Information Resources Management: An Examination of Individual and Organizational Attributes in State Government Agencies

Public organizations continue to acquire information at exponential rates, and the need to manage this deluge of information and information resources has become even more acute. This study examines the role of state public administrators in their efforts to balance the need for information with the responsibilities of organizational control. A survey of 66 administrators from 11 state government agencies in the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties found that administrators (1) perceive their programs and service delivery functions to be externally -oriented; (2) acquire most of their information from external sources (external to their departments); (3) perceive lack of expertise in critical areas as impediments to using information effectively; (4) cope with the nonavailability of information management experts by circulating information to key people; (5) recommend increasing staff as well as expanding analytical functions as solutions to improving the acquisition and management of information; and (6) believe that both fiscal and political factors are critical in controlling and managing information resources.