IFN615 information Management: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT strategy report

Karen Eyre n9758887

OCTOBER 29, 2017I am aware of the University rule that a student must not act in a manner which constitutes

academic misconduct as explained in the QUT’s Manual of Policies and Procedures (C/5.3 Academic Integrity). I confirm that this work represents my effort and does not contain plagiarised material.

Executive summary

Information management in schools is often neglected, particularly in relation to the flow of

information to classroom teachers. Classroom teachers are time poor, and in the absence of easy to

find information, often give up using data to inform practise. This is to the detriment of

organisational efficiency and success in achieving organisational goals, which in this context is to

improve student outcomes.

An information audit of Southside College has uncovered areas within the school’s information

infrastructure that inhibit information accessibility and use, as well as a culture of mistrust,

information hiding and hoarding by middle management. Recommendations have been made to

address the capacity of the school’s information management system (TASS) to be more user-

friendly and to work on improving the organisational culture in relation to information sharing, in

order for staff at all levels of the organisation to work towards providing better outcomes for

individual student’s academic and pastoral needs whilst at school.

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ContentsExecutive summary................................................................................................................................. i

PART A: OVERVIEW OF ORGANISATION................................................................................................1

Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1

Key terms:..........................................................................................................................................2

Limitations:........................................................................................................................................2

PART B: INFORMATION AUDIT..............................................................................................................3

Objectives:.........................................................................................................................................4

Scope and resources:.........................................................................................................................4

Methodology:....................................................................................................................................4

Communication strategy:..................................................................................................................5

Management support:.......................................................................................................................5

Findings:............................................................................................................................................5

PART C: INFORMATION STRATEGY........................................................................................................8

Discussion..............................................................................................................................................9

Possible solutions................................................................................................................................11

Recommendation................................................................................................................................12

References...........................................................................................................................................14

PART A: OVERVIEW OF ORGANISATION

Introduction

Schools should be organisations where learning takes place, which is the primary organisational goal of

a school: to improve student outcomes. However, information management in schools is often

neglected (Chu, 2016), particularly in relation to the flow of information to classroom teachers.

Obstacles in information flow impacts on teachers’ ability to use information which the school already

has stored to strategically cater for the academic and pastoral needs of their individual students. This

is to the detriment of organisational efficiency and success in achieving organisational goals.

As an organisation, a school has data which can be used to determine operational factors like staffing

requirements, predict academic results and track student behavioural issues. Data collection about an

individual student begins from the moment of enrolment and collates over time. School

administration uses collected information to gauge student results; the success or failure of certain

programs or subjects; and to track the organisation’s success. Hess & Fullerton (2009) point out that

schools are rich in gathered information, but without good information flow, that data and

information are not transforming into knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

At Southside College, an independent Prep – Year 12 school of approximately 1,600 students, there is

a plethora of gathered information. In its mission statement, the college “aims to nurture and

encourage enthusiasm for and commitment to the pursuit of lifelong learning. The College is

committed to providing holistic, integrated educational programs” (Southside College, 2016).

Classroom teachers are time poor, and in the absence of easy to find information, often give up using

data to inform practise. They are the integral link between learning and their students, and need to be

positioned in the best way possible to assist students in reaching their potential.

Due to problems with the information flow, classroom teachers at Southside College are not being

provided with easily accessible, comprehensible and user-friendly information which would assist

them in creating strategic and targeted lessons for the individual students in their classes.

Cacciatore, Meng, & Berger (2017) note that it is not unreasonable for professionals in contemporary

work environments to expect management to “come up with appropriate solutions and responsive

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strategies for dealing with stakeholders who are increasingly expecting real-time and on-demand

information” (p.293). As such, the information flow to classroom teachers at Southside College

requires an information audit to investigate the problems in information flow and recommend

possible solutions.

Key terms:Information audit: Henczel, (2001) describes an information audit as “an effective way of identifying

organizational information needs, charting internal and external information flows, improving

communication between information professionals and employees…within the organization. The

information audit process is promoted as one that can be adapted according to the resources available

and the organization's objectives” (p.14).

TASS: The acronym of the information management system ‘The Alpha School System’ used at

Southside College, available through the school intranet. The online portal, Teacher Kiosk, aims to

provide “teachers with the most up-to-date student and school-wide information, tools to complete

essential daily tasks and an integrated learning management and continuous reporting platform” (The

Alpha School System, 2017).

Administration: The top-tier level of management at the school, including the Headmaster, Deputy

Headmaster, Business Manager and the Board of Directors.

