Keywords

19.1 Introduction

Today, it is clear that parallel to the technological development processing of information and access to information is extremely easy. Accessing information is not problem in today, this process has occurred due to enter computerized systems to our lives. So organizations have been forced to renew and to transform themselves in parallel with the developments. Available information is stored on computers instead of files, so the possibilities of losing or changing information are reduced to extremely low. Information communication technologies has been started to use in management, so that the work to be done for the development of organizations may be healthier.

19.2 Information Management and Importance of Information Management in Terms of Educational Organizations

Information management is defined as “to decide correctly in the right form, to the right person, with the right cost, at the right time, in the right place, providing the right information” [15]. Townley [14, p. 44] defines the information management as activity to control information to realize the mission of an organization or to reach out the goals of an organization and in terms of producing and sharing to implement the decisions taken in the most effective way. Information management, shortly, aims organizing crucial information and reaching that information where – whenever needed aims can be achieved [8].

Information management aims to reach organized information easily at the time of need and to use in accordance with the intended purpose. The most important point in information management process is that managing information within the organization in the most effective way by using modern information technologies. There are essential tools such as intranets, databases, networks, newsletters and video conferences as technological to store and distribute information. In addition, trust based relationships must be established in the organization to share and manage information successfully, face to face interviews and meetings should be held and individuals should be encouraged [3].

In our century, educational organizations have been forced to change their traditional structure and restructured themselves according to the needs of information society. Information society that, first of all, values information and knows how to use it and who can use it, can produce information. With these features, the information society is shaped by information technology. Decisive aspect of information society for training programs is “continuous learning” principle. In the information society, people will have to learn continuously [11]. The importance of knowledge management for organizations begins the process of knowledge generation. The importance of information management for organizations is started with the process of production of information. Information management is an organizational activity that was attended almost all employees in an organization. So, information management is needed an organizational culture which encourages learning, sharing information and using information technologies. This is, there is an important linkage between the concept of learning organization and information management [7]. Educational organizations should be learning organizations; basic building block of this is realization of information management process in a healthy and productive way.

Organizations that continue to be successful when the markets changes, technological developments and competitors increased are organizations that creating new information in a stable manner, disseminating this information largely to all parties in the organization and rapidly use the new technologies and products in the organization [9]. Information management applications are so important for organizations that resist to competition and steady. Sustainable success and quality is a value that is desired and expected by all stakeholders in today’s schools and realization of this process is possible with the institutionalization of educational organization. The outstanding aspect of this success of institutionalized organizations is that they have managed successfully information management processes.

Information management allow using and managing resources in an efficient and productive way in the sense that to provide a baseline based on accurate information for planning and managing educational services, to create a system for data evaluation and data analysis, to provide support in the sense that system for using resources effectively. Using information management is required to progress by taking healthy and conscious steps towards success in organizations.

19.3 Management Information Systems

It is possible to find different definitions when we look for the definition of management information system. According to Argyris [2] Management Information Systems are systems that using different formal procedures to create information which is necessary for planning, directing and controlling of activities that are managers that all levels of management and which is convenient to make decisions on time and effectively by based on data from internal and external sources. To sum up, Management Information Systems are set of functions and systems related to processing, using and managing of information which is an organizational resource. Aim of the management information system is that [13]:

  • to provide to information an active role in the organization by allowing production, storage, sharing and using the organizational information.

  • to provide the necessary support in problem solving and taking decision processes.

  • to develop and create information using and technological infrastructure of the organization

  • to coordinate and integrate subsystems.

  • to set up a good financial control system

  • to prevent losing, destruction and forgotten of information

  • to teach change and learn

  • to provide saving and productivity

  • to provide the best practical methods

  • to provide useful information for troubleshooting

  • to hold decision support systems

  • to provide process documentation

  • to provide human resources management

  • to recognize the opportunity to work with a common data set to all units

  • to reduce the risk of data inconsistency

  • to recognize the possibility to be recorded in a detailed manner to income and expenditures

  • to contribute to the formation of organizational identity by providing to organizational works in more systematic and regular manner

  • to provide different information for different users

The process that forms the basis of management information system concept is the process of converting data into information, obtained information at the end of transformation process should be capable of meeting these needs of managers at all levels when deciding. Structure of Management Information Systems is shown in Fig. 19.1.

Fig. 19.1
figure 1

Structure of management information systems, SGDB [13]

Full size image

19.4 Chaotic Situations in Information Management Process

Information management can is clear information that can be encoded, stored and transmitted [12]. Making organizational information registered information, forward information to the correct place in the organization and transfer it to the next the employees will prevent the recurrence of the worked steps and will also reduce the error rate [10]. Information management process will be damaged when any human error, faults or inaccuracies occur in information, which is transmitted, by an employee or manager during storage, recording or transmission of information. Social constructs like societies, organizations and leadership are chaotic, inter-dependent, non-linear systems that are closely tied to initial conditions [6]. According to the chaos theory, chaos has sensitive to initial point [1]. In this sense, in information management process chaotic situations will be experienced. So, necessary information that cannot be transmitted in time and correctly causes disruption of activities carried out in the organization and this situation will prevent the achievement of the organization’s success and reaching goals. Because organizations’ intellectual accumulation and information that play a decisive role in success or failure and in daily decisions have been transferred by information management [10].

Today, because of information management process uses information technology and management information systems if stored information cannot protect or back up, the chaotic situations will be existed in the organization. Intellectual memory of the organization would not be protected. This situation has a direct negative impact on the success of the organization. Chaos is a source of life and also a reality for organizations and people as living and self-organizing systems [4]. So, if principals cannot manage crisis situations and chaos in work environment, that organization should not function [5]. So, necessary precautions should be taken to prevent information loss and managing information management process in an healthy manner.