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information management applications
The application of management principles to the acquisition, organization, control, dissemination and use of information relevant to the effective operation of organizations of all kinds. 'Information' here refers to all types of information of value, whether having their origin inside or outside the organization, including data resources, such as production data; records and files related, for example, to the personnel function; market research data; and competitive intelligence from a wide range of sources. Information management deals with the value, quality, ownership, use and security of information in the context of organizational performance.
Introduction
The term 'information management' is used ambiguously in the literatures of several fields: in computer science and its applications it is used as a synonym for information technology management (Synott and Gruber 1981) or as identical to 'data management', where the emphasis is on the structures underlying quantitative data and their relationship to the design of databases. In business or management studies it has similar connotations to technology management, with an emphasis on the relationship of information technology to business performance and competitiveness (Synott 1987). In the field of librarianship and information science it is identified with the 'emerging market' for information workers (managers), whose perception of information embraces data, organizational intelligence, competitive intelligence, external information resources of all kinds and the associated technology (manual or machine) for handling these different sources. Compared with the other areas, information management in this latter context is more widely concerned with the meaning of information for the information user and with information retrieval issues.
Information management, 'information resource(s) management', and 'knowledge management'
A further difficulty in defining information management arises out of the often synonymous use of the term information resource (or resources) management (IRM), the term used by the US National Commission on Federal Paperwork in its report (1977), where 'paperwork', including electronic documents of all kinds, was defined as constituting the information in IRM. This usage appears to limit the idea of IRM, but the report goes on to say that an IRM function (in US government agencies) would incorporate a wide range of disparate activities, including records management, library management, computer systems, printing and reprography, microforms and word-processing centres. Schneyman (1985) elaborates on this definition of IRM to cover five types of 'information resources': systems support, including
computers and telecommunications; processing data, images, etc.; conversion and transformation, including reprographics; distribution and communication, including network management and telecommunications; and, finally, retention, storage and retrieval, which covers libraries, record centres, filing systems, and internal and external databases. He adds that, 'IRM supports IM by providing the technical capability and overall guidance for IM to do its job', which the defines as managing the ownership, content, quality and use of information.
This expansion of the idea, of course, takes it into the difficult area of the interface between information resources, in the sense of data, documents, etc., and the technology used to manipulate, manage and transmit those resources, with the result that information technology becomes characterized as an information resource. This is a source of endless confusion in the literature so that, for example, when Strassman (1976) writes on 'Managing the costs of information' he is really discussing the problem of accounting for the costs of computer-based systems.
More recently, the term 'knowledge management' has entered professional vocabulary, confusing the situation further. In the 1990s the concept of 'knowledge management' emerged from the management consultancies as yet another of the 'methodologies' for improving organizational performance, following business process re-engineering, the learning organization, total quality management, and all the other methodologies back to Taylor and 'scientific management'. Quite what is managed in knowledge management is difficult to determine, however. Certainly, it cannot be knowledge, which is in our heads, or, as Peter Drucker has said, '…between two ears, and only between two ears…' (Kontzer, 2001) The first text on the subject was by the Swedish management consultant (now resident in Australia) Karl-Erik Sveiby (1990) under the Swedish title, Kunskapledning. Curiously, Sveiby himself now says that he does not like the term and that it decomposes into the management of information and the management of people (Sveiby, 2001)
From the information systems perspective, software houses have been quick to re-brand their products as 'knowledge management software', rather than groupware, information retrieval software, or even e-mail. This strategy has been referred to as 'search and replace marketing'. A stock market 'Knowledge Management Index' exists (Information Technology Toolbox, Inc.,
- which follows the fortunes of twenty-seven companies, none of which describes itself as a 'knowledge management' company, and only one of which has a product marketed under the knowledge management label. An examination of the company Web sites reveals that the majority of them are marketing some kind of database technology in the form of information retrieval systems, customer relationship management, groupware, e-
Caudle concluded that the realization that information is a resource, 'is developing much more slowly than the Paperwork Reduction Act's designers likely intended' and, perhaps with more optimism than is justified by the research, that 'once the information technology infrastructure is in place and the IRM offices themselves become operationally mature, IRM offices managers and their organizations should be ready to take further steps toward true IRM'.