Middle management: The mid-tier level of management at the school, including the Head of Senior

School, Deputy Head of Senior School, Head of Middle School, Deputy Head of Middle School, Heads

of Department (responsible for academic subjects) and Year level coordinators (responsible for

pastoral care).

Limitations: For privacy reasons, the school’s identity has been concealed. Further, due to time restraints and word

limits, only one department (English) within the high school has been focussed on for this report.

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PART B: INFORMATION AUDITOrna (2004), determines that there is no one correct way to approach an information audit, but of

primary importance is to first identify the organisation’s goals and objectives, then set about

determining what information is required to meet them. From there, it is then possible to conduct an

information audit to determine if that information currently exists within the organisation and how it

is being used and make recommendations thereafter based on fact, rather than assumptions.

Using Orna’s (2004) “key questions as the starting point” (p.51) for this information audit, the

following has been determined for Southside College:

As an organisation, what are we trying to achieve?

Improve student outcomes and “value-add” as they progress through each year level

Nurture enthusiasm and commitment to learning

What do we need to know in order to do it?

Who our students are What they know What they need to know How they learn How to engage them in learning Any factors impeding a student’s ability to progress

Who needs to know it? Students Parents/caregivers Teachers Middle management Administration

What information do we need to support the knowledge?

Student academic results Student work ethic and behavioural patterns Background information which may impact student engagement

and/or learning

What do we need to do with information to achieve what we are trying to do?

Analyse student’s past results, including externally collected data such as NAPLAN results to ascertain:

1. Prior learning2. Gaps in learning3. Ability level

Analyse student’s past work ethic and behavioural records to ascertain engagement level

Who needs to do it and how? Classroom teachers, by having access to information as they plan their work program and learning experiences for each new class

Administration and middle management, to ascertain operational matters such as staffing and class sizes

Students and their parents to best strategise personal learning paths

Table 1: Starting point questions for Southside College Information Audit

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Henczel, (2001) recommends a “five step planning process for conducting an information audit” p.24),

which will be set out below for the Southside College information audit:

1. Set clear objectives

2. Determine scope and resource allocation

3. Choose a methodology

4. Develop a communication strategy (before, during and after)

5. Enlist management support

Objectives:The following objectives have been set for this information audit:

1. To investigate how student information is provided to classroom teachers;

2. To map the information flow within the organisation to look for gaps, weaknesses and

opportunities for improvement.

Scope and resources:The scope of this report will focus on the English Department of Southside College, which includes 10

staff members who teach secondary school (Years 7 to 12). This is due to accessibility to those staff

members and the author’s experience within that department. Resources will include investigation of

the school’s information management system TASS, as well as Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint which

is also used to record and store student results.

Methodology:A variety of methods can be used in information auditing. Orna (2004) includes:

“study and analysis of documents, and of databases used in conveying information;

observation of how people carry out information tasks;

structured interviews;

informal meetings of work groups to identify key problems;

questionnaires; mapping and other forms of visual representation; and

Soft Systems Analysis” (p.55).

For the purpose of this report, Henczel’s (2001) ascribed most common methods used for the

collection of data will be used: survey methods including questionnaires and interviews with teaching

staff, staff in the IT department who oversee TASS, and middle management; as well as personal

observations and experiences of using TASS and other information provided by the school.

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Communication strategy:Verbal investigation and survey will be conducted before and during the audit. The written report will

be provided as a more formal record and recommendation following the audit and analysis.

Management support:The findings of this report will be presented to middle management and the head of ICT services with

discussion and recommendations.

Findings: The following survey and interview questions were put to the English department staff:

1. How many students do you teach each year?

2. At the beginning of a school year, how well do you know the:

a. ability level of your students?

b. engagement level of your students?

3. What do you do to find out information about your students?

4. As the year progresses, where do you record student results?

5. As the year progresses, where do you record student behavioural infractions?

6. What information do you need about your students?

7. How would you like to access information about your students?

Orna (2004) provides “follow-up questions” (p.58) we can answer from the interview and survey

results recorded during the information audit:

ACADEMIC PASTORAL

(WORK ETHIC & BEHAVIOUR)

What do we actually know?

Past results, recorded on TASS and

stored in SharePoint excel document

Infringements which are recorded in

individual student diaries

Who actually knows it? People who access individual student

records or whole cohort excel

document

People who look in the diary

What information do we actually have?

Individual subject results

NAPLAN data

Aptitude testing results

OP projections (Year 12 only)

Categorised infractions as to lateness,

organisation, attitude, behaviour

management interventions

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What are we actually doing with it?

