Management Information Systems: Mitsubishi Motors Report

Introduction

A management information system is considered as one of the most effective and successful systems that are able to provide the necessary information in order to promote the development and management of any organization in time.

In this paper, the analysis of five aspects will be given in order to evaluate the work and success of Mitsubishi Motors as the chosen enterprise in the automobile manufacturing industry: global MIS and risks (promotion of the organization all over the world), ethical and social issues (improvement of relations on different levels), project failures (awareness about possible types and ways of their overcoming), e-commerce (productivity), and strategies (presentation of qualified services).

Discussion

Backgrounds of the enterprise. The automobile industry is one of the most popular and fast-spreading ones in the whole world. It usually deals with developing, manufacturing, and selling motor vehicles which are in demand among people of all races, ages, genders, and social statuses.

This is why there are many reasons of why Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is chosen for this report and the analysis of the issues in management information systems. This enterprise appeared on the world arena at the end of the 1800s and continues developing nowadays.

Management issues for consideration. Among the variety of issues which are inherent to management information systems, the aspects described below with their own peculiarities and ideas to be taken into consideration are chosen for the analysis.

Global MIS/risks may be characterized by the next issues: self-contained services and users’ involvement for testing purposes that is increased quickly and controlled poorly. The development of self-contained services provides the enterprise under consideration with an opportunity to influence considerably proper building and harmony of the manufacturing process.

Ethics is defined as a powerful set of moral values which have to be met by any organization and any group of people in it. This management aspect may be observed in such issues like invasion of privacy of individuals who are eager to be anonymous but still have to undergo recognition in the chosen industry or necessity to install different programs, additional material, and details to the already manufactured vehicle.

Project failures may be caused by numerous reasons, and one of them is poor quality of management or lack of practice. Mitsubishi Motors is not a newbie in this industry; this is why its experience should not be an obstacle and the reason to fail the project. However, such issues like wrong cost-benefit analysis for the current and the next year or socio-political situation in the country may impact the development of the company.

There are a number of strategies which may be used to tackle forces, to improve the relations between manufactures, buyers, and customers, and to develop information technologies on the proper level.

Among the existed variety, it is possible to define the following issues: development of entry-barriers which aim at creation different types of obstacles for new organizations and entrants and promoting more stable positions in present and future and differentiation of products and services according to the demands of people who have different cultures and incomes and live under various conditions.

Finally, such topic as e-commerce and its issues deserve a certain attention to be paid as well. This aspect of management information technologies has numerous characteristics because it starts its development in the late 1900s. Standardization of such business processes like manufacturing, advertising, and selling vehicles by means of multiple divisions (the more divisions are identified, the better quality of service is expected) is considered to be the first issue of e-commerce.

And the second issue that has to be admitted is improvement of Internet technologies and value propositions which evaluate customers’ demands and requirements and help to define what aspects have to be worked on more and what aspects have to be neglected, re-changed, or even omitted.

Viable options to consider for the organization. All above-mentioned issues are inherent to the organization under consideration (Mitsubishi Motors), any manager has to be able to present as many viable options to solve these issues and improve the situation as possible.

Lin et al. (2005) admit that “proper use of web-based information management systems has become a useful weapon for promoting interaction between enterprises and customers, achieving competitive advantages for companies, and storing and researching various knowledge (p. 112). This is why when such problems as, for example, a considerable tendency of self-contained services in the automobile industry.

Consideration of certain aspects in the certain area and lack of cultural differences’ understanding are considered to be the main problems and risks in global management information systems of any organization. And when the organization makes an attempt to focus on some personal ideas and interpretations, it is not always acceptable by other organizations and customers that lead to some misunderstandings and mistakes in the sphere.

The following point, users’ participation in testing products and service, also has its own negative points: users and customers differ from country to country, and, what is more serious, the conditions under which tests happen and under which the products are used differ as well, this is why it is necessary to pay more attention to this issue and be sure to provide proper conditions and services.

All professional managers have to inform customers as well as other sellers against possible misunderstandings and outcomes which cannot be predicted. Invasion of privacy is also a point that may be improved by managers.

For example, many automobile vehicles are equipped with different searching engines and details which help to define where the car is. However, not every customer is eager to share his/her privacy even in case to be protected from numerous frauds and thefts. As a result, this ethical issue may be improved by means of familiarization with all evident and hidden services.

What is more, “the expectation of privacy is lessened… because the automobile travels public thoroughfares and is subject to extensive government regulation” (Hewitt, 2000, p. 891). And another issue that is connected to social aspects and ethics and predetermined the actions which are required from customers.

For example, a customer buys a new car and expects that he/she does not have to do something more and can start driving at once. However, it is also necessary to remember about different precautions items such as protection of car-bottom or car-alarm. This is why to become ethically correct with customers and do not destroy their expectations, it is necessary for mangers to inform about such necessities.

