What is a critical characteristic of good information?

For information to be useful to the decision maker, it must have certain characteristics and meet certain criteria.

Some of the characteristics of good information are discussed as follows:

Image Courtesy : uhasselt.be/images/faculteiten/bew/mis.jpeg

i. Understandable:

Since information is already in a summarized form, it must be understood by the receiver so that he will interpret it correctly. He must be able to decode any abbreviations, shorthand notations or any other acronyms contained in the information.

ii. Relevant:

Information is good only if it is relevant. This means that it should be pertinent and meaningful to the decision maker and should be in his area of responsibility.

iii. Complete:

It should contain all the facts that are necessary for the decision maker to satisfactorily solve the problem at hand using such information. Nothing important should be left out. Although information cannot always be complete, every reasonable effort should be made to obtain it.

iv. Available:

Information may be useless if it is not readily accessible ‘ in the desired form, when it is needed. Advances in technology have made information more accessible today than ever before.

v. Reliable:

The information should be counted on to be trustworthy. It should be accurate, consistent with facts and verifiable. Inadequate or incorrect information generally leads to decisions of poor quality. For example, sales figures that have not been adjusted for returns and refunds are not reliable.

vi. Concise:

Too much information is a big burden on management and cannot be processed in time and accurately due to “bounded rationality”. Bounded rationality determines the limits of the thinking process which cannot sort out and process large amounts of information. Accordingly, information should be to the point and just enough – no more, no less.

vii. Timely:

Information must be delivered at the right time and the right place to the right person. Premature information can become obsolete or be forgotten by the time it is actually needed.

Similarly, some crucial decisions can be delayed because proper and necessary information is not available in time, resulting in missed opportunities. Accordingly the time gap between collection of data and the presentation of the proper information to the decision maker must be reduced as much as possible.

viii. Cost-effective:

The information is not desirable if the solution is more costly than the problem. The cost of gathering data and processing it into information must be weighed against the benefits derived from using such information.