Information Ecology - Chapter 5 Politics - Review Politics = Power Natural and inevitable component of IM Politics must be addressed explicitly.

Information Ecology - Chapter 5Politics - Review

• Politics = Power• Natural and inevitable component of IM• Politics must be addressed explicitly

Information Ecology – Chapter 5Politics - Review

• 4 Models of Information Control:

Monarchy Federalism Feudalism Anarchy

More central control Less central control

Information Ecology – Chapter 7Information Staff - Review

• People matter more to IS now than ever– Defining, analyzing, creating, maintaining, managing,

advising on information resources– “Content interpreters” – add value to data– “Computers by themselves are limited to such relatively

simple tasks as storing and retrieving, which means that information must be supported by people.”

• Must focus on business value and use of information rather than technical tasks of storing and searching

• What was the name of the movie whose clips we saw last week?

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

• Information behavior – how individuals approach and handle information– Searching, using, modifying, sharing, hoarding, ignoring

• Information culture – pattern of behaviors and attitudes that express an organization’s orientation towards information

• Most managers agree these are important but don’t manage explicitly– No one is responsible

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

• Most workers today are information workers– Manipulating information is frequent, primary activity

• Some part of an organization’s value lies in its knowledge– Technologies to capture/disseminate organizational

knowledge are of little use if people involved aren’t inclined to use them

• Managing information behavior should be akin to managing financial or HR behavior

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

Information behaviors that improve the IE:1) Information sharing• Voluntary act of making information available to

others (versus reporting)• Those who control the right information also

have the most power• Doing between peers (versus up/down hierarchy)

has biggest impact: horizontal data flow– E.g. knowledge database

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

• Required to make business processes cross-functional

• Barriers:– Functionally based information systems– Incompatible information architectures– Political/cultural differences

• Hoarding• Sharing credit

• Performance needs to be measured and rewarded differently

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

• Rotate managers between different functions• Frequent face-to-face meetings with other managers• Information sharing between companies

– i.e. within an industry– User groups

• Not all information should be shared• Management should have standards for what

information should be shared and with whom to share it– Political, emotional and/or technical barriers must be

removed

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

2) Information overload• Too much available information and too little

attention• Access to information is not enough• Must be communicated in a compelling way that

encourages audience to use it• Most information communicated in read/view mode– Little engagement on part of receiver– Even if received, it may not be acted upon

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

Secondary Engagement AttributesContent Source Situation

Emotion Perceived expertise Perceived consequences

Brevity Power Comfort

Visual appeal Personal appeal Who initiated

Aural appeal Objectivity Individual vs group setting

Uniqueness Familiarity Voluntary vs mandated presence

Concreteness

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

• Organizations must develop IS to focus attention on key information– Initiatives to increase use of information in

decision making (versus “gut”)

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

3) Dealing with multiple meanings– E.g. what is a “customer”– Each organization has own definition, own database

• For key information, central control may be best– May not be optimal for all organizations –

compromise– Need to monitor and police use across organizations

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

• Getting Behavior to Change – IT not enough – behavior change not objective– Communication with impacted community must be

broad, frequent and ongoing• Appropriate rewards/controls must be in place to

reward/discourage behavior– Enforcement must be taken seriously– Rewards/sanctions must be administered consistently– Incentives to do the right thing must be advertised– Should be part of employee evaluation

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

• Issue guidelines/policies/tools to help individuals structure personal IE– Emphasize information use versus “Big Brother”– Total information freedom expensive– Rules are often implicit and part of office politics

• Start with managing information behavior of individuals/small groups before taking on entire organization– Importance of senior management modelling good behavior

• Non-management is a form of management

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

Impact of IT on information behavior• Firms assume because technology has been

implemented, people are using it• Too much email?– Policies about who to send/reply to– Read only at certain times of day

• Employees need help to choose how to share information

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

Tactics for Information Behavior Management• Communicate that information is valuable• Clarify information strategy/objectives• Identify needed information competencies• Focus on managing specific types of information content• Assign responsibility for IB, making it part of

organizational structure• Create committee/network to address IB issues• Educate employees about IB• Raise sticky IM issues with everyone