Without any doubts, any cost-benefit analysis requires certain time, efforts, and resources (Katzen, 2006, p. 1317). The viable option that may be used to improve or even lessen the degree of project failure has to be directed to the work of analytics and their abilities to evaluate current state of affairs and give clear answers and more or less certain predictions.

The same happens to the evaluation of socio-political situation. There are a number of professionals who are responsible for such analysis, and in order to make their work more effective, it is better to re-evaluate their salary and working conditions and create a kind of stimulus for them.

The same actions may be taken to improve the process of differentiation products and, in this turn, attract customers’ attention. The development of entry-barriers may create a kind of support for the already developed organizations and enterprises so that their representatives become bothered with improvement of their services and skills instead of competing with other companies.

Standardization and development of Internet technologies is the last issue that has to be admitted and analyzed by any managers in any industry. Such manufactures and sellers like Mitsubishi Motors always take care of its client and potential customers, and their attempts to organize all information and define clearly their purposes, achievements, production, and services seem to be a powerful and reliable step.

Lessons to pay attention to

“Mitsubishi Motors is among those companies that have published a corporate sustainability program” those “environmental sustainability plan” is regarded as one of the most powerful ideas to minimize costs and improve the quality (Roosa, 2008, p. 192). This company and the ways of how information systems are managed and used may serve as a good example to rely on in this analytical report and to get all those lessons which may improve the understanding of the topic and management information systems.

One of the most significant lessons that are observed from the very beginning is the fact that it is almost always difficult for one organization to admit the demands of people from different countries with different needs and present qualified products for everyone. This is why the idea that representative office may fail to meet the basics of the company in order to satisfy the interests of possible customers.

However, there is one option that is accepted in a different ways, it is users’ involvement into manufacturing. This involvement for testing purposes as the aspect that leads to global MIS plays much more serious role and has more considerable effects. Managers are not always ready to define what functions need to be performed by manufactures, customers, and sellers, and the result of this mistake is observed in many different ways.

First, the lesson lies in the idea of definition what is ethically correct in the chosen industry and what is doubtful and help people make the necessary decision. Sophisticated managers have to pay much attention to ethics and social issues in the automobile industry because many people expect more then they have to due to deep trust and ongoing advertisements.

One more lesson and the material learnt differ because it is impossible to know for sure how economic or political crisis may influence the current state of affairs of the enterprise chosen.

For example, the economic crisis that is already lasting for one year in many European countries lead to decreasing in numbers automobile customers and those people who would like to repair or improve the already got vehicle. Such project failures are hard to prevent even for such serious and reliable enterprise as Mitsubishi Motors. This lesson has to be remembered in order to achieve the best results and be ready for unpredictable situations.

When the organization is able to define its strong and weak sides, it turns out to be easier to develop the necessary strategies and achieve good results in the defined time. The development of strategies also depends on the size of the organization because the large the company is, the more strategies and approaches are required.

One more point that has been accepted absolutely different is the role of e-commerce for such organizations as Mitsubishi Motors. The point is that “the Internet and other telecommunication networks increase the amount of information available to organizations and individuals… the amount of information available on the Internet more than doubles every year” (Turban et al., 2008).

Because of such frequent use of Internet technologies, it becomes more important to focus on the development of communication and differentiate everything according to groups and their demands. And the process of standardization of information seems to be one of the most effective because people will spend more time observing those sources where information is described clearly.

Conclusion

Management information systems turn out to be very important for the world business’ development and improvement as it is usually composed on numerous levels and touches upon different issues like security, initiatives, software system choices, etc.

The results of the report show that each management issue plays an important role and has its own characterization and description of functions and outcomes. MIS as well as other business systems are useful in many ways to gather, analyze, and utilize information on different levels. Strategy support, e-commerce, and ethical issues are the main fields in information technology system, and this the help of this report this fact becomes evident.

The evaluation of personal views on the topics and their role in the whole system is also important because it discovers new horizons and abilities of the system and also gives a number of lessons which have an impact on perception of management as a discipline that may be improved by managers any time.

Reference List

Hewitt, DJ 2000, ‘Don’t Accept Rides from Strangers: The Supreme Court Hastens the Demise of Passenger Privacy in American Automobiles’, Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 875-915.

Katzen, S 2006, ‘Cost-Benefit Analysis: Where Should We Go from Here?’, Fordham Urban Law Journal, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 1313-1319.

Lin, WT, Hung, YH, Huang, CT, & Wu, CC 2005, ‘A Performance Evaluation of the After-sales Service Information Systems Provided by the Taiwanese Machine Tool Industry’, International Journal of Management, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 112-126.

Roosa, SA 2008, Sustainable Development Handbook. The Fairmont Press, Lilburn.

Turban, E, Leidner, D, & Lean, E 2008, Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy. John Wiley & Sons, New York.