In the UK, the development of information management did not receive the same impetus from government, which since 1979 has been concerned with establishing the concept of the 'market' in what was the public sector. The same attitude has prevailed towards information: thus, the report of the Information Technology Advisory Panel, Making a Business of Information (1983), was concerned simply to direct attention to the business opportunities in the information sector. Later, the Government produced guidelines for departments on dealing with business in seeking to derive benefit from 'tradeable information' (DTI 1990).
There was an attempt, however, to introduce the fundamental concepts of information management in government departments when the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency produced guidelines for departments, following an investigation into departmental practices (CCTA 1990). One of the main planks of the guidelines was the recognition that responsibility for information resources was diffused over different sections in most departments and that there was a need to ensure effective collaboration among the resourceholders and, possibly, the integration of these services (particularly data management, records management and library and information services) under a single director.
The Definitions Task Group of the IRM Network (1993), which operates under the aegis of Aslib: the Association for Information Management, has provided concise description of the nature of information management and associated ideas. Clarifying somewhat the relationship between information management and information resources management, the Group associates the former with the task of managing the relationship between organizational objectives, management processes, and information needs in the development of an information strategy and in deriving from that strategy an IT strategy and an information systems strategy.
An information systems strategy is the definition of systems (technological and otherwise) that are needed to satisfy information needs, whereas an IT strategy defines the way in which the technology can support the systems strategy.
Information resources management is, then, defined as applying 'the general principles of resources management to identify discrete information resources, establish ownership and responsibility, determine cost and value, and to promote development and exploitation where appropriate'. This brief account of the development of information management serves to show that a degree of consensus can be seen to have emerged, but the relationships to other managerial issues in organizations are such that considerable scope exists for confusion over disciplinary or intra-organizational boundaries.
The elements of information management
Several strands have contributed to the development of information management. First, it has its origins in a variety of fields that have had to do, traditionally, with the acquisition, organization, maintenance and use of documents: archives and records management, and librarianship and information science (especially in special librarianship and information work). Many of the areas of concern within IM have long been the concern of other professional groups in the information field, including database design and development, information storage and retrieval, and the economics of information.
Second, the development of information technology, and its growing application to all aspects of information management, has been a strong formative influence. The costs of computer-based systems draw direct attention to the issues of the value of information and cost-benefit relationships in the development of information systems and services. Where the costs of such systems have previously been hidden in the work done by a wide range of organizational staff members, their sudden emergence into significance consequent upon the introduction of computers has caused organizations to view information functions in a new light.
Finally, the wide application of information ideas, developed in the business schools, widely accepted in business, and given prominence in the business press and in the media generally, and applied increasingly in public-sector organizations, has resulted in the acceptance of such concepts as strategic planning, cost-benefit analysis, resource management and marketing.
Information requirements
All aspects of information management must be grounded in a consideration of the information requirements (or information needs) of customers or clients of the information systems and services. The study of information needs has occupied information science for almost fifty years, but other disciplines, notably computer science, have also had an interest (Wilson 1994).
- circulation, access, loan, use;
- back-up procedures and disaster recovery plans;
- retention schedules and destruction.
The life cycle will vary from organization to organization depending on the nature of the information, the means used to organize it, the extent of use and the controls put upon use.
The Commission on Federal Paperwork set out a very basic life cycle, which identified the following five stages: requirements' determination, collection, processing, use and disposition, with the following comment on its relationship to information management: 'At each of these stages, information values must be estimated and measured, costed and accounted for, just as Government now does for any other resource' (Commission on Federal Paperwork 1977: 43).
