Organizational cultures and their relevance to the information organization

One of the major areas of concern of information management is the collective use, exchange and development of the information activities of the organization in order to achieve its objectives. For this to be effective, either information management will require the right kind of environment or culture in which to operate, or it will have to be instrumental in creating that culture. An organization's culture is shaped by many factors — history, experience, values, beliefs, successes, failures, the environment in which it operates, and the personalities which lead it. Culture, however, cannot be precisely defined because it is something that is perceived, something that is felt. It also has much to do with the way people are managed. Information management can have an impact on the organization's culture although the opposite is more often the case especially in terms of organizational structure, the distribution of power, the organization's image, the style of the chief officer, risk‐taking and change, secrecy and openness and the way people work together and cooperate, or don't. Information management is also about how people interact with systems. There are, in brief, two contrasting ways in which this can happen; one which puts systems first, the other which puts people first. Evidence is now growing that people must come first and can no longer work in purely mechanistic ways in which they become data‐processors on number‐crunchers. An ideal working culture may be one where people can develop satisfactorily with the systems to which they contribute but which do not put them in a straitjacket. How can this be achieved? What kinds of culture generally exist within organizations? Are there any types of culture which may be more conducive and receptive to information management? Similarly, can the culture of an organization be changed? Can it be managed?