Insular information management system
An
information silo
, or a group of such silos, is an insular
management system
in which one
information system
or subsystem is incapable of reciprocal operation with others that are, or should be, related. Thus
information
is not adequately shared but rather remains sequestered within each system or subsystem, figuratively trapped within a container like grain is trapped within a
silo
: there may be much of it, and it may be stacked quite high and freely available within those limits, but it has no effect outside those limits. Such
data silos
are proving to be an obstacle for businesses wishing to use
data mining
to make productive use of their data.
Typical information silos in a hierarchic structured organization
Information silos occur whenever a
data system
is incompatible or not integrated with other data systems. This incompatibility may occur in the technical architecture, in the
application architecture
, or in the
data architecture
of any data system. However, since it has been shown that established
data modeling
methods are the root cause of the data integration problem,
[1]
most data systems are at least incompatible in the data architecture layer.
In organizations
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In understanding
organizational behaviour
, the term
silo mentality
[2]
often refers to a
mindset
which creates and maintains information silos within an organization. A silo mentality is created by the divergent goals of different organizational units: it is defined by the
Business Dictionary
as "a mindset present when certain departments or sectors do not wish to share information with others in the same company".
[3]
It can also be described as a variant of the
principal?agent problem
.
[
clarification needed
]
A silo mentality primarily occurs in larger organizations and can lead to poorer
performance
and has a negative impact on the corporate culture. Silo mentalities can be countered by the introduction of shared goals, the increase of internal networking activities and the flattening of hierarchies.
[4]
Predictors for the occurrence of silos are
- Number of employees
- Number of organizational units within the whole organization
- Degree of specialization
- Number of different incentive mechanisms.
Gleeson and Rozo suggest that
The silo mindset does not appear accidentally ... more often than not, silos are the result of a conflicted leadership team ... A unified leadership team will encourage trust, create empowerment, and break managers out of their "my department" mentality and into the "our organization" mentality.
[3]
Etymology
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The term
functional silo syndrome
was coined in 1988 by Phil S. Ensor (1931?2018) who worked in organizational development and employee relations for
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
and
Eaton Corporation
, and as a consultant. "Silo" and "stovepipe" (as in "
stovepipe organization
" and "
stovepipe system
") are now used interchangeably and applied broadly. Phil Ensor's use of the term "silo" reflects his rural Illinois origins and the many grain silos he would pass on return visits as he contemplated the challenges of the modern organizations with which he worked.
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
See also
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- Bounded rationality
? Making of satisfactory, not optimal, decisions
- Business process interoperability
? state that exists when a business process can meet a specific objective automatically utilizing essential human labor only
Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Closed platform
? System where a single company controls an entire ecosystem (also called walled garden or closed ecosystem)
- Data architecture
? framework for organizing and defining the interrelationships of data in support of an organization's missions, functions, goals, objectives, and strategies
Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Data integration
? Combining data from different sources and providing a unified view
- Data warehouse
? Centralized storage of knowledge
- Disparate system
? Data processing system without interaction with other computer data processing systems
- Enterprise application integration
? use of software and computer systems architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications
Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Filter bubble
? Intellectual isolation involving search engines
- Islands of automation
- Metadata publishing
References
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External links
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