! Added to my horrible feelings was the excitement for the incoming company visits. I thought if how would it be like? Will my confidence boast out when we are going to conduct the Information System Needs Assessment? Will I make it individually? Oh! How I wished it will be a group work. More heads are better than one, hehehe…

I find it really hard to understand their explanations (am referring to my classmates) when I asked them to give me important details that could help me so that I could have something to post for my blog. Though I can’t expect too much detailed stories from them, I still tried to find other ways for me to be able to write something for this reflection. I have read the forums, and through the stories told there, I have given the ideas on what was happened on that meeting and how the discussions were going on.

The course description “Management Information System” was mainly the topic. This three-word course title has been examined. Like what is M.I.S? The class was then asked to define “management” and many students have shared their answers. Mr. Gamboa on the other hand said that management implies that someone or something needs to be managed; he/she or it is not capable of being independent (from Gador). Management comprises planning, organizing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal (wikepedia). Mr. Gamboa then asked the class in situation, if we were an employee, would we like to be controlled? Mostly answered YES, at least at first. But the realization came that people cannot be controlled because we have our different characteristics and attitudes, we have our own and unique moods. We are not robotics to be controlled. We are not machines but human who have life, who breathe and who thinks. Well, I was then caught in a deep thought when I knew how interesting the topic was. I remembered during the last summer, when one of our instructor said that it should not be called as “manager” since we can never really managed people but rather we can just “supervised” them. It hit me. Does it mean that supposedly, there would be no such word as “manager” (when refer to a company) but “supervisor” can be? We, people don’t need to be controlled. We don’t stick to what others just said. We were capable to think and decide what would be better. We were capable to lead. Yes, we must be led rather than directed. Mr. Gamboa agrees to that single statement. That is why it was concluded that the right term should be “lead”. Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen (wikepedia). Thus, it also deals with people. As RSG said that leadership and management are two different words (from Soriano) but both handles people. Leadership is one of the most salient aspects of the organizational context. It only differs on how would these two words attained its goals and objectives. On the other hand, generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation (wikipedia). And lastly, in a general sense, the term information system refers to a system of people, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. In a narrow sense, the term information system (or computer-based information system) refers to the specific application software that is used to store data records in a computer system and automates some of the information-processing activities of the organization.

Is Management Information System is the appropriate description for this course? It stunned me. Isn’t it the appropriate one? I was puzzled. As to my stand for the appropriation of the MIS description, yes! Since management information system (MIS) defines as a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Management information systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization.[1] Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information systems (wikipedia). It wasn’t affected by the separate meaning of each term. Because as it stated above, it is a subset of the overall internal controls of business. It follows that this MIS is just a term given to the discipline focused on the integration of computer systems with the aims and objectives on an organization.

Finally, the discussions get lightly. And before I forgot, I wasn’t surprised the good news that Mr. Gamboa is now the National President in IT Educators in the Philippines because I do really believe that he would be one of the biggest names and it really happened. USEPians, we must be PROUD!!!