A DELPHI STUDY ON MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (MIS) MODEL FOR DECISION-MAKING IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA UNIVERSITIES

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to model Management Information Systems (MIS) for decision-making by administrators of Universities in South-East, Nigeria. Seven research questions and seven hypotheses guided the study. The design of the study was survey research. The specific design was panel study and the Delphi technique was used to elicit responses from the administrators and the MIS experts in a two- round survey. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. Eighty-one items reflecting the components of the MIS Model such as MIS objectives, data collection procedures, data processing and analysis methods, data publication method, data dissemination methods, decision making areas and feedback mechanisms were generated and included in the questionnaire. Three experts from University of Nigeria, Nsukka validated the instrument. The final draft of the instrument had a 4-point scale of Very Appropriate, Appropriate, Inappropriate, and Very Inappropriate. The instrument was pre-tested on 17 respondents from a public university in Kogi State, Nigeria. Internal consistency reliability estimate of the instrument was 0.98 using   Cronbach Alpha technique.  The experts’ panel was made up of 30 experts consisting of 10 directors of Management Information Systems/Information Communication Technology, 10 academic staff and 10 administrative staff purposively selected from the 10 prublic universities in South-East Nigeria. During the round one survey, the 81-item questionnaire was administrated to the respondent. Sixty –nine items reached the panelists consensus while 12 items could not reach the consensus based on a mean cut-off point of 3.00 and standard deviation of less than 1.00. In the round two survey, the 69 items were re-administered to the respondents while the 12 items were discarded. Sixty-eight items that reached the panelist consensus in the round two survey were retained for data analysis while the one item on which consensus was not reached was discarded. The mean score was used to answer all the research questions. t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The following were the major results of the study. Twelve  MIS objectives were accepted as appropriate for the MIS Model, seven  data collection procedures, 10 data processing and analysis methods, seven  data publication methods, nine data dissemination methods, 14 decision –making areas and nine feedback mechanisms were identified and included in the MIS Model for decision- making. There were no significant differences between the mean responses of administrators and MIS experts regarding the MIS objectives, data collection procedures, data processing and analysis methods, data dissemination methods, decision- making areas and feedback mechanisms aspects of the model. There were significant differences between the mean responses of administrators and MIS experts regarding data publication methods of the MIS Model. Based on the findings of the study, one major educational implication was that the MIS has a high potential for making relevant information available. It was recommended that universities in South-East, Nigeria should adopt the MIS model to provide relevant information for effective and efficient management of the institutions.