Data Governance Blog

Data Governance and Industrial / Organizational Psychology

Much has been written about the technical side of data governance, but we continue to give minimal treatment to the human side of the equation. I think that is in part due to the fact that as IT professionals, we tend to look for technical solutions to problems. But what do you do when the IT people are the problem? Is data governance really an Industrial / Organizational Psychology problem?

Some of us are beginning to recognize that data governance is a problem with human behavior, or that it has a strong human psychology component. When you consider that Industrial Psychology came of age on the heels of the industrial revolution, it should be no surprise that a new crop of human organizational problems would develop with the computer age. What is surprising is how little study is being done on the subject.

Take an application developer who is working hard to meet the deadlines and commitments presented that they forgo some best practices, because they know they can and they won’t impact the project. Of course the developer is not considering the consequences of this choice on downstream applications. They are not rewarded for keeping the data consumers satisfied, only for keeping the application user happy. So the question becomes, how do we get the IT professionals to adhere to corporate guidelines? I think this is the key Industrial / Organizational Psychology problem for the 21st century.

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Thanks for stopping by. My writing is intended to take a lighter look at Data Governance, and toss in some pragmatic advice along the way.  If you are interested in more information on how to implement Data Governance in your organization, please contact me via LinkedIn or the email address below.

Regards,
Tom Jesionowski

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