Management of diffuse information in organizations

Introduction

The CEOs of organizations need to know the organization, know where they stand, "know the ground they are on," otherwise they will not be able to make decisions that lead to the top of the company they lead.

But, to carry out this activity it is necessary to have information, both external and internal to the organizations.

Normally what we consider tangible assets is everything that we can physically dispose of, and we can mention various examples: raw materials, stocks, land, machinery and a long etcetera. However, these factors are not enough to make companies successful.

Similarly, the company has what is known as intangible assets and are those that are not material in nature. (CANCINO VELASQUEZ) In this field, we can talk about copyrights, patents, trademarks, information technology and databases, and finally know-how. All these intangible assets are what gives an added value to the company and that differentiates it from the others.

All the aforementioned, but above all the information, is what provides efficiency for decision making, and allows obtaining competitive advantage and permanence within an increasingly dense and complex market, where knowledge of the client, quality and flexibility to adapt to the needs and requirements of both the client, the environment, and the environment in general.

It is important to note that information, as information is that, data sets and experiences, which, without focus, will continue to be information.

The difference stands out in the fact of handling that information, but, to handle that information it must be interpreted, and to interpret it, it must be integrated, assembled and classified, to determine in what area, aspect, situation, moment, and opportunity to use it, both as independent information, or as part of more information, so that knowledge is finally generated, knowing that what was previously considered as "Information is power" has now evolved into "Knowledge is power", decision power and power of action.

The difference between information and knowledge lies initially in, as mentioned before, the fact that the information is limited to data, quantitative or quantitative, without necessarily delving into the nature of said information. Information by itself does not provide a fundamental basis, nor a perspective, nor a reason or direction that helps man to know how to act, how to act or how to decide.

Knowledge, which is part of the information and information sets, is therefore a "broader Knowledge", which, depending on the information, transforms it into a living and participatory element of organizational decisions.

It is therefore knowledge as a definition:

A dynamic human process of justifying personal belief in search of truth.

The information makes it possible to establish differences based on comparisons, allows immediate interpretations to be made, and obtaining certain meanings easily or logically visible.

Knowledge is the consequence, and learning obtained through information and the immediate qualities that information offers.

Knowledge provides the capacity for conscious and directed action and execution. "

Definition

So let's focus now more precisely on our subject and let's start knowing some definitions to begin to soak up it.

Information:

(Definition of)

“Information is an organized set of data, which constitutes a message about a certain phenomenon or entity. Information allows solving problems and making decisions, since its rational use is the basis of knowledge ”.

Diffuse:

That it is unclear, exact or concrete.

Fuzzy information:

It is the organized set of data that constitutes a message about a certain phenomenon or entity but that has the characteristic of being unclear, exact or concrete.

For most organizations, information is an element that cannot be ignored or improvised. Currently, the correct handling of information allows us to face the future and business competition with much more probability of success.

The information within the company can be viewed in such a way that it meets the following characteristics:

It must fulfill its main function, this is to increase user knowledge or reduce the uncertainties that exist. In this case, the information is measured in relation to the help it generates for individuals so that they can make decisions within the company, in relation to the established objectives or goals. It must generate competitiveness factors, that is, competitiveness does not depend only on the ability of the company to produce a product, but also depends on the external market, customers, their tastes and preferences, so it is relevant to know information from the external environment.

To improve competitiveness, it is necessary to obtain the information before the competitors, which requires a good collection, capture and processing of the data so that the information obtained can be analyzed.

Fuzzy information

Fuzzy information management process

The process has to encompass the entire organization and it is a key point that it is implemented from the top management of the company, who is in charge of raising the information needs of the organization from the strategic point of view.

Information need

It is here where the concern for knowledge about:

Internal and external environment of the company:

Recognize environmental and socio-cultural situations, the position of the competition, marketing plans, work situations, national and local economy, etc.

Organizational interests and objectives

Interests, needs, concerns or shortcomings of the organization itself in order to establish organizational objectives and goals.

Clients and / or users

Mainly to have knowledge of the needs that the organization intends to satisfy.

