Information a Quality Product

 

Information is a product of data processing. Even if we take care of the aspects discussed in the above section, the manager will determine the quality of the information based on the degree of motivation it provides for action, and the contribution it provides for effective decision making. The quality of information is high, if it creates managerial impact leading to attention, decision and action. The quality of information can be measured on the four dimensions viz., utility, satisfaction, error and bias.

 

The utility dimensions have four facets – the form, the time, the access and the possession.  If the information is presented in the form the manager requires, then its utility increases.  If it is available when needed, the utility is optimized.  If the information is easily and quickly accessible through the On-line Access system, its utility gets an added boost. Lastly, if the information is possessed by the manager who needs it, then its utility is the highest. Many of the organization suffer from the possessive nature of the managers making an access difficulty for the other users of the information.

 

The concept of the utility of the information is subjective to the individual manager, at least in terms of the form, time and access. Since in the organization there are many users of the same information, the subjective ness would vary.  Therefore, the one common key for measuring the quality could be the satisfaction of the decision maker.

 

An error is the third dimension of the quality of the information. The error creep in on account of various reasons, namely;

 

An incorrect data measurement

An incorrect collection method

Failure to follow the prescribed data processing procedure

Loss of data or incomplete data

Poor application of data validation and control systems

A deliberate falsification

 

Erroneous information is a serious problem because the decision maker cannot make the adjustments as he is not aware of it in terms of the location and the quantum of error.  To control errors, it is necessary to follow the methods of systems analysis and design. The approach should be that the errors should be prevented, failing that they should be detected, and if not, they should be controlled.

 

The processing of data for the information processing should be allowed only after a through validation of the transactions and the contents, as a whole, on logical plane.  Care should be taken that the information is processed after ensuring the correctness of the data in terms of the time and the number of documents, and the transactions in the period. The data should be check against the master data wherever possible and the balance should be controlled through logical processing by using rules, formulae, the principles, etc., which will ascertain the correctness of the contents.