The life cycle of information in the Department of State, referred to by Horton and Pruden (1988) (and slightly revised here) is rather more developed and more directly related to internal documents and records:
Stage 1 draft/revise document
Stage 2 clearance or approval
Stage 3 formal and informal exchanges on document content
Stage 4 local retrieval and re-use (either manual or electronic)
Stage 5 acquisition and indexing by a central archive
Stage 6 central retrieval and re-use
Stage 7 primary and secondary distribution
Stage 8 disposition, i.e. permanent retention, limited archiving or destruction
Stage 9 systems administration.
The last stage is not so much a stage as the overall administration of the foregoing stages, involving, for example, security classification, password control for electronic files, and other housekeeping functions.
Information resources
As noted earlier, there is some confusion over the concept of information resources, mainly as a result of the inclusion of technological resources in the concept. However, most commentators regard the following as constituting information resources in organizations.
Data
All organizations generate data about their activities. Thus, a local government department such as a housing department generates data on its housing stock, the physical state of the houses, the details of tenants and their rents, and so forth. A manufacturing company generates data on the production process, recording not only the number of items of each product manufactured in a given time, but also data on the reliability of the equipment used to produce those items, the turnover rate and sickness rate of workers, and the sales by outlet, by region and by sales person. Organizations also collect data on the state of their markets, the economic circumstances of the country or of its exports markets, and so on. All of these data are important, and some are more important than others because they enable the firm, for example, to identify potentially profitable products, markets and export areas. In other words, some data have potential for competitive advantage and must be maintained securely and effectively if the organization is to benefit from having them available.
Records
Data are very often associated with records of events, objects and persons. For example, a personnel record identifies an individual and includes many items of data that define the person - age, training level, sex, marital status, courses attended, year of entry to the organization, and many more. Again, a project will have many records associated with its management and ultimate completion, including all the data associated with, for example, product design and development, prototyping, market testing and full-scale production. Much of the information in these records will be textual in character and will consist of files of reports, test results, correspondence with suppliers, etc. Records of these kinds have long been the province of records management and procedures have been evolved to ensure their effective filing, security, storage and eventual disposal. The techniques of records management are now being applied to computer-based files, under the heading of information management.
Text
Textual information has long been the province of libraries and information centres, concerned, as they have been, with the acquisition, organization, storage and dissemination of printed materials, most often from outside the organization of which the library or information centre formed a part, but also often including the maintenance of stores of internal reports, particularly in research-intensive organizations. With the development of office automation systems and the creation of many more electronic documents in organizations, the producers of such systems have become increasingly
The economics of information
As noted earlier, the fact that information resources have associated costs has been an intrinsic part of the idea of information management from the beginning. Indeed, the Commission on Federal Paperwork was set up to identify the ways in which the costs associated with preparing documentation to satisfy government regulations or to bid for government contracts could be reduced.
These are, however, broader issues than those of the costs of information, from the scale of the 'information sector' of the economy to the 'value' of information. All of these issues present problems. The most basic of the problems is that of the value of information, a subject that has concerned information scientists for many years. The problem is exacerbated because value itself is used in a number of different ways both in ordinary speech and in accounting. However, there appears now to be a consensus that the value of information can only be considered in the context of its use and is therefore a user-driven concept not a producer concept. This means that the value of information can be determined post facto - after benefits have emerged from its use in some decision situation - but not before its use. The terms use-value and value-in-use were coined to convey this idea (see, for example, Repo 1986). Consequently, it is arguable that an information user must be prepared to bear at least part of the costs of information being provided (i.e. in Taylor's (1986) terms, those relating to the value-adding processes performed on data).
In macro-economics, a topic of abiding interest is that of the scale of the 'information sector' of the economy. This question is most closely associated with the work of Machlup (1962) and of Porat (1977), who attempted to define the information sector and determine its size relative to other sectors of the US economy.
