Impacts from the (dis)satisfaction of information needs for decision making concerning strategic planning of a public organization

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study conducted in the framework of the doctoral thesis that investigates the impacts from the (dis) satisfaction of information needs for decision making concerning strategic planning of a public organization. The research strategy adopted was the case study, involving the use of sequential methods of approach in the search for convergence and triangulation of data from different sources of evidence. The first phase consisted of document analysis, and the second expansion and validation of findings through in-depth interviews and participant observation third. Grounded in literature from the areas of Administration, Public Management and Information Science, notably, the last one, with regard to the model of information use within the ‘knowledge organizations’ proposed by Choo, investigations were carried out with the actors involved in context studied to understand the problems related to the need of information relating to strategic planning. We identified the steps and decisions related to the construction process of organizational strategy, the main difficulties of the builders of the strategic planning, focusing on the problems of information, as well as the strategies used to circumvent the unfavorable scenarios originated by informational deficiencies associated with the decision. The study shows that the unavailability of the necessary information, the lack of technical knowledge of those responsible for the search and presentation of information, associated with low quality of information obtained were the most relevant information problems. Furthermore, it is shown that, to achieve make decisions in situations where there were informational deficiencies, the stakeholders developed boundary strategies outline how decisions on grounds of personal experience (empiricism), generalization, interpretation (subjective) and indirect use of information.