Sharing The Wealth

Sharing the Wealth

A Successful Information Management Strategy Builds

A Strong Confluence of Technology and Culture

Outline

I. Introduction

II. Overview

a. Goals of Information Management

b. Information Management vs. Knowledge Management

c. Benefits it brings the organization

III. Technological Factors

i. Managing Codified Knowledge

(Managing Codified Knowledge)

ii. Connecting People and IT

(An Organizational Memory Approach to Information Management)

IV. Cultural Factors

i. Corporate Controls

(The Role of Organizational Controls In Managing Knowledge)

ii. Social Networks

(Knowing What We Know: Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social Networks)

iii. Diversity

(Team Diversity and Information Use)

V. Conclusions

Abstract

Knowledge serves strategic, operational, optimization and error-avoiding roles in an organization. The purpose of this research is to explore the dimensions of the task, and to demonstrate that a successful information management strategy requires that both the availability of information (via technology) and the utilization of information (via culture) be addressed if the organization is to achieve improvements in efficiency and productivity. Studies from five academic journals has lead me to hypothesize that technology can be a strong facilitator but knowledge management requires an understanding of and willingness to make use of both technology and social science.

Thesis: A successful information management strategy requires both the availability of information (accomplished with technology) and the utilization of information (accomplished culturally) to achieve improvements in efficiency and productivity in the organization.

Organizations have always struggled to accumulate, organize, and use information. Knowing what activities to pursue, and how best to pursue them is critical to the continuous process of exploitation, adaptation, and optimization that characterizes the organization in operation.

This importance has grown, and in the modern era is more crucial to organizational performance than ever. The major industrialized nations have transitioned from a resource-oriented industrial base towards a system that emphasizes information and services. For companies that exemplify this trend, information is no longer just a critical means to an operational end; the information itself is the product the company offers.

Meanwhile, the advent of high speed computer networks and large-scale enterprise databases give the organization greater capabilities than ever to collect, manage and disseminate information. World-spanning wired and wireless networks give people greater abilities to communicate in real time within and between highly diverse communities. Increasingly, organizations are bombarded with more data, more kinds of data, and more perspectives on how best to utilize data than ever before.

These changes are still under way, and both academia and the enterprise are still struggling to comprehend the sheer breadth of the revolution. Therefore, examination in detail of this issue is both important and timely. As nascent business managers, our role will likely be to navigate these tumultuous times, developing systems and organizations that can build the best competitive advantage from the whirlwind of data that will surround us. In addition, we must train and manage our employees to operate in this oft-confusing and ever-changing environment.

Companies have struggled with a number of approaches to information management, with varying levels of success. The purpose of this paper is to explore the dimensions of the task, and to hypothesize that a successful information management strategy requires that both the availability of information (via technology) and the utilization of information (via culture) be addressed if the organization is to achieve improvements in efficiency and productivity.

Overview

Information management is “the process by which relevant information is provided to decision makers in a timely manner” (Anand, Manz, Glick, 796). Some examples of this include:

• A customer service representative, dealing with a customer regarding a problem, benefits from knowing any prior history that customer may have had with the organization, his company’s policies and procedures for dealing with that customer’s situation, as well as any defects, limitations or common mis-uses of his company’s product.

• A field utility engineer assigned to diagnose an on-site problem benefits from knowing about that particular site and having contact with experts at headquarters who may also be diagnosing the problem from there. He also benefits when on-site security and technical personnel know who he is, why he is there, and allow him access to the site.

• A purchasing manager choosing a vendor will want historical information on product quality, pricing and service. He will also benefit from expert opinions about the merits of different competing products. Finally, knowledge about a vendor’s financial stability might also influence his purchasing decisions.

Therefore, information management requires information to be collected, its relevance to potential decision makers to be judged, and information to be transmitted to those decision makers who would benefit from it. This is a complex process. Research continues into exactly how these steps can best e accomplished.

Information Management VS Knowledge Management

Research into knowledge management is also tinged with ambiguity. Knowledge itself is highly protean, and can be found to have many characteristics. Knowledge can be cyclical,