Information culture

Information culture refers to the manner and extent to which an organization values information. In this case, information means the intellectual resources and knowledge that have been acquired by the organization. The ways an organization uses and treats information are all part of its information culture. This culture includes the value the organization places on information, the practices it uses to grow and protect the information it has and to gain more, and the standards or norms it uses to direct its members in regard to acquiring, storing, and using information. Achieving a culture that gains, guards, and grows information is a strategic goal for many organizations because a strong information culture is often a factor in successful businesses.

Background

Information has long been a valuable resource. Even before humans could write, information could be shared and traded verbally, and those who knew the most were often held in high regard by others. Information was passed down verbally, preventing each generation from having to learn what those before them had discovered.

Once humans learned to write, beginning with early cuneiform writing around 3200 BCE, people had a way to store and save information that did not rely on the memory and life span of those who had gained the knowledge in the first place. By the seventh century BCE, people were recording the things they found most important and storing them in places that became known as libraries. The ancient Greeks and Romans had libraries that were not only the places where important information was stored but also where people went to learn and share information. In 859 CE, the al-Qarawiyyin library was opened in Morocco. After a renovation in 2012, it remained the world's oldest surviving library. These structures and the carefully prepared tablets, scrolls, and books they contained indicated the value these cultures placed on information.

Overview

Information continues to be a very valuable resource, but storage is now often done electronically. The degree to which an organization, company, or socioeconomic group develops and promotes behaviors, practices, values, and norms for dealing with information defines its information culture. The organization will use its values, or core beliefs about its purpose and mission, and its norms, or widely accepted standards, to determine the behaviors and practices that it will use with regard to its information.

This information culture definition is further refined by the way people relate to and interact with the information. This includes how the information is changed and transformed through those interactions, and the social and organizational principles that are applied to the information. The relationship between people and information is at the heart of information culture.

Experts have determined that information is used in one of several main ways. It can be for enlightenment; this is a way of understanding something in which the information is often the answer to "who, what, when, where, and how" questions. Information can also be for problem solving; this is a process of addressing questions in a more specific way rather than the enlightenment approach. Information can be purely factual, describing something as it really is, or it can confirm and verify other information. Some information is instructional or instrumental, providing instructions on how to do something. Other uses for information include personal objectives for developing relationships, predictive or projective information for determining something in the future, and motivational information that inspires or maintains inspiration for a particular action.

Experts categorize information cultures into four types. These include relationship-based culture, risk-taking culture, results-oriented culture, and rule-following culture. In a relationship-based culture, the emphasis is on how information is managed, stored, and disseminated inside the organization to promote its identity. The information supports cooperation and communication. The risk-taking culture focuses on how information is shared externally and emphasizes ways to explore new products or services or new ways to interact with people outside the organization; information is important as part of an entrepreneurial approach to decision-making. The results-oriented culture prizes accurate, detailed information that can help the organization assess progress toward goals and evaluate the end result when goals are reached; much of the information this type seeks is related to factors outside the organization, such as its customers and competition. The rule-following culture values information that helps the organization monitor its own progress and processes; the focus is on managing information from organizational operations that help the business understand how well it is performing.

There are several ways to evaluate an information culture. One is to analyze the organization's attitudes toward information. For instance, one can look at how information is viewed (enlightening, providing or verifying facts, solving problems, etc.), how much effort is placed into gathering trustworthy information (using primary sources, conducting original studies, etc.), how willingly information is shared and the types of formats in which it is shared (online and print, multilingual, etc.), and the degree to which technology is developed to support and share information.

Another area to analyze is the way employees, members, or other personnel within the group or company treat information. For example, an analyst might ask how well trained the employees are in using information and how consistently rules and norms related to information are followed. This demonstrates the value placed on information within the culture. Another way to assess the value an organization places on information is to examine the amount of effort and resources that have been expended in developing systems to manage and protect information.

In many instances, this analysis will reveal that an organization does not fit neatly into one of the four information culture types. Many organizations exhibit a combination of the four types. For example, a company that is risk-taking focused may also be results-oriented; for this company, information may be shared externally and analyzed carefully to see how effective its entrepreneurial efforts have been.

Experts note that an organization's information culture will become increasingly important throughout the twenty-first century. They recommend that companies add software systems that allow people to easily connect with information and analyze it, and that they learn to emphasize information over gut feelings or personal preferences in decision-making processes. According to experts, this increased emphasis in an information culture will be essential to organizational success in the future.

Bibliography

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