Production and / or operation systems

They are the systems on which the capacity and success of the company is focused since these systems are responsible for providing products to customers, so the information that refers to the systems is very important since it is It must have the ideal for the type of needs to be satisfied.

Technology

Information on technology must be up-to-date and at the forefront, as production costs can be saved and customer service can be streamlined.

Information search

In order to search for information, you must be very clear about what the information needs are, it is advisable to prepare a schedule of activities that contains:

The tasks to achieve the organizational objectives. Order the activities with logical order of action. Determine the means and resources to use. Determine the execution time.

It is necessary to recognize the institutions that handle the type of information that interests us, such as:

INEGI: National Institute of Statistics and Geography

IFAI: Federal Institute for Access to Information

INFOMEX: public information of the Federal Government.

INFONAVIT: Institute of the National Fund for Workers' Housing

Strategies must be defined, priority maps and search tactics must be put together so as not to overwork and save time, in addition, it is advisable to recognize some of the characteristics of internet search engines to further streamline the search for information.

Obtaining all kinds of information (diffuse information).

During the process where the need for information arises and later, it is sought to obtain it, it is very common that the result is a large amount of information, unclassified, disorganized, unstable, with the impression that it lacks background and form.

To determine if the information obtained is diffuse, the following questions should be asked:

Is it appropriate to the needs of the business or company?

Is it accessible enough for those members of the organization who need it taking into account the right time and place?

Is it accurate and complete?

Is it safe in terms of accessibility, integrity, and reliability?

Does it present duplication or not?

Use of tools to locate and obtain clear and precise information

In order to face so much information, and such disorganization, it is advisable to implement some tools that will make this great “quasimode” an important source of information.

Identify keywords Know and apply rapid reading techniques Apply some selection technique to highlight main ideas Develop content cards Use indexes and thematic search engines Ask experts in the subject Implement a method that registers, concentrates, classifies, organizes and hierarchizes information Assigns personnel in the organization responsible for each task Determine the specialty, line of business or profile of the information sources Evaluate the reliability of the information sources Be able to identify the types of sources and their content Know how to collect information

Information evaluation

The evaluation of the information is extraordinarily important since the efficiency and effectiveness with which the organization develops depends to a great extent on this part of the process since it determines how it responds or reacts to the objectives and information needs of the clients to have the different indicators.

To carry out this evaluation you must:

Establish evaluation objectives Distinguish the particular from the information in general Apply the appropriate criteria to capture, select, integrate and organize Give consistency to the information Distinguish opinion facts Find different points of view on the information and discuss Know how to identify the position that the source has in the information Use categories of reliability, validity and depth levels for the manipulation of information Feedback on the actions being carried out Being capable enough to see the evolution of the information work Distinguish between primary and secondary sources

Reasons for carrying out the evaluation of the information.

Because some senior manager has asked for it To allow modifications To give information that can be countered for some period of time As part of the planning For the contribution of opinions that give new perspectives To document results or impacts on the organization

Information processing and production

At this stage, the information is processed and later used to benefit the organization in some way. In this information processing and production, it is carried out in order to understand, signify, locate and differentiate in time and space, know, participate, express and convince to achieve organizational success.

These are some of the actions to take at this stage:

Synthesize, organize and present the information Be able to carry out an analysis and synthesis of information Reflect and conclude Master the basic techniques of written expression Know how to make reports DO NOT copy and paste Integrate to paraphrase, transform and somehow represent the information Use diagrams Use tables Use graphs Know how to write an essay

All this will be capable of generating accurate and timely communication instruments that respond to real information or communication needs. Able to attend to the characteristics of the communication medium used and take into account the characteristics of the user.

Decision making

In this age of information globalization, economic and financial, internationalization and highly competitive, we must face so many changes and vary strategies. Organizations have an obligation, if they want to be successful, to strategize and make decisions very quickly.

The basic instrument for decision-making is clear, timely and truthful information. Information is the raw and fundamental material in decision-making by the senior managers of an organization since the higher the quality of information, the better the quality of decision-making.

