INFORMATION NEEDS

Information Needs of Internal Stakeholders

[NCC Education ID number]

[Name of the Centre]

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Literature Review1

Discussion2

Summary6

Conclusion7

Information Needs of Internal Stakeholders

Introduction

Information is the processed data. Information is needed to reduce the uncertainty in decision making, in fact, the uncertainty of a situation is determine by evaluating the information available for the decision making. The less information available for the decision making, more the uncertainty exists.

The information is needed at all levels of business and across functions in an organization. The format and content of reports containing information is adjusted as per the user needs. An organization solicits and transmits information from/to external and internal environments. The organizations need information basically for two reasons. Either it is the needed to excel/survive, or it is required by the law to submit the particulars of the business. Customers and shareholders also require certain information of the firm. The shareholders are provided the financial reports of the company to keep them aware of the financial situation of the firm. These reports most often contain information apart from financial status of the firm. Like Corporate social responsibility involvement of the firm.

The information needed at different levels is catered with the help of information systems, which serve the purpose of transporting the information to the desired destination with robust process to gather, analyse, and report within time limits.

Literature Review

Businesses use broadly two categories of information internal and external to the firm. Managers have been studied from various perspectives as information users (Choo, 2002: n.d.). Studies have focused on relationship between the information needs of mangers and their functions (White & Wilson, 1988and White, 1986: p157-170). They came with the conclusion that marketing directors of the firm will seek marketing information and that operational managers would seek information relative to production systems. Roberts and Wilson (1988; p20 (4) 270-290) studied the phenomenon of demand and supply of certain specific types of information in 60 firms. They evaluated that, the firm's need for information pertaining to external environment was much more diverse and related to several functions of the firm like marketing, finance, exporting, products, and competitors. Furthermore, this type of information was found to be obtained through suppliers, sales representatives, and customers. A wide number of studies have not taken public libraries as important source of information. However, two studies cited above seem to negate and claim that more than 50% of the respondents were of the opinion that public libraries do serve as a potential source of information.

Firms acquire and send information from and to external environment. Firms report their information mainly to government and international agencies. However, some information is shared with the customers as well; consider the reports on Corporate Social Responsibility CSR (Kerr et. al., 2008: n.d.). While the firms gather and analyse information from outside, much of the reports are used for internal information exchange as well. Memos are the most common form of information exchange within organization, however, detailed information calls for formal reporting within the firm as ...