Envisioning management of information

A. Ramaprasad and A. Rai

Omega, 1996, vol. 24, issue 2, 179-193

Abstract: Organizations generate and dissipate information. The main argument of this paper is that managing the information generation-information dissipation-organization cycle is central to the performance of a modern organization. The two key goals in managing the cycle are to ensure that the cycle is positively reinforcing, and that generation and dissipation are balanced. A positively reinforcing cycle will result in a continuously learning, effective organization; a negatively reinforcing cycle, on the other hand, will result in a decadent, ineffective organization. A cycle in which generation and dissipation are balanced is functional; lack of balance manifests itself as dysfunctionalities such as information overload, information in jail, and misinformation. An organization is a cause as well as a consequence of information generation and dissipation. Consequently, the effectiveness of an organization depends upon the semiotics of the stimuli and agents used for information generation and dissipation. A manager who understands the stimuli, agents, and semiotics--tacitly or explicitly--will be more effective than one who does not. The role of a researcher is to explicate the tacit knowledge if it exists, and to develop new knowledge if it does not, and thereby to make the information generation-information dissipation-organization cycle more effective and efficient.

Keywords: management; of; information; information; systems; MIS; learning; (organizational) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0305-0483(95)00061-5
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jomega:v:24:y:1996:i:2:p:179-193

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Omega is currently edited by B. Lev

More articles in Omega from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().