Role of Information in an Organization

1. Organizations gather and distribute information. Therefore, the right information helps with making decisions. However, in the process of gathering and distributing, information is distorted. Some of the distortions are intentional while the rest are unintentional.
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3. Many times, employees are requested to summarize data in order to report it to supervisors. In the process of summarizing the data some parts are normally left out. The role of information includes:
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5. · Information for communication
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7. Information plays a critical role in communication. It is a vital resource for undertaking work within the organization. Business managers normally spend much of their time in reading, writing, meetings and communicating with other departmental heads, vendors and customers by e-mail, in person, via telephone.
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9. As a matter of fact, management involves information processing. It entails gathering, processing as well as disseminating information. The process of managing information entails coping with various sources of information and then making decisions.
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11. During the course of the business, the marketing manager receives information via e-mail, letters, reports, telephone calls, memos, formal & informal conversations and trade publications. He/she then makes the decision to store it, use it, discard it and/or pass it on.
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13. · Information for decision making
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15. Every task, job and/or project involves the process of decision making. Making decisions is the process of identifying, choosing and implementing alternatives. Right information, it its right form and right time is facilitated to help with making correct decisions.
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17. For instance on the basis of information pertaining to competitors, customers and production capabilities, the manager will be in a place to inform top executives on the need of making a strategic decision. Top executives can utilize the information derived from a manager to consider alternative courses of actions.
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19. The alternative courses of actions can be evaluated based on cost, consistency with the corporate strategy, feasibility and other criteria. Top executives will be in a position to choose alternatives that make business sense for implementation.
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21. · Information & the environment
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23. It is important for organizations to strive in making sense of their business environment if at all they are to survive, to achieve and/or to exceed performance objectives. The business environment is a source of useful information. This explains why organizations work hard to watch their competitors and listen to their clients.
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25. Therefore, the information processing system needs to be integrated properly while the necessary information flows from the business environment and supplied by the right people. For example, it is important to share customer complaints about a particular product with the product development team to redesign the product.