Managing Information Quality in Organizations - Term Paper Example

RUNNING HEAD: Managing Information in Organisations ADMI11 – Managing Information in Organisations Assignment 1 Student Name Student ID Number Introduction Information Quality Management is becoming a subject of great concern to many organizations across the globe in the recent past. Quality information is necessary for ensuring that organizations run its operations with high levels of efficiency, effectiveness, integrity, and confidentiality. The idea behind quality information management is to ensure that information meets the required standards and the intended use (Jack, 2003). Therefore, information can be termed as of high quality if it effectively meets its intended use in aiding organizational operations, supporting decision-making process in management, and facilitating planning within the organization. Alternatively, an information can be deemed to be of high quality if it shows the a clear real world representation of the field it refers. Furthermore, information quality dimensions are the attributes that need keen and close are to ensure that the information remains relevant and consistent (Kahn et al, 2002). The importance of good information quality is useful for organizations in decision-making, reducing confusion and double entries, among other benefits. Dimensions of Information Quality Relevance Relevance in regard to the quality of information seeks to answer the question of whether the information in question meets the needs of its customer or the end user. In the vent were an information fails to meet the customer needs, it may be regarded as irrelevant and inadequate even though it may meet other dimensions. Effectively, an irrelevant information can be rated to be of poor quality (Jack, 2003). An information stem with extreme polyhierarchy for instance can be rendered irrelevant and hence of poor quality. Accuracy It is a common knowledge that every organization must make its information accurate to ensure high quality. The information is accurate in the sense of being precise and reflecting its underlying reality in a manner that can be easily understood. However, information should not be too accurate in its precision to a point that can exceed the customer’s ability to process (Jack, 2003). Finally, the need for accuracy in information quality must be balanced by organizational information management with more emphasis on the importance of the uses for the information, and the costs and effort incurred in information collection. When on considers an iformation system with poor structure such as search and structure not fully integrated, one is likely to consider the information inaccurate and thus poor quality (Anders, et al, 2009). Where compromises on the level of accuracy in the information have to be made, the resulting limitations of the information must be communicated clearly to its users. This will ensure that information quality is not compromised. Timeliness It is obvious that organizations value timely information as quality. This is even more so with the need of new information to replace old one. Organizational information undergoes a series of cycles depending on how users can easily process and communicate new information to customers. This important point of timeliness supports the component of accuracy since an accurate information depends on timeliness of the information resulting from changes in customer perception, changes in the competitive environment, and changes in technology (Lee, 2002). Most organizations are subjected to time based competition that call for highly concomitant reduction in operation cycle times. This has pushed organizations to their limits in demand for evergreen and information. a typical example of poor information quality in this regard is when an organization uses an old system and changes have taken place within the organization. Completeness A information architecture that has missing category landing pages can be considered incomplete (Lai, et al, 2011). Incomplete information has high chances of misleading customers. Completeness contributes to the quality of information in an organization. However, depending on the use of an information and customer perception, information can be complete for one customer and incomplete. Just like any information whose precision can overcome the customer’s ability to process it is too accurate, information can also be too complete (Caballero, et al, 2008). Organizations should also keep monitoring missing, incomplete, or invalid information that can reduce information quality and results in problems with data entry and accuracy. This will ensure completeness of information and thus better information quality. Accessibility Accessibility is a major component of a quality information. This implies that a quality information must be accessible at all times when needed. Accessibility and timeliness of any information are complementary and depends on customer needs and the prevailing circumstances of the customer. Inaccessible information or obsolete one may be poor in its performance of satisfying customer needs and thus may be deemed to be of poor quality (Lee et al, 2002). An example of unaccessible information system in an organization can be that with invisible navigation options. Compatibility Compatibility of information confirms the widely acclaimed phrase that "no information is an island." An information of good quality does not just rely on its own quality but should be able to combine with other information for effectiveness. This may also include system integration for storing, processing, and retrieving information within an organization (Jack, 2003). An example of poor and incompatible information could be that which cannot link with other systems within the organization without altering the entire