An attempt to deal with the problems of cost-benefit relationship is given by Horton and Pruden (1988) in their account of the method used by the US Department of State (DOS) to estimate the value of implementing information management strategies in the Foreign Affairs Information System (FAIS). The life cycle of information in the FAIS consists of nine stages, from drafting to disposal, and estimates were made of the amount of time DOS officers were involved with some aspect of this life cycle. Estimates of the likely impact of the new systems on this expenditure of time were then made, as a measure of the benefits to be derived. The kinds of headings under which benefits might be expected were:
- improved productivity (efficiency)
- improved quality of decision-making
- improved performance of tasks (effectiveness)
- improved learning curve
- upgraded work-function importance
- automated replacement of certain manual tasks
- the discontinuation of certain tasks altogether
- greater interchangeability of personnel
- eliminated intermediate steps
- greater task overlapping
- less need for clerical support
- reduced reliance on paper files
- greater re-use of information assets
- faster response time
- reduced turnaround time
- tighter security and reduced violations
- decreased instances of lost or missing information.
Many of these anticipated benefits would be attributable to the use of information technology rather than being related to the intrinsic character of information, but, of course, unless the information itself was of value there would be little point in investing in the technology.
Improvement in productivity is one of the potential benefits of effective information management noted above. This aspect was touched upon in the White House Conference on Productivity (Strassman 1986), where it was noted that the costs of information workers are almost entirely hidden in the overheads of businesses. Here, of course, information worker means anyone whose primary function in the organization is to process information - hence, it includes all general managers, finance department staff, personnel managers, and many more.
The method proposed by the White House Conference for determining the productivity of information workers was that 'The adjusted ratio of labour- value-added (after subtracting operations labour costs) divided by information worker costs should be used as the measure of information worker productivity at the business-unit level of analysis'. 'Labour-value- added' is defined as the value-added remaining after the contributions of shareholders, suppliers and operating staff have been taken into account. However, this clearly requires the adoption by organizations of methods for
audits, undertaken to ensure that the organization is adhering to proper fiscal and legal standards in its financial management. Information audits take more the character of 'advisory' audits, which are 'more concerned with informing users of existing systems and practices and with assessing the appropriateness of existing systems, standards and practices to the organization's goal or objectives'.
Barker (1990) describes five types of information audit: those based on a cost-benefit model; those that seek to map the relationships between resources; hybrid approaches (which combine features of the first two); audits of management information; and operational advisory audits, which link organizational objective, information requirements, and compliance with regulations and standards.
Following her analysis Barker devised a model information audit consisting of ten stages:
- Establish the operational objectives and define the organizational environment.
2 Determine the information requirements for the users.
3 Inventory of the information resources.
4 Identify system failures and key control points.
5 Evaluate system failures.
6 Test key control points.
7 Generate alternative solutions for system failures.
8 Evaluate the alternatives.
9 Check conformity of the system with existing regulations and standards.
10 Propose recommendations.
The identification of information resources requires techniques akin to those of cataloguing, i.e. the resources must be described as books are described, according to a standard code of practice. The state of New Jersey adopted such a strategy in its 'InfoFind' tool, which 'describes the state's information sources and identifies the state workers who are most knowledgeable about them: the information custodians' (Stone 1988).
Information mapping
The term information mapping is most closely associated with the name of Forest 'Woody' Horton but has also been used by Best (1985). Best, however,
uses the term in the context of introducing information technology in organizations and takes a systems analytical approach to developing an IT strategy.
Horton, who takes a view of information resources more in accord with this article, has been responsible for the development of the information audit into a highly structured tool, which he calls information mapping, for part of which he has developed a software package known as Infomapper. Both the book (Burk and Horton 1988) and the software package present a highly structured way of identifying and recording the information resources of an organization, keyed to departments and hierarchical levels, with indications of 'ownership', responsibility for updating and other matters such as purging and disposal. The book, however, goes beyond the software in setting out, in addition, graphical representations of the information resource 'map', and approaches to measuring the costs and the value of information.
