CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION

A processed data intended to become an Information should have following attributes or Characteristics UNDERSTANDABILTY DETAIL

APPROPRIATENESS
ACCURACY TIMING

FREQUENCY

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION
UNDERSTANDABILTY Information should be presented in a format and style which is readily understood by the user. This means that, the provider of information should be aware of receivers knowledge, literacy level and characteristics of the individual or the group. Many a times a common processed data will serve as a basis for wide variety of users; In such cases, it is up to the information provider to produce as many varieties of information as there are users. In such cases, the common processed data is called as back end and information presented from such source, which is understood readily by the particular user is called front end.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION
DETAIL: Detail refers to amount of processed data which has to be communicated to the receiver so that it makes a complete sense to her/him and triggers an immediate decision. Detail is again not universal but user specific. In an organizations, higher level personnel usually require summarized reports while lower level personnel operate with much more detailed reports. Again in this case, one should not allow themselves to be carried away by modern data storage capacities at cost of the necessity of receiver.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION
APPROPRIATENESS: An information should be in users sphere of activity and related to task at hand. It should be communicated to the one who is to take the decision based on it. If the form and content of processed data is not appropriate and delivered to one who is not the appropriate person to take the intended decision, then processed data will not be transformed in to an Information.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION
ACCURACY:
Accuracy refers to the degree of precision. Length can be measured to a precision of one millionth of meter; But we do not expect all length measurements to have this degree of precision- Room dimensions are measured to an accuracy of one tenth of a meter, while dimensions of a standard mechanical component are measured to a accuracy of one thousandth of a meter. Same kind of judgement applies to information also. The level of accuracy depends on receiver and the kind of decision she/he is suppose to take based on such information. For example, a production supervisor needs day by day information on units produced and a general manager requires production information which is summed up to say half year. Though day by day report is accurate, it is unnecessary for the decision to be taken by general manager. Technological advances have enabled accumulation of more precise data and wide ranging processing capabilities; But this should not be unnecessarily

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION
TIMING: Data should be processed and communicated in time to be used. Any delay in communication of processed data to the potential user makes it worthless as the moment of taking the decision would have passed. For whatever its worth, if processed data does not reach the receiver in time to take the decision, it remains a piece of processed data, but not an information.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION
FREQUENCY: The interval at which information is supplied to the user is called frequency. The frequency may range from fraction an hour to an year, depending on who is the receiver. The radical changes in communication technology has made it possible to communicate processed data at minuet frequencies. But, this does not mean that information has to be communicated with the maximum possible frequency. If the requirements of the receiver is not understood, frequent communication results in garbage of processed data rather than an information.

TYPES OF INFORMATION
1. Structured and Unstructured Information 2. Perfect and Imperfect Information 3. Motivational, Model building and Background Information 4. Action and Non-action information

5. Recurring and Non-recurring Information

6. Internal and External Information 7. Formal and Non-formal Information 8. Documentary and Non-documenatary Information 9. Planning, Control and Operational Information

10. Private and Public Information

TYPES OF INFORMATION
1.Structured and Unstructured Information
Data can be collected by formulating definite questions and response to each of questions can be elicited by instructing the respondent to choose one of the priorly defined limited number of answers. Such data can be processed by assigning weightage to each answer and the net response can be presented in the form of only one definite answer. Information elicited from such a data collection and processing can be termed as Structured Information. On the other hand, can be data can be accumulated within a broad framework and processed to yield answers which points to broad possibilities, which can be interpreted in more than one ways. The information generated from such a process can be termed as Unstructured Information .

TYPES OF INFORMATION
2. Perfect and Imperfect Information An information which makes the user to choose one best solution among many alternative solutions without any uncertainity about the outcome is called as a Perfect Information. An information which at best reduces the uncertainities about the outcome of alternative solutions available but does not prompt to choose one particular alternative is termed as Imperfect Information .

TYPES OF INFORMATION
3. Action and Non-action information The information which prompts the user in to action as soon as information is received is called as Action Information. If an information does not insist on immediate action, but may serve as background for any future action is called Nonaction Information.

TYPES OF INFORMATION
4. Recurring and Non-recurring Information Information which is generated and used in the same form repeatedly with certain frequency, such an information is termed as Recurring Information. On the other hand an information which generated only once in response to a situation at hand and not repeated is termed as Nonrecurring Information

TYPES OF INFORMATION
5. Internal and External Information: Information which is generated and circulated within an organization is called an Internal Information. An information which is generated outside the organization is called External Information.

TYPES OF INFORMATION
6. Formal and Non-formal Information: Information which is generated and circulated as a part of policies and regulations of an organization is called Formal Information. Information which is generated outside the bounds of policies and regulations of an organization is termed as Non-formal Information.

TYPES OF INFORMATION
7. Documentary and Non-documenatary Information:

Information which is recorded in one or other form and preserved for varying amount of time is called Documentary Information. The information which is not recorded in any form is called Nondocumentary information .

TYPES OF INFORMATION
8. Private and Public Information: Information which is meant to be used by only designated persons and blocked from rest of the personnel in an organization is called Private Information. Information which is meant to each and every personnel in an organization and hence circulated without any restriction is called Public Information.

TYPES OF INFORMATION
9. Planning, Control and Operational Information:

Information useful to Planning, Control and Operational activities of an organization.

TYPES OF INFORMATION
3. Motivational, Model building and Background Information: An information which helps the user to judge his/ her performance and motivates him/ her to keep up and improve the performance in the current direction or cautions to change the directions to avoid the future failure of the performance is called ad Motivational Information. An information which enables the user to formulate/ improve/ change the model, on which the user is relying to get the best results is called Model building Information. An information which enriches the knowledge and skill of the user, as a result of which he/she will be in a position to quickly and efficiently respond to problems or situations posed before him/ her is termed as Background Information

VALUE OF INFORMATION
The profit the user obtains by the decision made using the information or the difference in profit that user gains by taking a decision based on information and the decision which he/ she would have taken without information, minus the cost of producing the information is termed as Value of Information. One can improve the value of information by increasing the quality of information such that it prompts innovative decisions and by optimally reducing the cost of producing the information.

VALUE OF INFORMATION
Example for Value of Perfect Information: Decision based without information (old information) Choice A B C Choice A Outcome 15 Lakhs 30 Lakhs 20 Lakhs Outcome 18 Lakhs

Decision based with information (Updated information)

B
C

25 Lakhs
35 Lakhs

Value = 35- 25 Cost of Information Production

AGE OF INFORMATION
As long as an information is useful for decision making it is alive. Once it gets out dated and an updated information triggers decision making, the old one dies as an information and remains as only processed data. The time period for which an information serves as trigger for decision making is termed as AGE OF INFORMATION.

AGE OF INFORMATION
Example: A day end stock figure is useful until next day stock figure replaces it. Its age is equal to its frequency. Such information is called CONDITIONAL INFORMATION If weekly ( 6 days = d) stock report is an useful information for decision making, then stock at the end of each day is recorded (interval i) and summed up at the end of week. Then stock at the end of first day of week will have 6 days life (=d) and stock on last day have 1 day life (=i). The average life is (d+i)/2. Such information is called OPERATIONAL INFORMATION.