Better information sharing in smaller companies
Smaller companies have better information sharing than larger.
Well that shouldn't be surprising. If you have a company of only
50 people (or fewer), then you really can't afford not to share
information widely. You never know who will have the next great
idea or insight. Also think about it, in a small company
employees wear many hats. The top sales person might also be the
webmaster and responsible for the network. You have to share
information, just to survive.
The other point of this Darwin
article is that in larger organizations, information is horded. To me
this is a the typical information⁄knowledge is power. If I dole
out all my information, I have no more value to the company. So
I'll keep most of it to myself and only pull out tidbits as
needed. Of course, organizations where knowledge and information
is widely shared also find themselves being more efficient and
innovative.
You never know where the next big thing will come from.
Column Two
Source of link to Darwin Mag
In
a survey over a base of 2,000 executives and managers nationwide, NFI
Research also found that the smaller the company, the more information
was shared, and the more relevant it was.
“I recently
left a Fortune 200 company for a much smaller, yet national,
organization,” said one survey respondent. “The focus of what is shared
and why it is shared is so much clearer at the smaller company. It's
remarkable.”
There are two ways to look at information
sharing in business. One is that increasing information sharing is a
good thing, arming more people with more information to make better
decisions. Another way to look at it is that information can get in the
way of someone doing his or her job.
Powered by Quickdraft