The Relationship Between Information Quality and Individual Impacts of the use of Information in a Public University.

Abstract

The relationship between information quality (IQ) perceived by the users of information systems in organizations and the individual impact (II), as well as the influence of individual and contextual characteristics on these perceptions are recurring research themes. However, the explanation of how these relationships occur, due to the inherent peculiarities of individuals and contexts, is necessary in order to support the interventions needed to improve the results of the use of information in organizations. Therefore, the aim of this work is to explain the relationship between IQ and II, through the case study of the administrative activities of a Brazilian public university. Using the information produced by previous quantitative research, in this paper, by means of cluster analysis, we defined individuals to be interviewed. In order to analyze the information collected through the interviews, we used content analysis, based on the following semantic categories: the use of information background, which include IQ perceptions; use of information; and the impacts of the use of information, which include II. The obtained results explain the relationships between the perceptions of information quality and individual impact for each of the identified clusters. Moreover, there are clear indications that the organization’s interventions to improve the individual impacts of the use of information must consider the differences between the groups of employees.