An empirical investigation on quality of information used for decision making in the Department of Social Development, Bojanala District

Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013An organisation depends on quality information for effective operations and decision making, thus quality in management decision plays a vital role; and there is a direct and strong relationship between the quality of information used by a decision maker and decision performance. Hence lnforrnation is not an isolated resource, but it flows within organisation and, consequently, its quality must be tackled as an organisational issue (Caballero et al., 2008). Given these arguments, information quality should be a process intertwined to all business core processes because it is a means to an end; and indirectly impacts the bottom line of an organisation. This is not a fact at Department of Social Development, Bojanala District were Information Quality is not prioritised and integrated within all programs it delivers, hence this study is to investigate the impact that information quality has on managerial decisions within a financial Services Firm. In this study, the primary data will be collected by means of survey using a structured questionnaire. A survey will be conducted to test the association between information quality and managerial decisions, with an aim to establish the extent to which the information quality impact on managerial decisions. In the public sector, competition is not aimed at winning the market, but ensuring that service provisions are improved because, the public sector bodies must answer to the Ministers and Government secretaries and the citizens. Legislative mechanism and budgetary constraints also determine the scope of decision making. Therefore organisation must compare its performance against those of similar organisation and its past records. Moreover they may have reasons to work together or collaborate in different areas, in order to achieve their common objective (McBride ct al., 20 13). The findings of this research reveals that managers are aware of Information Quality and they do make decisions but the efficiency and consistency is not understood by many hence like any other organisation the department is faced with changes in the environment which brings along a new wave of challenges. The Department has to continually adapt its strategies and programmes to fit these managerial decision making changes. An assessment of the environment then becomes a continuous process. In order for the department to thrive it will need competent and skilled human resources. The Department of Social Development Bojanala District should therefore invest in fruitful Information development programmes if it plans to win or manage these challenges.Master