School of Library and Information Science
Indiana University

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L547: The Organizational Information Resource
Summer 1996
Tuesday, Thursday, 9:00-11:45 AM
Room 001

hrosenba@indiana.edu

Introduction

Why should we think about and study the role of information in organizations? Why consider the problem of organizational information resources (OIR) at all? Many years ago, Weick (1969; 42) had the insight that "the basic raw materials on which organizations operate are informational inputs that are ambiguous, uncertain, equivocal." More recently, Choo (1996; xi) argued that "Information is the organization's strategic resource ... it is ... the meta-resource that coordinates the mobilization of the other assets in order for the organization to perform." It is now commonplace to consider information management a critical managerial function (Mintzberg, 1990; 18) although its nature and the processes that play a role in successful or problematic information management are not well understood. The problem of OIR has been concisely stated by Katzer and Fletcher (1992; 227):

In a world of diminishing resources, the key managerial resource - information - abounds. Unfortunately, managers find themselves bombarded with information - too much, too fast, too late. Interestingly, even with an over supply of information, managers believe that they do not get all the information they need to do their jobs. The dilemma is clear: on the one hand, managers receive too much information, while, on the other hand, they don't get enough of the right information.

The manager's dilemma translates into a problem which defines the basic job function of the organizational i managers the right information in the right format and the right amount at the right time. Given this problem, it is clear that the study of OIR is critically important.

What is the organizational information resource? A resource is something which:

• Allows a manager to get from here to there;

• Allows her/him to add value or transform a raw material into a commodity; and

• Is itself a raw material which can be transformed with the help of other resources into a commodity.

In what way can information be considered a resource? According to Best (1996; 9):

There are two major divisions to the role which information plays in business process:

1 Where information is the raw material and subject of the process, for example...credit card activity...;

2 Where information facilitates the process by way of allowing control, monitoring, oversight, etc., for example in accounting systems

In addition to information, information technologies, the telecommunications infrastructure, and people are also components of OIR.

Information managers, therefore, work with OIR to satisfy specific organizational objectives; in other words, to get from here to there. To do this in the current private and public sector environments, they must be prepared to adopt new models of OIR, to restructure tasks and procedures, to develop new accounting practices for information and to take a view of organizational information which embraces facts, data, intelligence, personnel, and equipment. These approaches may focus on the elements of an organization's information resources, and how they interlock (an "entity model" focusing on processes that resemble construction with Lego), or they may focus on the dynamics of information within an organization (a "flow model" resembling the study of traffic flow). They need not be exclusive - structure is modified by flow, and flow may be constrained by structure. By taking new perspectives towards OIR, by adopting new metaphors, information managers may more successfully align information resources with rapidly changing organizational objectives; such perspective changes and paradigm shifts are parts of modern information management practice.

This course will introduce you to some of the approaches and methodologies which have been proposed to study OIR and help managers exploit them. This will be accom developing a knowledge base and set of skills that will enable you to efficiently and effectively exploit OIRs in support of your professional goals; this facet of the course will include explorations of:

• Approaches to the study of the OIR;

• Models for the management of OIR;

• Techniques for capturing the range of OIR and assessing their value; and

• Ways in which organizational members use information resources.

Second, there will be an investigation of OIR from sociological, managerial, technical, and policy perspectives which will provide you with the background you need to understand the roles information resources play in organizational settings and the ways in which they are altering the world in which we work. The proliferation and integration of OIR and telecommunications and information networking technologies will continue to characterize modern complex organizations into the next century; it is imperative that information professionals become familiar with and easily able to navigate in this world. If we are to manage the changes brought about by these resources and technologies and address the manager's dilemma, we must begin to understand their organizational impacts, particularly the ways in which they are changing the nature of communication, management, and work in academic, industrial, and governmental organizations.

In this course, we will investigate OIR as social, economic, strategic, and techno logical phenomena, focusing on the ways in which information-based organizations are making use of these resources, and the impacts they are having on organizational communication activities, productivity, and information seeking behavior. With this background, you will have an opportunity to play an active role in defining what an "information manager" or "knowledge worker" is and what s/he does, and in determining the structures, functions, and uses of these resources in organizational settings. In doing so, you will help move information work into the next century.

Sources:

1. Choo, C.W. (1995). Information Management for the Intelligent Organization: The Art of Scanning the Environment. Medford, NJ: Information Today.

2. Best, D. (1996). Business management and inforamtion value. In Best, D. (Ed.). The Fourth Resource: Information and Its Management. London, UK: ASLIB Gower. 3-17.

3. Mintzberg, H. (1990). Mintzberg on management. New York, NY: Harper and Row.

4. Weick, K. (1969). The Social Psychology of Organizing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

This page prepared by Howard Rosenbaum
Last update: 6.10.96
hrosenba@indiana.edu