Each company has an information system that uses data, knowledge, and information in order to make operations more effective. Although this system may vary, each company records some type of data, analyses it, and uses the feedback to make decisions or changes through tout the company. This is having an information system within the company. Throughout this essay, information systems will be discussed and applied to information theory.
To begin, it is important to understand each component of an information system. There is data, knowledge, and knowledge. These three terms have general meaning that apply to, and interact within an information system. Although these terms are generally interchangeable, they have very different meanings in relation to Information Systems Theories (Nickerson & Zenger, 2004).
Data refers to the records that are used from observations, experiments, and statistical formulations. Thus, data is collected, recorded, and used as evidence for the particular company or organization. Data can be observations or actual numbers pulled from sales reports and other financial documents. Additionally, this data is used to obtain information about decision-making and changes that the company needs to make.
Information is gathered by analyzing the data that is collected. In other words, it is a process of taking data and making sense of it. Generally, information is considered as the meaningful data that are appropriately converted and managed by the organizational managers with the use of conversion process (Liew, 2007).
The Term Paper on Big Data in Companies
Big data (also spelled Big Data) is a general term used to describe the voluminous amount of unstructured and semi-structured data a company creates — data that would take too much time and cost too much money to load into a relational database for analysis. Although Big data doesn’t refer to any specific quantity, the term is often used when speaking about petabytes and exabytes of ...
Additionally, Knowledge describes the relationship between data and information. Knowledge can be described as the interpretation or application that one gets from the information gathered from the data. Thus, knowledge is proper collection of information that is useful for the organizational purpose to attain competitive advantage and superior performance (Nickerson & Zenger, 2004).
In n company, a person can observes a decrease in productivity (data), and realizes that this decrease happens around the lunchtime hour (information).
Given that information, they decide to change the lunch schedule and productivity is increased, they have obtained knowledge in regards to the information that was provided. Knowledge also has useful meaning for the information that is settled in the mind of a human. According to social learning theory, our behaviors are shaped through observation and environment ().
We receive some type of reward or punishment for the behaviors we exhibit or suppress. In the context of informational systems, the Social Learning Theory is very applicable. The observations of our surrounding environment would be the data that we collect. According to the Social Learning theory, we learn by observing others in our environment. These behaviors are reinforced because we are receiving a reward because it.
For example, if I watch colleagues receive a bonus for surpassing their sales goals that would be data that I collected. If I come to the realization that the way to get more money from the company is to surpass my sales goals, that would be information that I gathered. This would also be considered learning in the Social Learning Theory. Once I begin to surpass my sales goals, and receive a bonus check each time I have reached knowledge. This is also considered reinforcement of my behavior in the Social Learning Theory. My behavior was reinforced because I received a reward each time I exhibited that behavior.
A real world example of how data, information, and Knowledge interact would the use of finance accountants. For example, all the firms use the financial and accounting data to take examine the success of the company. Strategic management another way that develops and expands the resources of the company (Levinson, 2007).
The Essay on Strategic Thinking Process Information Data
" If strategic intelligence is a business process rather than a function, what are the value-creating steps in that process? How are mental models and data converted into information and knowledge that managers can act upon? This mainly focuses on the difference between the " process" and " functional" views of strategic intelligence. In fact, SI in a functionally oriented company is often ...
Taking the data from these sources helps the company get information on their various strategies. When apple released a new Iphone, the data from financial records will determine whether this phone was useful for consumers. With the information from the data collected, they will be able to make decisions on future products and phones.
For example, they can decide that the sales were phenomenal and use the same marketing strategy to promote their new IPod because of this information collected from the data. As a result, they are knowledgeable about successful marketing efforts and strategies. Overall, all three terms have different applications in the information systems theory. They provide a unique component to understanding how a company operates, makes changes, and decisions. Every company uses an information system to help decide direction, change, and growth within their future. It is an essential part to learning, and to the development of successful business practices.
References
Lerner, V.S. (2004).
Introduction to information systems theory: concepts, formalism and applications. International Journal of Systems Science archive, 35 (7), 1-10. Levinson, M. (2007).
Knowledge Management Definition and Solutions. Retrieved March 6, 2012 from http://www.cio.com/article/print/40343 Liew, A. (2007).
Understanding Data, Information, Knowledge And Their Inter-Relationships. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, 8 (2), 1-8. Nickerson, J.A. & Zenger, T.R. (2004) A Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm: The Problem Solving Perspective. Organization Science 00 (0), 1-16.