Recently, information mapping has a acquired another meaning, in the guise of 'knowledge mapping', by which is meant, the identification of people's skills and competencies. This idea is an old one in new clothes, first arising in the personnel management literature in the 1960s (e.g., Bronstein 1965), resurfacing when mainframe computers replaced 5"x3" cards (e.g, Hoey 1972), and having a further lease of life when desktop computer networks became common. The proponents of 'knowledge mapping', however, appear to be unaware of these earlier manifestations of the same concept. However, there is scope for further confusion, because the term is also used in cognitive science research as a way of determining what is learnt in learning tasks (see, e.g., Herl, et al. 1999)
Communication audits
The communication audit predates information management as a tool for the investigation of communication in the field of organization theory. Emerging out of that field, it has also found a place in the management of organizations where it is used to identify barriers to communication and possibilities for improvement. In this area the tools developed by Goldhaber (1974) and Goldhaber and Rogers (1979) for the International Communications Association (ICA) have had most impact. ICA instruments have been used most in exploring communication between management and employees in organizations. The role of communications audits was explored by Booth (1986, 1988) and, more recently, by Potter (1990), who categorized communication audits as being used to measure the effectiveness of introducing IT in an organization, interpersonal communications, communication between management and employees, the effectiveness of organizational communications, or public relations activity.
company. In a UK study, Leow & MacLennan (2000) found a high acceptance of intranets as a central part of information strategies in banks.
Whatever the nature of development, however, there is little doubt that the intranet and connection to the Internet has drawn attention in organizations to the need to access and manage textual information as much as information systems have previously managed corporate data.
Access, privacy and security: information and the law
Information management aims to improve the effectiveness of organizations by managing information as a resource - providing access to relevant information in a timely and cost-effective manner. However, this aim carries with it the problem of determining who needs access to organizational information and data, whether the privacy of individuals needs to be protected, and what levels of security need to be in place to ensure not only privacy but also the protection of competitive intelligence.
In the UK, the Data Protection Act of 1984 established the legal basis for the protection of personal data in computer files and provided citizens with the basis for ensuring that such information was accurate and protected from misuse. There have been some doubts about the extent to which the aims of the Act have been realized, particularly as the cost to the citizen of obtaining information on the data held is set by the data-holder and can be high.
In Europe generally, the European Commission's draft directive on the protection of personal data (Commission of the European Communities 1992) is intended to harmonize legislation across Europe and to require those states that have not yet produced such legislation to do so. The overall aims are very much those of the UK Data Protection Act but grounded in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights. The definition of personal data files, however, is wider, covering not only electronic files but also manual files, and a great deal of uncertainty and confusion exists as to its future operation regarding, for example, library catalogues and bibliographic databases that might be regarded as constituting personal data.
In the USA, the 'Poindexter Memorandum' (Systems Security Steering Group
- caused a violent protest when it sought to restrict access to government information on the grounds of national security. In seeking to protect what it called 'sensitive, but unclassified' information the memorandum could have led to what was regarded as wholly unjustified restrictions on access to information and it was ultimately withdrawn.
In the past, librarians and information managers needed to think of information law almost solely in terms of copyright but, as Knoppers (1986)
points out, the situation is now very different. He notes that the information manager should
- be responsible for identifying any existing information laws that affect the organization;
- serve as the 'missing link' between legal services … the human resources and management information systems departments, and operational units of the organization to coordinate their activities and ensure that information law requirements are being met on a day-to-day basis regardless of the information technology used;
- ensure that information law compliance is integrated into the systems design methodology of the organization; and
- advocate changes in information law when compliance with it inhibits the introduction of new information technologies, thereby threatening the competitiveness and viability of the firm.
Information policy and information strategies
Information policy may be determined for any level of organization, from the international community to the individual organization. Information policy has become a subject for debate at the international level in Europe as a result of the attempts by the European Commission to aid the development of the European information industry.
