Envisioning management of information

Organizations generate and dissipate information. The main argument of this paper is that managing the information generation-information dissipation-organization cycle is central to the performance of a modern organization. The two key goals in managing the cycle are to ensure that the cycle is positively reinforcing, and that generation and dissipation are balanced. A positively reinforcing cycle will result in a continuously learning, effective organization; a negatively reinforcing cycle, on the other hand, will result in a decadent, ineffective organization. A cycle in which generation and dissipation are balanced is functional; lack of balance manifests itself as dysfunctionalities such as information overload, information in jail, and misinformation. An organization is a cause as well as a consequence of information generation and dissipation. Consequently, the effectiveness of an organization depends upon the semiotics of the stimuli and agents used for information generation and dissipation. A manager who understands the stimuli, agents, and semiotics--tacitly or explicitly--will be more effective than one who does not. The role of a researcher is to explicate the tacit knowledge if it exists, and to develop new knowledge if it does not, and thereby to make the information generation-information dissipation-organization cycle more effective and efficient.