Abstract
The literature on quality of data, information and knowledge has a tendency to focus on the measurement aspects of such constructs. This implies some emphasis on scale construction. Unfortunately, conceptual clarity is in too many cases not apparent. This chapter advocates for the application of Social Cognitive Theory as a robust theoretical framework in order to understand the quality attributions of data, information and knowledge constructs. The definitions of data, information and knowledge are presented in a hierarchical structure having the data definition as a first order construct, the information definition as a second order construct built upon the data construct, and the knowledge construct as a third order construct built upon the information construct. Furthermore, the definitions of these constructs require considering the unit of analysis individual versus organization. Data has a common definition for both units of analysis. However information and knowledge have different definitions depending on the unit of analysis. Finally, this chapter addresses the quality attribution in the five considered constructs. In line with the current dominant paradigm, quality it is not an absolute assessment as it depends on the considered context and situation.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Organizational Information: Data with a socially-constructed contextual and situational meaning by an organizational sensemaking process.
Social Cognitive Theory: It posits that individual’s external factors, behavior and cognition create interactions that result in a triadic reciprocality (e.g. Bandura 1986 ).
Organizational Knowledge: Organizational information socially believed as justified truth and stored in organizational memory through organizational learning and that can be recalled as needed by any agent (e.g. individuals, automatic processes) in the organization.
Individual’s Knowledge Quality: It includes the conceptual requirements of individual’s information quality (i.e. justifiable truthfulness and cognitive structure fitness) and data quality (i.e. contextual and situational utility) and the extent that the available individual’s knowledge can be remembered and reused by this person.
Individual’s Knowledge: Information believed by an individual as justified truth and stored in memory (i.e. it can be retrieved) in a cognitive structure through a cognitive process called learning.
Data: Symbols obtained through an encoding process of the environment cit_bfthat can be available to an individual and/or organization but which have not as yet been evaluated for their worth in a specific scenario.
Organizational Information Quality: It includes the conceptual requirements of data quality (i.e. contextual and situational utility), the extent its meaning is common among the individuals in the organization and the easiness storing it in the organizational memory.
Type B Data Quality (or Information Quality, or Knowledge Quality): The quality level is assessed as falling below a known target level.
Organizational Knowledge Quality: It includes the conceptual requirements of organizational information quality (i.e. common meaning and easiness storing it in the organizational memory) and data quality (i.e. contextual and situational utility) and the extent that the available organizational knowledge can be remembered and reused by any agent (e.g. individuals, automatic processes) in the organization.
Type A Data Quality (or Information Quality, or Knowledge Quality): The target for an acceptable level of quality is unknown.
Individual’s Information Quality: It includes the conceptual requirements of data quality (i.e. contextual and situational utility), the extent of its justifiable truthfulness and its fitness in a cognitive structure.
Individual’s Information: Data with an imparted contextual and situational meaning by an individual through a cognitive process called enactment.
Data Quality: The extent to which the information enacted from the available data fits to the information needed in a given context and situation.