Information as a resource in the insurance business: the impact of structures and processes on organization information behaviour

Abstract

This paper is based on a study of information cultures in Finnish insurance companies. The material consists of 40 in-depth interviews in 15 companies. The focus is on the information behaviour in different work processes in the organization. This information behaviour is important to map, in order to describe how the knowledge base is built up in information-intensive organizations such as insurance companies.Three categories of internal environments are shown to exist: closed business environments, where tradition and safety are underlined, which emphasize knowledge in different parts of the infrastructure, but not interactively; open companies, with an innovative culture, which emphasize social capital and the integration of the individual level in planning processes; and companies in the middle, developing from closed to open environments, which underline the knowledge of the units and point out the core competencies and their systematic development. This is a way to achieve an awareness of the role of the knowledge base. The specialized business world of today needs an information culture in which it is possible to keep together the knowledge base and the social capital.