Affiliated Organization

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

This article examines the work of the information manager. To that end the various areas in theAmsterdam Information Management Model - the enneahedron - will be used to give a multi-faceted view ofthe field of activity of the information manager.According to our line of reasoning, the core of the enneahedron represents the viewpoint of the informationmanager, based on which eight different aspects of information management will be considered. Each ofthese eight aspects will be described and typified briefly and concisely. Then we will outline three examples ofworking situations derived from practice. From this, it appears that the eight aspects distinguished in thesesituations correspond to the areas of interest of information management. Thus, it will be clear that theenneahedron can be used as a pattern-card of activities for information management and can give a faithfulpicture of the activities of information managers.The level at which information management gets attention in an organisation naturally colours the nature ofthe various activities. We would suggest that, for answering the title question, it does not matter whether weconsider the field of operations of the information manager or that of his boss, the CIO. The difference is oneof responsibilities. It is unthinkable that in an information-intensive organisation, the CIO is not responsible forICT operations but it is possible that he has no executive (management) role in this. Therefore, together withthe principles of responsibility, authority and delegation, the enneahedron gives a good picture of the variousareas of interest of information managers, whether this concerns the CIO or one of 'his' team. Neither do anyessentially new elements arise here. The advantage of the enneahedron approach lies in the cohesion thatthe different areas of operation apparently have.

Volume

6

Issue

14

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