INFORMATION SCIENCE (PH.D.)
A Study of Government Thinking

Government bureaucracy is frequently characterized as a complex, dynamic environment in which a flood of information must be navigated in order to make informed decisions. Information School doctoral candidate Patricia Katopol is trying to help municipal employees find more effective ways to manage and use information for decision-making.

Katopol’s dissertation, directed by Professor Raya Fidel, will study the information culture of city government support staff in relation to managerial decision-making. “Two concepts--information culture and managerial decision-making--are central,” Katopol explains. “In an organization, how is the decision-making function at one hierarchical level affected by the manner in which information is obtained, exchanged, and transferred at another hierarchical level?”

A native of Washington, D.C., Katopol earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and a law degree at Howard University. After more than a decade as a practicing attorney, she returned to Michigan, where she received a master’s degree from the Information School in Information Economics, Management and Policy. Before coming to the UW in 2001, she worked on information technology policy issues at a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Katopol decided to focus on municipal government because of the growing importance of New Public Management, in which public administrators are responsible for more, and riskier, decisions than previously. “Managers work closely with their support staff and are dependent upon them for the information they receive to make these decisions, and yet the information behavior of support staff, and their contribution to the organization’s knowledge base, is generally unappreciated,” Katopol says. “I argue that knowledge management systems that do not recognize the contribution of support staff information culture are likely to fail.”

Katopol has successfully defended the proposal and has presented posters about it at the second annual International Conference on Knowledge Management and at the 2006 meeting of Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). She is now in the middle of data collection in Seattle city government, where various departments have volunteered to participate. She hopes to complete the dissertation in summer 2006.

Data will be analyzed using Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA), in which management systems are designed according to the participant’s goals, priorities, and work environment. “CWA is a qualitative framework for designing systems and services to help workers cope with new information needs as they arise,” Katopol explains. “The study is aimed at three audiences--researchers in human information behavior, management, and knowledge management system designers. I’m indebted to Dr. Fidel for introducing me to this framework, which I believe provides rich and compelling data for informing design; in my case, the design of knowledge management systems.”