Introduction

This chapter examines the possible changes that corporate information departments may encounter and the drivers behind them. It provides practical advice on leading your team through such changes and successfully transitioning them to a new way of working. It examines the warning signs that tell you such changes may be coming, and seeks to answer the question: how can a corporate information department prevent unnecessary change occurring? The author, in addition to being a veteran of several organizational changes himself, interviewed several senior managers with experience of change in the workplace. Their joint experience and perspectives should provide the reader with the means to recognize the signs that a restructure may be coming, how to be ready for it and what to do if it happens.

Why change happens to information departments

Corporate information departments have changed out of all recognition during the last 30 years. From their original days as corporate libraries housing extensive hard-copy collections in prime city locations, they have evolved in many ways.

A significant amount of content has migrated onto the web, removing the role of corporate information departments as gatekeepers of this information, with a consequential reduction in headcount. Technology has removed the absolute need for information departments to be located in expensive city centre offices in a head office location. They can potentially be based in cheaper parts of the country or even overseas. Conversely, as team members no longer need to be close to physical content, some have co-located with their internal customers rather than as part of a separate information centre.

While traditional library research roles have reduced in number, technological change has also provided corporate information departments with new opportunities. Many managers of these departments have recognized that they possess the skills to establish corporate intranets and knowledge management solutions and have expanded into these growing areas.

The abundance of information available online has proved a huge benefit for companies in many ways but it has resulted in information overload. While busy executives can now put their hands on hundreds of pages of apparently relevant information, they lack the time and experience to make sense out of it. And with inexperience and time pressures come the risks of acting on incorrect information. From this situation, information departments have created the role of research analyst where a researcher synthesizes, analyses and summarizes the information