The paper attempts to provide a general framework for dealing with management information systems (MIS). An MIS is defined to have the following characteristics: (1) related to ongoing activities of an organization, (2) a man-machine system, (3) composed of a collection of subsystems, and (4) oriented around a large data base. An MIS places a special burden on the processing functions of (1) data collection, (2) data storage, (3) data retrieval, and (4) data display. A well-designed MIS provides valuable aid to decision-makers, particularly at the tactical level but increasingly also at the strategic level. The aid can vary from: (1) no significant aid, (2) unselective information retrieval, (3) selective information retrieval, (4) man-machine decision aids, (5) automatic decision-making, and (6) a completely integrated decision model. The extent to which the MIS is integrated is an exceedingly important issue. Integration has two aspects: integration of data-processing functions and integration of organizational activities. Both forms of integration involve increased coupling among subsystems and greater sharing of common resources. The choice of the degree of integration involves a trade-off between independence and coordination: coordination increases efficiency and reduces penalties of suboptimization, but at the cost of greater complexity and an increased need for information processing. Both forms tend to be favored by advances in information technology. (NTIS)