Effective intra-organizational information exchange

Abstract

Advanced information technologies (ITs) have prompted many organizations to invest in distributed computing systems and to decentralize the management of information. However, today’s organization requires effective information-exchange to bridge costly information gaps between different decision-makers or teams controlling isolated databases. Networking technologies and groupware applications have the potential to facilitate collaboration, but cannot guarantee information sharing. It is unrealistic to expect that technology alone can induce unwilling managers to part with privately held information. While an economic perspective would recommend contracts or transfer pricing as solutions to the problem, we suggest harnessing the power of organizational culture in promoting effective information flows across the organization. Using a game theoretic approach, we show how elements of organizational culture, involving the values of permanence, trust, teamwork and credibility, combined with appropriate reward systems and parity in IT capabilities, can help to achieve organizationally desirable information-exchange by aligning individual and organizational goals.