Information orientation of a public organisation : a qualitative case study of the information orientation in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the New Information Economy, government institutions must reorganisethemselves to leverage their resources for sustainable growth and to compete in theglobal market place. According to some authors, successful organisations tend to bethose that rely on their ability to innovate, use information constructively and leverageemployee competencies to create sustainable growth rather than focusing on buildingsand machines. In this research, the effective use of an Information OrientationStrategy for the improvement of service delivery in the South African governmentdepartments and in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation inparticular, will be investigated.Some private organisations and a few public organisations have learned to useinformation effectively to achieve higher business performance. However, a sizeablenumber of public organisations are still operating within the paradigm of the oldeconomy. The latter organisations, through their leadership, must learn to ensure thatinformation is used to compete effectively throughout the organisation. They muststart to collect information about the activities of their: competitors, clients andalliance partners in order to improve services, grow partnerships, and to respond toclients and customers in a more intelligent and speedier manner. The change in theeffective use of information in an organisation starts at the top - that is, with themindset and attitude of senior management. They need to start viewing information asa valuable resource which through interaction with information capabilities, form aninformation orientation (IO), which can predict and improve business performance. Inorder to attain a mature IO, an organisation must concurrently improve all thedimensions of the IO paradigm, namely: information management practices,information technology practices and information behaviours and values.The drive to a mature IO must be people-centred, to ensure that such people arepredisposed to a culture of proactive use of information and sharing. This requiresleadership to: develop corporate information values and behavioural norms;demonstrate such information behaviours in conducting their duties; provide competency training for improving skills and knowledge and link the two toperformance management; introduce incentives and monetary and non-monetaryrewards to reinforce the new values. This, in turn, will pave the way for theimplementation of good information management practices and the use of informationtechnology to support new initiatives. An organisation, by following this path, will beable to attain a higher IO and from this, an improved level of business performancesuch as: a superior organisational image and reputation, better service innovation,superior financial performance and greater business/service growth.The transition to the IO paradigm must commence with leadership providing anoverarching information strategy to map out how the organisation intends to createvalue from its information-based assets. In the process of developing an informationstrategy, senior management must, amongst other aspects, evaluate the organisation'sstrategic and capability mix, review the relationships between the strategic prioritiesand information capabilities, and determine how they will replace some of thetraditional/outdated organisation capabilities and to implement an informationcapabilitiesmaximisation effect. Most importantly, it must set the agenda for actionand ensure its implementation and renewal. Information, as an important resource foran organisation, requires a strategy of its own. It is no longer feasible in the NewInformation Economy to manage successfully without a fully integrated informationstrategy on how an organisation will generate value from its information assets.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University