Information Flow in Organisation

An information flow diagram (IFD) is an illustration of information flow throughout an organisation. An IFD shows the relationship between external and internal information flows between an organisation. It also shows the relationship between the internal departments and sub-systems.

An Information Flow Diagram is information about a system laid out in diagramatic form. Usually using "blobs" to explain in more details the system and sub-systems to elemental parts. Following on from this you can add in lines of how the information travels from one system to another. This is used in businesses, Government agencies, television and cinematic processes.

There are two ways of flow of information in the organization:

1. from top to bottom 

2. from bottom to top, both of these:

•  play a significant role in the communication process in an organization.

           If the information flow is clear and flawless, most of the objectives will become easy to achieve because of proper understanding and actions towards them. On the other hand, if flow of information is not flawless, several major troubles, conflicts, irregular updates, failure in target achievements will take place in the organization.

 

Information Systems

Information is the lifeblood of any organization. Damaged or lost data can cause disruptions in normal business activities leading to financial losses, law suits, etc. Information systems, which comprise hardware, software, data, applications, communication and people, help an organization to better manage and secure its critical corporate, customer and employee data. Information systems also improve integration and work processes...the benefits go on and on.

An information system is also a system but differs from other kinds of systems because its objective is to monitor and document the operations of other systems, which we can call target systems. An information system owes its existence to the target system. For example, production activities would be the target system for a production scheduling information system, human resources would be the target system of a human resource information system, and so on. We could say that every reactive system may have a subsystem that can be considered as an information system whose objective is to monitor and control such a system. The main functions of an information system may be input, processing, output, storage and control at work place.

from:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_flow_diagram


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_organizations_need_information_systems#ixzz1Gf98Uf00

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_merits_of_information_flows_in_organisations#ixzz1Gf8njlby