As noted earlier, in the UK the focus of national policy has been on the business opportunities in the information sector and on 'tradeable information' held by government departments, which might constitute opportunities for business as well as earning income for the departments. More recently, following the American lead, a statement on the public-sector opportunities provided by the notion of the information superhighway (CCTA
- has been produced. The idea of the information superhighway came to prominence as a result of the Clinton administration's declaration on a national (US) information superhighway, building on the achievements of the Internet (National Telecommunications and Information Administration 1993).
Information management has developed out of the perception that information is crucially important to the success of business organizations and to the productivity of public sector agencies. At the organizational level, therefore, an information policy defines the overall aims and objectives of the organization in relation to information. As Lytle notes: 'Information policies relate to: (i) data, (ii) information processing equipment and software, (iii) information systems and services, and (iv) staff roles and
the competitiveness of the company in the world market for steel and its success is said by the authors to be due to
- intensive scanning for new information;
- identifying new business opportunities using IT;
- rapid information assimilation through organizational learning;
- information fusion for generating new innovations;
- intensive use of information through learning by doing and learning by using;
- building competence for achieving new business through tie-ups and rapid commercial utilization of already available technologies; and
- highly forward-looking and intensive information management strategy at the firm level.
While much of the focus of the paper is on the information technology strategies which were implemented to support the information strategy, it is notable that the company paid significant attention to information content and information sharing as the basis for its strategic business development.
Warning notes, however, are issued from all sides. For example, Galliers et al. (1994) have explored how information strategies fail and their conclusions are directly applicable to information policy and strategy. Failure is associated with: (1) the lack of a 'champion', someone at the highest level in the organization who takes upon himself or herself the task of arguing for resources, negotiating and restructuring, and otherwise setting the scene for the attainment of the policy (this is a frequently reiterated point in the literature - see, for example, Wilson 1989a); (2) a condition of rapid change in the business environment and the aims of the organization; (3) a lack of mutual understanding of the aims of the strategy and the means for its attainment on the part of the different actors in the development process; (4) a failure to provide the appropriate means for 'organizational learning' so that (3) may be overcome.
Sauer (1993) adds to these points the fact that the implementation of information systems is 'the product of a coalition of stakeholders'. One of the stakeholders is the organization set up to develop systems and it relies upon the support of the others (who have the power to obtain resources etc.) to attain its objectives. Failure occurs when the system development organization runs out of support because of, for example, failure to meet
expectations, or to deliver on time and within budget, or to deliver useful systems.
Strategic information systems
The idea that information has strategic value emerges out of the idea of information as an organizational resource and the related concept of competitive intelligence or environmental scanning (as the work referred to in the previous paragraph demonstrates). Thus, the information held in corporate databases may have strategic value in identifying new market opportunities or may itself constitute new information products. Such new opportunities and new products are strategic in the sense that they aid the competitive position of the organization and, given the tendency in the UK towards the adoption of market-oriented management in public services, today all organizations may need to adopt a competitive stance.
Again, an organization may scan the business environment for market opportunities, for threats to present competitive positions, for potential replacement products and services for those currently marketed, and for potential acquisitions. New products have recently been marketed to enable firms to scan the online databases and Internet resources for competitive intelligence. Such information is strategic information and the systems designed to acquire, store, organize and make available for use such information are strategic information systems. Choo (2001) has edited a useful series of papers on competitive intelligence and environmental scanning.
However, the use of information in strategic or competitive ways is not without its hazards, as Marx (1987) has pointed out. The case of computerized reservations systems (CRS) in the airline business is well known: American Airlines developed its CRS (known as SABRE) and agreed to carry information from other airlines. However, the system was set up in such a way as to give preference to information on American Airlines' flights. This was subsequently ruled to be unfair practice and American Airlines had to redesign its system.
Marx draws attention to other situations in which the competitive use of information and information systems may constitute unfair competition or restraint of trade or contribute to the creation of a monopoly position in an industry. All of this, of course, confirms the emergence of information as a key resource in business, to which the same legal constraints must be applied as are used to prevent monopolistic ownership of other means of production or distribution.
Education for information management
