Management Strategies and Information Failure

Abstract

Success in large-scale projects demands useful information flow. The quality of information available strongly affects the quality of the decisions systems can make. When key items of information are missing, faulty and even disastrous decisions may result. Testimony before the Rogers Commission on events surrounding the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger underline the damage that missing information can cause. Yet major information failures are seldom accidental. Rather, they reflect basic strategies used by organizations to process the events around and within them. The organization's structure and its philosophy of management are both vital determinants of how information in it will be treated.