Fuzzy Logic: History and Application

Fuzzy logic is a methodology that provides a simple and elegant way to obtain a conclusion from vague, ambiguous, imprecise, noisy or incomplete input information, in general, fuzzy logic mimics how a person makes decisions based on information with the features mentioned. One of the advantages of fuzzy logic is the possibility of implementing systems based on it in both hardware and software or in combination of both.

Fuzzy logic is a computational intelligence technique that allows information to be worked with a high degree of imprecision, in this it differs from conventional logic that works with well-defined and precise information.

The concept of Fuzzy Logic was conceived by Lofti Zadeh, a professor at the University of California at Berkley, who dissatisfied with the classic sets (crisp sets) that only allow two options, the belonging or not of an element to said set presented it as one A way of processing information allowing partial memberships to some sets that, in contrast to the classics, he called Fuzzy Sets (fuzzy sets), the concept of a fuzzy set was exposed by Lofti Zadeh in a paper that is now classic in the fuzzy logic literature in the year From 1965, the article is titled "Fuzzy Sets" and was published in Information and Control magazine. Zadeh himself published in 1971 the article, "Quantitative Fuzzy Semantics",where it introduces the formal elements that would end up composing the body of the doctrine of fuzzy logic and its applications as they are known today.

A few years later, in 1974, the British Ebrahim Mandani, demonstrated the applicability of fuzzy logic in the field of control. It develops the first practical fuzzy control system, the regulation of a steam engine. The applications of fuzzy logic in control could not be implemented prior to these years, due to the low computing capacity of the processors of that time.

Examples. (JCVALDA)

For example, by analyzing the internal information of an organization, it is possible to easily obtain data on sales made, production or inventory, this data is measured in a quantitative way, therefore it becomes clear information for understanding and analysis.

On the other hand, the information can become fuzzy. In a market study, taking into account people's tastes in terms of the taste of a certain product, in this case there may be variables that are difficult to measure, for example subjective aspects of the product, qualifiers, or emotions, assuming that the information is collected Through surveys, later this information becomes difficult to measure, it becomes diffuse information, which is clear for a good understanding.

The diffuse information can be understood with the set of data that can hardly be processed or analyzed to obtain truthful information that can give the necessary tools to individuals and guide them in making decisions.

The management and use of this information within organizations is relevant since you can have a large amount of data but if these cannot be transformed into clear and concise information, it will hardly help management and other departments to be able to make decisions..

Fuzzy knowledge mapping

Finally, we will talk about one more technique to treat logic which is the Mapping of diffusive knowledge.

One of the tools to convert qualitative data into information that can be quantified is precisely this fuzzy knowledge mapping technique.

The tool consists of some nodes and conceptual connections that are graphically illustrated and that show the degree of causal relationship between elements and concepts.

In the image, we see how five elements are presenting different types of relationships with respect to the others. They only connect with some and that connection can be represented by a scale of values to analyze which of them is the strongest or the most appropriate.

Both the nodes and the value of the connections in a phenomenon are determined by a group of experts who ensure that there is coherence in the values, and that only key elements are being used in a process.

The connections and weighted causal relationships between each of them are established. Levels of influence and hierarchies are determined and decisions are made to maintain or modify that system. An example would be the biological analysis on the impact that the disappearance of one of these nodes would have if the mapping were representing relationships between the species of an ecosystem and a food system. The disappearance of one of them would surely affect others, but at what level and how could we do something to avoid it or have contingency strategies.

Implications of diffuse information in organizations. (ZAMUDIO GARCIA, 2013)

Knowing all the consequences that the knowledge produced by diffuse information or not entails, now we must understand, just to emphasize, what happens in organizations given the phenomena mentioned above.

Already mentioned above, but now seeking to make the implications of diffuse information more specific in the company, it would be as if it were alien to what happens in the world.

Their decisions could not allow a rapid adaptation to changes in the market, they would not clearly understand the feelings and desires of their customers, their power of innovation could not be developed or perhaps they would fall into disinterest.

By deeply evaluating these concepts and others mentioned before, we begin to understand why the information must have a certain degree of clarity, since otherwise, not having clear information could lead to a state of chaos and uncertainty.

Knowledge management

Information sources

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