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Information Resources Management Systems as a Support of Universities

Performance

Conference Paper · January 2002

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Alberto Carneiro
Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa Luís de Camoes
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 Information Resources Management Systems as a Support of
Universities Performance
Alberto Carneiro*
*Universidade Lusíada, Lisboa, Portugal
albert.carneiro@mail.telepac.pt
Abstract
This paper intends to contribute to a better understanding of
the process through which information resource, information
technology, other technical tools, and organisation actors can
contribute to universities’ effectiveness facing the challenges
that are continuously happening in the new information
technology domain. Firstly, it presents some researchers’
opinions about the role of Information Resource Management
(IRM) in the decision-making process. Consequently, it
sustains that a set of variables influences the relationship
between decision effectiveness and a valuable utilisation of
IRM’s potential skills. A conceptual model for the
optimisation of universities’ performance as a function of
IRM is suggested.
Keywords: information resource management, database
management, intelligent agents, performance.
1 Introduction
Different points of view have surrounded the concept of
information resource management (IRM). Some authors focus
on managing systems and technologies (efficiency-based
view) and others try to relate these resources to supporting the
organizational users (effectiveness-oriented perspective). In
an educational context, IRM could be understood as a
comprehensive approach to all aspects of managing the
information resources and processes associated with data,
computing technologies, and activities based on acquiring
storing, processing and distributing data to meet scientific and
educational needs for the benefit of the entire organisation.
Some dimensions underlying the IRM concept will be
discussed: information technology integration, teaching
technologies, knowledge management, and database
management. These dimensions of IRM have to be evaluated
and some work would be necessary in order to find a survey
instrument for measuring them [4]. It should permit to assess
how well the information resources are managed and how this
relates to the university's performance.
Information resource is a critical success factor for
implementing university success. Since university
attractiveness depends on critical factors, strategies and its
implementation should be supported by a set of decisive
information resource. Universities have to develop a viable
strategic IRM system. Facing modern IT world, universities
should create some operating principles, which have to focus
on some areas of organizational behaviour. One of those areas
is an enhanced students focus, rather than the traditional sole
technical focus. Another area is one of focus on how
information should be managed in terms of its value and
University standards of culture.
Each operating principle would reflect a commitment by
universities’ executive committees to change the way the
universities conduct their activities. These operating
principles set boundaries for appropriate organisational
behaviour and provide a basis for consistent decision-making
and resource allocation. Due to these reasons, they should
support universities’ efforts to reach their social mission and
objectives, and will bring consistency and cohesiveness to the
scientific community.
2 The importance of Information Resources
Strategically, the success of most management decisions also
depends on a competitive effort, which includes a deep
knowledge of consumers' attitudes and an adequate analysis
of the stronger competitors. In this case, this means that
Universities committees and departments must pay attention
to the following aspects:
1) How their students perceive the quality of the respective
courses and services;
2) How teachers can be motivated to deliver their services
in a qualified manner;
3) Which teaching technologies should be used to generate
high knowledge levels in order to offer to the market
more qualified graduations’ alternatives;
4) Weaknesses, strengths and movements of their direct
competitors;
5) Finally, all these findings should be integrated into an
information system, which has to present a competitive
perspective of its respective resources.
Information Resource Management System (IRMS) is a true
asset of a knowledge-oriented organisation and its integration
across graduations, training courses, scientific research, and
consultancy should be emphasised. Dealing with several
Information and Communication Technologies and human
values, IRMS shows how learning organisations, as
universities are, can re-engineer their processes using an
applied knowledge-based approach and knowledge
management perspectives.
Networking and technology resources have become central,
indispensable tools in education, research and administration.
IRM is becoming progressively more useful because top
management is taking into account the value of information,
technological resources’ systems and intelligent agents [7].
Organisations need to properly manage its intellectual capital
and its technical tools in the information domain, that is,
persons, technical resources and information systems. This is
dramatically true in the case of universities.
According to some authors [5], IRM can be faced as a
methodology for creating, maintaining and exploiting all the
possibilities of the huge set of information resources that each
university uses in its activities. Another perspective interpret
IRM as a set of processes that support the creation,
dissemination, and utilisation of information [4] between
enterprises, researchers, teachers, students and technological
resources such as Information Technology (IT) and its
equipment.
According to this perspective, a university can obtain a better
qualitative image using intelligent multi-agent architecture.
