Abstract

It has been a decade since a workshop was conducted in Hawaii with the intent of discussing and giving the domain of Management Information Systems some structure so as to aid in the area of research [Jenkins, 1986]. The past ten years have not led to a plethora of works whose intention was to define, clarify, or better explicate the role of MIS in today's disciplinary hierarchy. Do we understand WHEREMIS belongs any better today than we did at the 1986 conference? This paper is an attempt to put the pieces which have been strewn over the past years into some order so that we can observe what has been done and offer some direction as to possible points of convergence as well as potential theoretical advancement. This paper is a work in progress in the sense that an effort has been made to gather many of the pieces and now suggest some possible avenues for coalescence and growth (Habermas and Parsons). The author feels that Parsons and the "functionalist" perspective will provide direction in the understanding of the purpose and the possible placement of the complex, elusive and formidable realm expressed as Management Information Systems.

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