Information Ecology – Chapter 6Information Behavior & Culture

Assessment Survey for IB and Culture:• My organization has clearly identified the types of IB

and overall IC it wants to have• Employees are evaluated and rewarded on the basis of

particular IB – e.g. sharing, improving presentation• My organization has established and documented the

IBs it wants to encourage• Training is provided to help develop desired IB• We recruit and hire employees in part because of their

IB

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• IM: structured set of work activities that make up the way in which organizations capture, distribute, and use information and knowledge.– Identify all steps in process– All resources– All people– All problems that arise

• May lead to changes that make a difference

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• IM as process:– Emphasizes measurability and improvement– Description aspect of IE– Implies ownership: Process Manager– Implies customers– Introduces cross-functional approach to utilize

methods, tools and techniques across organizations

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

Steps for generic IM process:1) Determine Requirements– Difficult since must identify how managers and

workers make sense of their IE– Political, cultural, strategic, psychological aspects– Understand the problem before trying to solve it– The more time spent on this step, the less time spent

on implementation– Tension between spending this time and inevitable

change

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

“In order for an information-management-process model to have any real value, it has to reflect the turbulence, volatility and complexity of markets, workplaces and the human mind.”

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

2) Capture Information• Ongoing, iterative activity• Scanning information– Automated and human– Tailor to individual or organization; synthesize for

target audience– Filter noise to avoid information overload– Analysts are real key; add context, interpretation,

comparisons, local implications etc.– Ideally everyone scans and shares

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

Information from 3 sources:• Outside expertise – Publications, conferences

• Cognitive authorities– Individuals/institutions with credibility in field

• Inside scuttlebutt– Your own organization’s grapevine

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• Categorizing information– Human activity: people define• Categorization schemes• Mediate between others with different views• Monitor capture process to see if new categories

needed• Update categorization scheme frequently

– Labor intensive to do it well

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• What business function will be advanced by proposed categorization?

• What individual information behavior will be optimized by given categorization?

• What information is to be categorized? Does its structure lend itself to a natural categorization?

• Can existing categorization be utilized without overly compromising the IM objective?

• How will categorization scheme be maintained and updated over time?

• Process approach helps to point out IE components: strategy, politics, behavior, staff, technology

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• Formatting/Packaging Information– We utilize synopses rather than reading all the

details ourselves (style/presentation)– Often done via documents• Focus on what documents are used in an organization

to determine information requirements• Must be packaged appropriately and filtered for

intended audience• Should be on-line access

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

3) Distributing Information: connecting employees with the information they need• Generally few of the people who need it know

where to get it• Effective information architecture guides users

to what they need• Political structures like federalism make

distribution across organizations easier

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• Push or pull?– Push: central provider decides what to distribute to whom and when (passive)

• Users don’t know what they don’t know

– Pull: users are the best judges of what they need when they need it (active – must seek – Internet)

• Electronic distribution fast– How to get information into electronic form?– Sometimes faster to make a phone call

• Who should get information? – Needs to get to right audience to be useful

• E.g. service, performance feedback

– Stakeholders: investors, regulators, customers, community• “Organizational learning occurs not only through capturing information,

but from distributing it to others.”

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

4) Using Information: “Like medicine that’s never taken, information is no good until and unless it is used.”• Highly idiosyncratic – up to mind of user• Garner support via contract before actually

doing any information gathering• Ensure customer really wants and plans to use

the information

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processesv

• Measurement– Hits on database or document repository– Infrequently utilized information may be dropped or

modified– Popular information analyzed to determine why– Who is using

• Symbolic Actions– Executive example– Rewards/prizes/incentives– Mission statements/best practices

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• Institutional Context– Management meetings

• Performance Evaluation– Personnel oriented rewards/punishment– Evaluate based not only on outcome of decisions

but information and decision processes used to make them

Information Ecology – Chapter 8Information Management Processes

• How to improve the IM Process– Top down reengineering doesn’t work well in

knowledge/information professional settings• Insufficient worker participation• Radical measurable improvements in processes difficult to quantify

– Hire smart people and leave them alone• Doesn’t tend to lead to improved coordination and productivity

– Participatory approach that emphasizes outcomes versus detailed work steps and utilizes teamwork will likely deliver best results

– Emphasize:• constant improvement over time• Key roles played by people• Use of multiple interrelated factors