Nowadays, intelligent systems are used to measure
performance levels, and intense efforts are being made to
improve their features in order to obtain adequate conclusions
and better decision-making activities. In order to obtain better
results, the communication among intelligent agents should
assume a co-operative form and be supported by Information
resources. Management has to find out a stable equilibrium
between IRM efficiency, intelligent agents' commitment, and
technical tools' performance. An adequate combination of
intelligent resources can help university’s executive
committees to anticipate problems better, to guide the
innovation effort [2], and to contribute to a greater IRM
efficiency, focused on the achievement of organisational
objectives.
The benefits obtained from IRM depend on the type of
information application. For example, due to low
interactivity, electronic publishing pre-packaged information
(e.g., electronic textbooks and course notes) can provide a
significant cost saving or increased efficiency. On the other
hand, more interactive applications tend to provide support
for solving problems, and for innovating services. Based on a
set of technical resources (SDSS, groupware, interfaces,
systems integrators, hardware and software), universities’
committees and department can try to find a new approach to
obtain higher levels of integrated strategic decisions,
effectiveness and management performance.
3 What Information Resources should
universities use?
Universities should commit to a new vision of information
technology integration and recognise and harness the
tremendous power of information to transform multiple
knowledge levels, to empower the scientific community, and
promote technical progress in order to modify the economic
advances of societies.
While University's information will continue to serve the
primary users of the information, the University will also
manage its information holdings to meet the needs of the
broader community of other organisations users, partners,
researchers, and the public. This change in culture will
require a transformation in how the University budgets for
information systems, decides upon database management, and
disseminates its information.
The concept of IRM includes technological architecture and
human resource skills. IT infrastructure has been identified in
recent years in some industries as having a critical impact on
the organisation’s capacity to use information resources
competitively. The characteristics of infrastructure may vary
with organisation information resources and industry
characteristics such as information intensity. Universities
have to consider resources such as computing equipment,
software, audio-visual and multimedia equipment,
teleconferencing facilities, telecommunications equipment,
cellular phones, and visual communication resources. This
infrastructure should evidence flexibility in order to provide a
better use of IRMS capacity [3].
Providing a decisive coaching role, teachers may try to focus
on the delivery of information to students using new
information resources, according to IT’ s recent possibilities.
There is, however, no underlying model to guide the use and
the interrelationships of the diverse data and applications used
by teachers and students. A model that captures integrated
university resources and information technologies is therefore
needed. This integrated model can be used directly by
teachers from a training perspective in order to gain access to
applications and information to support their pedagogical
skills. Teachers who can use an explicit organisation model in
their preferences of large information bases may learn more
about their pedagogical activity and therefore facilitate the
organisational learning process [1].
Learning theories may explain the development of
educational experiences for information systems concepts [6].
According to the major framework of social cognitive
learning theory, it can be recognised that universities should
include e-learning technologies and explore its possibilities in
order to adopt new ways of teaching and learning. These
ways will demand for the interaction among cognitive
processes, teaching techniques, and students’ motivated
behaviours.
4 An Conceptual Model
As can be seen in figure 1, a conceptual model for the
relationship between universities’ performance and strategic
IRM is proposed. It emphasises that problem-solving
strategies, strategic decisions, organisation effectiveness and
management performance can be the logical results obtained
from a University performance based on Technological and
Human Resources, and Intelligent Agents. This model takes
into account numerous determinants factors of the
relationships among various fields.
The top portion of the model shows two different points of
view (efficiency and effectiveness), which, according to our
opinion, can participate in a reciprocal influence process.
Universities’ performance has to deal with three domains: 1)
technological tools; 2) human resources and 3) intelligent
agents. Technological tools include IT equipment, teaching
technologies and a network configuration because they
contribute decisively to the achievement of formulation of
organisational objectives. The human side of this trilogy is
undoubtedly needed. In fact, a human-computer interaction
technology is able to build the intellectual capital and
provides a more adequate organisational behaviour.
Executives who can use an explicit organisation model in
their decision-making processes may learn more about their
businesses and therefore facilitate organisational learning and
universities’ performance. Executives, researchers, teachers
and students make knowledge progresses and/or participate
on IT use and development based on each individual' s efforts
and skills. Nevertheless, the behaviour of each person
depends also on the motivation methodology adopted by the
organisation and on the actions that management takes.
Because intelligent agents are software systems that perceive
their environment and act in that environment in pursuit of the
