Many organization managers in the current information age have found themselves handling one major problem: managing an upsurge of information flow through their organization, while making it beneficial to the employees and the organization.
Bellinger, Castro & Mills (2004) explain the data, information, knowledge and wisdom hierarchy and how managers can understand this hierarchical order can be utilized effectively. The purpose of this paper is to define these terms and highlight how managers can beneficially manage this “Information Tsunami” flowing into and though their organizations
Bellinger, Castro & Mills (2004), argue that information “is data (raw, meaningless symbols) that has been given meaning by way of relational connection”, within the context of the organization.
Green (2010) states that knowledge and wisdom is information that is personal, contextual and subjective. Knowledge and wisdom is acquired experientially by application of information contextually. It therefore exists in people’s minds and can be stored in instructional manuals for future reference.
Organizations have found themselves receiving loads of Information, most of which is unnecessary and potentially overwhelming.
Organizations will therefore need to filter through, select and summarize useful information using various tools such as the Information Technology tools e.g. the Web; which can improve knowledge construction and induce meaningful learning, indexes and references (Blair, 2010; Miller; 2010; Cartelli, 2007).
After careful selection, information managers need to organize and store this information properly for future use under titles, headings, topics and case studies (Marks, 2010). When this information generates some value for the organization, (Levinson, 2010) calls it “a knowledge based asset,” which can be categorized into explicit and tacit knowledge.
Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be documented in instructional manuals, while tacit knowledge is knowhow how that is acquired through experience and only exist in peoples minds.
Managers can share explicit knowledge through manuals, journals and continued educational courses for employees (Green, 2010). Tactic knowledge, found in people’s minds, creates a challenge in its self, as it is harder to identify, generate, share and manage. However, Levinson (2010) suggest that it is possible to do so by creating a social network at the work place.
This network creates a platform for people to contact each other within an organization. People work together and share the knowledge. Managers should establish personal and professional contact with the employees to identify who possesses expert knowledge, and in what field. They therefore assign them junior working partners to whom they intend knowledge transfer.
This gives the juniors being mentored an opportunity to acquire experiential knowledge from experts by directly working with them. Mentoring in an organization has double effect; it is a effective way to transfer (tacit) knowledge and manage junior employees (Connor et al, 2000).
To make this work, organizations will ensure “functional social environment and communication network, which facilitates easy flow of information” throughout the organization (Cartelli, 2007)
In conclusion, for an organization to avoid choking under information tsunami, information managers must first identify the organizations information needs. What exact information does an organization need and for what reason?
This will direct information managers to the exact information search tools they will use to filter through, generate, summarize and process the required information. This process of filtering information requires “skillful judgment” as it is tedious and laborious (Blair, 2010). Organizations must therefore invest a lot in information management if they are to benefit from the information superhighway.
Reference List
Blair, A. (2010). Information Overload, Then and Now. The Chronicle of Higher Education Review. Web.
Cartelli, A. (2007). Socio-Technical Theory and Knowledge Construction: Towards New Pedagogical Paradigms? Web.
Connor, M. P., Bynoe, A. G., Redfern, N., Pokora, J., & Clarke, J. (2000). Developing senior doctors as mentors: a form of continuing professional development. Report Of an initiative to develop a network of senior doctors as mentors: 1994-99. Med Educa., 34(9): 747-53.
Green, P. (2010). Social Media Is Challenging Notions of the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) Hierarchy. Web.
Levinson, M. (2010). Knowledge Management Definition and Solutions. Web.
Marks, O. (2010). Information Clutter Busting & Organization. Web.
Miller, C. (2010). For Google, the Browser Does It All. New York Times Business. Web.