Coming to Grips with the Management of Information: A Classroom Exercise

Managers and decision makers often claim to be starved for good information while they are also victims of “information overload.” The challenge for most decision makers in the early 21st century is the tsunami of data and information received from a multitude of internal and external sources that must be managed on an almost constant basis. The difficulty is distinguishing the good information from the bad, and in developing criteria to assist in this process. This experiential exercise has been used for undergraduate, graduate, MBA, and management training and development courses. The exercise introduces participants to some of the basic concepts about information and the importance of managing information as a resource. It addresses evaluating information on the basis of its quality (i.e., accuracy), quantity, timeliness, and relevance. In addition, the exercise helps participants to recognize the different information needs of managers in different functional areas of the organization as well as at different levels within the organization. This paper provides the reader with the instructions and materials to use this exercise in the classroom setting and discusses related examples from business