Recording and storing:

individual teacher markbooks

(hard copy – as class record)

TASS (electronic - as individual

student records)

SharePoint (electronic - as whole

cohort data sets)

Sometimes seeking it out – usually on

the basis of a ‘suspicion’ that a

particular student may be struggling

Providing it to students and parents in

quarterly report cards

Nothing unless a student becomes a

‘visible’ problem – passing on to middle

management once 3 infractions (subject

specific) have been recorded in diary

Who is doing it? How? Teachers update their own markbook

then enter data electronically into TASS

then also into the whole cohort excel

document for that year on SharePoint.

As such, it is easy to see how a teacher’s

class has progressed through that

particular year, but very hard to see

how students have progressed from

previous years, as there is no option to

generate a report that updates new

class lists.

Form class teacher responsibility to

check each student diary once per

week, then record on a sheet of paper

and sent to middle management for

processing, who then send an electronic

pdf list of students who have 3

infringements that week.

Table 2: Follow up questions with answers for Southside College Information Audit

ACADEMIC INFORMATION:

Staff teach on average five academic classes + 1 form class, which is an average of 150 students per

year. At the beginning of the school year, staff are provided with a class list and whilst some teachers

do make an effort to access previous results for their students, they find it tedious and time

consuming, due to the fact that TASS does not allow them to generate class set reports. As such, to

find previous results, teachers have to complete the following process for each student:

1. Enter student name

2. Click on correct student

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3. Click on “academic results and comments”

4. Click on “academic reports”

5. Click on a specific report, e.g. “Term 4”

6. Scroll through to find a specific subject, e.g. “English”

7. Record the result

Teachers are time poor and repeating this process 150 times is a source of frustration. A faster method

is to peruse the online excel document “Master Markbook” which is on Sharepoint; however, the

problem with this document is, once again, reports cannot be generated to show a new class list. To

find previous results, teachers have to follow this process:

1. Log in to Sharepoint

2. Click on “English department documents”

3. Click on “Master Markbook”

4. Click on the selected year, e.g. “2016”

5. Click on each class, e.g. “11.1”

6. Read through each class list to find the names of students now in a new class

7. Record results for students in new class

8. Click on next class, e.g. “11.2”

9. Read through to find correct students, etc.

This is faster, but still an inefficient use of teacher time. It also only shows an academic grade, not

further required information such as a breakdown of criteria or any pastoral information. As such, a lot

of teachers choose alternate methods to assess student ability and engagement, such as getting each

student to write a letter at the beginning of the school year and using informal observations to make

judgements as to how to plan learning experiences which will enhance student ability and

engagement.

All teachers expressed they liked the student letters but that it was a shame that the organisation had

information available but it was hard to use. They felt that with some better accessibility, they could

paint a more thorough picture of their students which would help them make a more targeted

approach earlier in the school year.

Some teachers also used their colleagues’ knowledge base – at the beginning of the school year they

would sit down with other staff in the department and do a quick debrief over class lists, swapping

information such as who taught a particular student the previous year: who was a “struggler”, who

might need a special seating plan, combinations of students who do/do not work well together, etc.

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Given that the staff are not all in a central location, not all department members were able (or willing)

to participate in this style of information sharing.

External data, such as NAPLAN results were provided to middle management, but often not shared

with classroom teachers.

PASTORAL INFORMATION:

In relation to work ethic and behavioural issues, staff expressed frustration and confusion about the

system of recording infractions in the student diary. Students are known to “lose” their diary when

infractions mount up and staff felt that “in this day and age” not having an electronic recording

method was illogical.

The method of reporting these infractions was also a source of confusion for staff: after “3 strikes” it

would be reported to either a Head of Department (for work ethic) or a Year Level Coordinator or

Deputy Head of School (for behaviour). Each week a pdf list gets sent as an email attachment to

teachers to see who is on “3 strikes” or more. The problem with this system is the ability to see

patterns of behaviour over time – unless a teacher has a particularly good memory of which names are

on the list each week. Further, unless a teacher is actively checking each student diary (which again is

a time problem) they may not recognise emerging problems for a student across multiple subjects.

More sensitive information which may impede student engagement and progress, for example, a

mental health issue or a death in the family, is often verbally communicated to a member of middle

management but not passed on to classroom teachers. This is a source of frustration to all teaching

staff, who feel that they are not trusted by middle management. By being “kept out of the loop” they

feel at risk of (and have in the past) “putting their foot in it” by inadvertently broaching a sensitive

topic, or chastising a child more harshly than they would have if they knew there were extenuating

circumstances for that individual.

