Information management and the decisionmaker

ARMA Records Management Quarterly, Oct 1998 by Hutchens, Philip H

This article addresses the impact of information management on decision makers and productivity and the causes of increased information and information costs. Valuable guidelines are provided for records administrators in the form of 10 points which can be used to control and to better manage information.

Business and government information is normally stored in one or more of the following four mediums: (1) in someone's head, (2) on paper, (3) on microfilm, (4) in a computer. Peter Drucker has argued that the information in someone's head, or intuition, is a common ingredient of management decision making. However Drucker also notes the importance of informed judgment in decision making. Yehezkel Dror, on the other hand, argues for the importance of rational decision making. By rational, Dror means decision making that draws on as much information and facts about the decision as are possible to collect. Dror too notes the importance of informed judgment because it is not always possible to gather all the facts.

Decision makers normally use intuition, but the proportion of decision making based purely on intuition seems to be declining. Rather, paper, computer, and film records are being used more frequently to support decisions. In fact, the more important the decision, the more apt the decision maker is to collect additional background information.

As the volume of records grows, the medium tends to change. The proportion of information maintained on paper declines in relation to film and computer generated records. In many cases, paperless records are less costly and of greater utility to the decision maker. Microfilm is frequently made directly from a computer-generated magnetic tape (COM). Video screens also are frequently used to display computer stored and generated information.

Although records may be used to provide information to decision makers, they also may be kept primarily for historical or archival purposes. A bank, for example, will make a microfilm copy of personal checks. The main purpose is to have a record for settling potential disputes. Data used in preparing personal account statements are entered into a separate computer system. Computerized data systems may also provide a summary printout for the decision maker, and the supporting data is stored for future documentation. These non-decision making records are of course expensive to maintain. They must be created, filed, housed, perhaps used, and then eventually discarded.

While non-decision making records are growing in number and are expensive, records used in the decision-making process may be even more costly The costs for filing, storage, retrieval, and disposal apply to decision making records; but in addition. these records are used. Policymakers refer to them. Line employees use them in everyday work. If these records systems are not properly designed, they can lead to poorer decision making and lowered productivity For example, the time line employees spend in reading and responding to information requests, amounts to lost production time. Decision making also will be adversely affected by either too little or too much information. If there is too little information, errors made in ignorance of the facts are more likely. If there is too much information, the decision maker is apt to miss key points, or the decision maker may give up entirely on trying to use the information and decide key issues based on intuition.

Information therefore is an important organizational resource which if properly managed can lead to improved decision making and increased productivity. Poorly managed, it will have just the opposite effect. There are many steps that might be taken to improve management of information as a key resource in an organization. Following a brief discussion of the need for, and costs of, increased information, 10 points are offered for improving information resources management.

Information Increase

There are two fundamental causes of increased information. The first is modernity. Modernity has brought about a reduction in the number of "mom-andpop" businesses and an increase in more complex organizations with larger work forces. Employees in modern organizations have a greater need for communication, documentation, reporting, etc. In addition, modern organizational decision-makers and policy developers may need substantial written information supporting their policies and decisions.

lEe second cause of increased information is modern democratic government. Democratic government frequently requires monitoring of program expenditures and operations, and it regularly requests records from the business community

Some business and government information is of course necessary; much of it is unnecessary Program officials in both public and private organizations tend to be overzealous when collecting data about their programs. Modern reproduction equipment and computer processing make data collection easier and more tempting. However, the cost of information collection, use, storage, and disposal is very high.