information architecture (Mattias & Carl, 2009). In other words, the information should have the ability to combine with other information without any major alteration. Validity Information validity entails verification of its ability to meet certain standards related to other dimensions of quality information such as accuracy, completeness, timeliness, accessibility, and compatibility. Organizations should also ensure that important information is well recorded and stored and to be used in compliance with the organizational requirements, including the correct application of any rules or definitions. It will enable organizations to realize a maintained consistency between different and with similar organizations. Validity of information is verified through intensive information auditing adopted by an organization as a daily business or a special project (Caballero, et al, 2008). Auditing information is a widely measure adopted by most organizations to help in uncovering mistakes. However, validity alone cannot be the ultimate result of quality information. Even if validity of information is high with other dimensions being low, the quality of an information may be compromised. Importance of information quality Management For every organization, the quality of information is the main cornerstone of virtually every critical activity within the organization. Starting from customer intelligence, accounting, employee compensation, billing, inventory, management, and product development, quality of information is paramount for organizational success (Kahn et al, 2002). As stated earlier, information is an essential component for every organization to run its processes smoothly. In organizational roles that relate to customers, quality information is the pillar and foundation that help organizations to monitor and manage customer relationships. Without a better information quality in an organization, organizations may find it difficult to obtain accurate report metrics. This will definitely have a negative impact in wasting user’s time and efforts. Information quality will also affect cost when it is poor (Batini et al, 2009). Organizations with poor information quality face ne the most critical risks as poor information quality can ultimately hinder adoption. This is possible sice users get frustrated may eventually lose trust in the information. In line to this, organizations understand that it is not the quality of information that is expensive but rather the “poor quality”. The organizational management does recognize that information quality is important in aiding the decision-making process to be efficient and effective. Management also realizes that the best decisions in an organization are evidence-based or driven by the quality of information used in the decision-making process. Quality information helps organizations in data analysis, understanding correlations and trends, and developing proactive strategies for making decisions on how to adjust organizational procedures and processes that may arise from time to time. This therefore calls for organizations to base its crucial decisions on quality information to reach at the best decisions that are intended to bring in positive impact on an organization's performance. Therefore, using improved information quality supports good organizational strategic decision-making process. It is also instrumental in providing organizations with accurate management reporting on various aspects that may include key performance indicators of the organization (Batini et al, 2009). Finally, achieving high information quality brings in massive benefits such as supporting the delivery as reduction of double entries, minimized confusion, and correct matching o service service involvements to records. In the event where organizations carry out information quality as a continuous process, organizations will save a lot of time than cleansing of a program prior to an event of running a certain project (Lee, 2002). Conclusion Managing information quality in organizations today has been made a continual process. With increased change in technology, information quality may be obsolete and thus organizations need to ensure that its information quality is up to date at all times. This will allow organizations to gain a competitive advantage over the counterparts in the market. For information to be rated of good quality, organizations must ensure that their information meets some dimensions such as accuracy, validity, timeliness, compatibility, accessibility, and relevance (Jack, 2003). An information quality meeting these dimensions will help organizations in various ways that include maintenance of customer relations, effective decision-making, and reduced double entries. Reference List Anders, et al. 2009, A classification model of ERP system data quality, Industrial Management & Data Systems, 109(8), p. 1053-1068 Batini, C. et al., 2009, Methodologies for data quality assessment and improvement, ACM Computer Survey, 41, p. 1-52 Caballero, I. et al., 2008, IQM3: information quality management maturity model, Journal of Universal Computer Science, 14, p. 3658-3685. Jack, E 2003, Data Quality: The Accuracy dimension, London, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. Kahn, B., Strong, D & Wang, R 2002, Information quality benchmark: product and service performance. Commun ACM, 45, p. 96-110. Lai, et al. 2011, Impacts of Information Technology on Quality Management Dimensions and its Implications. European Business Review, 23 (6), p. 592-608. Lee, W., et al., 2002, AIMQ: A Methodology for information quality assessment. Information and Management Journal, 40(20), p. 133-146. Mattias, G & Carl, W 2009, Assessing information quality in manufacturing planning and control processes. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 26(4), p. 325 - 340 Read More