PART C: INFORMATION STRATEGY

Hess & Fullerton (2009) note that “successful organizations monitor their operations extensively and

intensively… [schools] need reliable measures that illuminate performance... Tracking the appropriate

indicators can enable leaders to revolutionize how schools work, how they support educators, and

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how they spend dollars” (p665). Presently at Southside, classroom teachers feel unsupported, with

middle management and administration operating in information ‘silos’, rather than having a broader

organisational information strategy in place which would encourage better information flow.

Collecting, connecting and communicating information would allow all staff to perform more

efficiently, and approach individual student learning more holistically, having gained the wisdom from

knowing what will best suit a student. Figure 1 shows a best-practise information flow model.

Figure 1: Best-practise information flow – turning data into wisdom (Ervick, 2012)

DiscussionHenczel, (2001) notes that organisational culture “influences how an organization values information,

how information flows and how it is used, and so will condition the resources that it is prepared to

devote to developing information policy and strategy and affect the success of such endeavours”

(p.33). By having a culture of departments acting independently rather than interdependently, there is

a culture of mistrust between staff and a sense of ownership over particular information (Serenko &

Bontis, 2016).

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Presently at Southside, information is stuck in the ‘gathering’ stage. Staff at all levels need to

communicate to transform information into knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Three broad

problems have emerged:

Problems Identified: Possible solutions: Issues:

Failure to provide teachers

with practical knowledge

by making past academic

results easily accessible

A well-defined and organised knowledge repository

should be designed and used for storing knowledge;

create a systematic set of classifications to enable later

search and retrieval (Chu, 2016). This may require

working with TASS to refine the existing information

management system.

Infrastructure

Failure to provide teachers

with adequate time to

share information and

knowledge physically and

digitally

Information-sharing activities should be introduced to

engage staff attention and facilitate knowledge sharing

within the school (Chu, 2016).

People

Information hiding and

hoarding, especially in

relation to pastoral issues

School management should have a clear vision and

strong leadership (Chu, 2016) regarding sharing of

information to ensure that classroom teachers have all

applicable information required to best cater for their

individual students’ academic and pastoral needs.

People

Table 3: Problems and issues in information flow at Southside College

Saunders, Mann & Smith (2008) recommend management approach information strategy

implementation through the process of setting objectives, allocating resources, and motivating

employees. They emphasise that “successful implementation depends on people changing their

behaviour. This involves changing the assumptions and routines of people in the organisation,

including managers” (p.1097) and they reiterate the importance of communication, removing

perceptions of hierarchy, revisiting organisational goals and establishing trust in order to successfully

integrate new initiatives.

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Possible solutions

All organisations face a common challenge when implementing a new strategic initiative: how to

successfully manage the changes (Saunders, Mann & Smith, 2008). Southside College classroom

teachers have identified that the school is in possession of information which would help inform their

professional practise and assist in improving efficiency and success of operational goals, but that

infrastructure and human obstacles are impeding the information flowing to them.

If information is easily accessible and retrievable when needed, particularly at the beginning of the

school year when teachers begin planning units of work, they will be operating more efficiently and

strategically to align with the organisation’s primary goal: to improve student outcomes. Chu (2016)

also points out the need to “establish an environment to foster organizational members to create,

share, learn and use knowledge together for the organization’s advantage” (p365).

By managing more effectively the sharing, transfer, storage and retrieval of information, teachers will

be able to “accomplish their work with a high level of personal expertise and independent judgement”

(p.366) by being able to identify prior learning, gaps in learning and impediments to learning.

At present, TASS does not allow teachers to generate reports which show class lists with past results;

despite this being stored in the system. This software also has the capacity for recording behavioural

infringements, but again, teachers lack the authority to access that information.

Knowledge hoarding and hiding is frequently observed in the ‘people’ of contemporary organisations.

Serenko & Bontis (2016) warn of the following consequences:

1. Interruption of information flow results inefficiencies - employees spending countless hours

acquiring knowledge already in the possession of other employees;

2. Employees feel “left out of the loop” and reduce their level of organisational commitment;

3. When important knowledge remains with individuals instead of being embedded in

organisational processes, the quality of organisational output may not achieve an optimal

level;

4. The impediment of internal knowledge flows may reduce the level of organisational

competitiveness, innovativeness and profitability. This is especially problematic, given the

competitive nature of independent private schools who must vie for clientele;

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5. When employees resign or retire, their knowledge vanishes unless it was previously shared

with others.