predetermined objectives, its correct architecture depends on
the set of tasks and the environmental features. These agents
integrate a range of competencies are central to the study of
many problems in modelling decision-making processes and
performing complex tasks. Within this architecture, technical
tools, researchers, teachers, students and intelligent agents can
contribute to the knowledge development decisions based on
certain predictive modelling methods.
The adequate combination of IT, human resources' activities
and the use of intelligent agents can lead universities to a
particularly strong performance level. In its architecture, the
universities’ performance KM uses Human Resources to
acquire and develop knowledge units, Intelligent Agents to
measure performance levels and to improve managing
decision-making processes, and Technological Resources to
support those processes. Thus, the organisation could obtain a
solid basis for its strategic decisions, achieve higher levels of
organisational effectiveness, and impressive qualitative
results of management performance.
Until now, this model has only been conceptualised according
to literature review and our personal perspective. Further
research will be required in order to validate this model. In
the near future, it will be confirmed using the validation of
several hypotheses based on data obtained within an empirical
research.
The objective of this paper is to present a proposal of some
variables, which, according to our point of view, should
support universities’ performance, concerning the IRM that
best satisfies goal achievement.
Firstly, it presents some researchers’ opinions about the role
of IRM in the decision-making process. Consequently, it
sustains that a set of variables is useful in order to justify the
relationship between the optimisation of universities
management decision effectiveness and a valuable utilisation
of IRM’s potential skills. Our model will emphasise this
optimisation as a function of IRM.
5 Conclusions
This article intends to provide insights to a better
understanding of IRM in what concerns the possibility of
enabling universities to attain higher performance levels and
to experience several solutions to competitiveness problems.
Its considerations provide considerable support for the
importance of intelligent agents, IT and human resources as a
decisive contribution to IRM efficiency. Consequently, these
considerations intend to represent an important step forward
in presenting the IRM efficiency as a decisive support for a
competitive development of universities.
The architecture of the model proposed here should be
improved in order to include new actors and the consideration
of a wider set of technical tools, which could offer significant
contributions to achieve better performance levels. A major
short-term goal is to enhance and to validate this model with
real data suitable to deal with the evolution of managers'
comprehension of the strategic value of IRM.
Future research should:
• Measure accurately the importance of the
factors that affect intelligent agents and the use
of technical tools;
• Face human resources' attitudes regarding the
usefulness of IT as an intensive effort improve
organisation performance;
• Attempt also to incorporate significant
differences between intelligent agents relating
them with an integrated utilisation of the
organisation resources.
This integration would preannounce a more powerful tool of
strategic management within education field. Further
empirical work will be required in order to appreciate
executive's opinions, managerial implications, and to evaluate
their statistical meaning.
References
[1] Chen, Minder. “A Model-Driven Approach to Accessing
Managerial Information: The Development of a Repository-
Based Executive Information System”, Journal of
Management Information Systems, Vol. 11, No. 4, (Spring),
pp. 33-64, (1995)
[2] Drury, D. H. and Farhoomand, A. “Innovation Adoption
of EDI”, Information Resources Management Journal, Vol. 9,
No. 3 (Summer), pp. 5-13, (1996)
[3] Duncan, Nancy B. “Capturing Flexibility of Information
Technology Infrastructure: A Study of Resource
Characteristics and their Measure”, Journal of Management
Information Systems, Vol. 12, No. 2, (Fall), pp. 37-57, (1995)
[4] Lewis, Bruce R., Snyder, Charles A., and Rainer, R. K.
“An Empirical Assessment of the Information Resource
Management Construct”, Journal of Management Information
Systems, Vol. 12, No. 1, (Summer), pp. 199-223, (1995)
[5] March, Salvatore T., and Kim, Young-Gul. “Information
Resource Management: A Metadata Perspective”, Journal of
Management Information Systems, Vol. 5, No. 3, (Winter),
pp. 5-18, (1989)
[6] Money, William H. “Applying Group Support Systems to
Classroom Settings: A Social Cognitive Learning Theory
Explanation”, Journal of Management Information Systems,
Vol. 12, No. 3, (Winter), pp. 65-80, (1996)
[7] Woodridge, M. J. and Jennings, N. R. “Intelligent Agents:
Theory and Practice”, Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol.
10, No. 2, pp. 115-152, (1995)

Figure 1 – University Performance Model

Integration of Information Resources

• Efficiency-based view
• Effectiveness-oriented perspective

Technological Resources Human Resources Intelligent Agents

• Information Technology
• Equipment
• Teaching Technologies
• Knowledge Management
• Database Management
• Networking
• Researchers
• Teachers’ motivation
• Students’ commitment
• Executive committees
• Learning efforts
• Creativity
• Intelligent multi-agent
architecture
• Software systems
• Interfaces

Strategic IRM System

• Internal Information Sources
• Competitors’ strategic movements (marketing
intelligence)
• Integrated Strategic Development Decisions
• Organisational Effectiveness
• Management Performance

University Performance
• Knowledge-oriented organisation
• Graduation levels
• Training courses
• Cultural activities
• Scientific research
• Collaborative efforts with industries
• Consultancy services
• Integrated Knowledge Management Efficiency

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