It is in the organisation’s best interest to facilitate opportunities for staff to engage in information

sharing behaviour. Information is core to all decision making (Hoadley & Lamos, 2012) and the ability

to engage in intra-organisational knowledge sharing is dramatically increased when employees have

access a good information management system (Serenko & Bontis, 2016). As such, management

should liaise with TASS to enable report generation so that classroom teachers can choose the

information they access about their students in the way they see fit, not the way that middle

management decide to divulge or not divulge on a “need to know” basis. Hoadley & Lamos (2012)

note that “knowledge stems from the integration of information from the operational level and the

vision of the strategic level” (p.87) and Southside College need to focus on the integration of

information rather than the storing of information to ensure that they do not lose focus of their

primary organisational goal.

RecommendationOrna, (2004) recommends that the presentation of audit results should flow without interruption into

decisions, and decisions into action, with an action plan, which should aim for:

Essential changes to avoid any immediate threats

Quick benefits in key areas, to keep up the momentum and maintain commitment to change

Maintaining the communications links established in the audit

A definitive statement of the organisation’s information policy

A start on developing an organizational information strategy to ensure that the business

strategy benefits from an ‘organizational knowledge base’ which is kept constantly up to date

Establishing appropriate criteria for monitoring and evaluating changes as they are

implemented

Making the information audit into a regular monitoring and evaluation exercise

Regular reporting on information developments at the top level as a feed into business

strategy development

Starting to assess the cost-effectiveness of information use and its contribution to the value of

the organisation’s assets.

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The action plan for Southside College should entail:

1. Administration to liaise with TASS as soon as possible to provide the capacity for teacher’s to

generate reports that quickly show student names and past results;

2. Administration, middle management and classroom teachers to meet by the end of Term 4 to

communicate about negotiating a policy regarding more open disclosure of student pastoral

information (giving due consideration to privacy concerns);

3. Work ethic and behaviour infringements to begin being recorded in TASS (effective

immediately), not the student diary;

4. Classroom teachers being given time in the planning week at the beginning of each school year

to access information and meet with other staff if necessary;

5. Use of TASS be regularly monitored and evaluated;

6. Classroom teachers be given professional development each year as to how to use TASS and

best apply the information at their disposal;

7. Observe information use over time to ascertain impact.

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References

Cacciatore, M. A., Meng, J., & Berger, B. K. (2017). Information flow and communication practice

challenges: A global study on effective responsive strategies. Corporate Communications, 22(3),

292. Retrieved from

http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/doi/full/10.1108/CCIJ-09-2016-0063

Chu, K. (2016). Beginning a journey of knowledge management in a secondary school. Journal of 

Knowledge Management, 20(2), 364-385. Retrieved from

http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/doi/full/10.1108/JKM-04-2015-0155

Ervick, M. (2012). DIKW Perspective [Image] Retrieved from

http://www.systemswiki.org/images/8/8a/Wisdom.png

Henczel, S. (2001) The Information Audit: A Practical Guide, De Gruyter. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Retrieved from

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=3043763&ppg=25

Hess, F.M. & Fullerton, J. (2009). The Numbers We Need: Bringing Balanced Scorecards to Education

Data. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(9), 665-669. Retrieved from

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?

vid=2&sid=9a6b9d17-591c-4473-b49f-471b4c555c5d%40sessionmgr4008

Hoadley, E., & Lamos, J. (2012). Change management: An information flow approach.  International 

Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 16(1), 83. Retrieved from

http://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/1418458242?accountid=13380

Orna, E. (2004). Chapter 3: Information auditing – from initial analysis to doing the audit, Information 

strategy in practice, pp.45-72. London: Routledge.

http://www.tandfebooks.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/doi/view/10.4324/9781315252261

Orna, E. (2004). Chapter 4: Information auditing – interpreting and presenting the findings,

Information strategy in practice, pp.73-82. London: Routledge. Retrieved from

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http://www.tandfebooks.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/doi/view/10.4324/9781315252261

Saunders, M., Mann, R., & Smith, R. (2008). Implementing strategic initiatives: A framework of leading

practices.  International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 28(11), 1095-1123.

Retrieved from

http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/doi/full/

10.1108/01443570810910908

Serenko, A., & Bontis, N. (2016). Understanding counterproductive knowledge behaviour: Antecedents

and consequences of intra-organizational knowledge hiding. Journal of Knowledge 

Management, 20(6), 1199-1224. Retrieved from

http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/doi/full/10.1108/JKM-05-2016-0203

The Alpha School System (TASS). (2017). Teacher Kiosk for Teachers. Retrieved from

http://www.tassweb.com.au/?timestamp={ts%20%272017-10-13%2011:56:22%27}

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