COMPARTMENTALIZATION: Hiding Info from Colleagues

Compartmentalization means that members of the same group have different access to information. It is a case of induced information asymmetry. {INFORMATION ASYMMETRY}

In information security, compartmentalization implies that somebody in a position of power decides the access rights of the members of a particular group—who and what information will get. However, compartmentalization, or deliberate limiting access to certain information, happens in any group and any time when you do not want to tell Pekka and Jukka what you have recently learned from Mekko and already shared with Seeta and Geeta.

This compartmentalization happens because you consider particular information a resource, i.e., having value. The primary reason for compartmentalization is this information resource function or its perception as such.

We witness an interesting paradox: while people, even in democratic societies, rarely question compartmentalization induced by people in positions of political power, they usually hate it at their workplace. Yet compartmentalization at a state level comes from people we employ as servants and pay their salaries. In contrast, the compartmentalization we hate at workplaces comes from those who employ and pay us.

The second reason for compartmentalization, often omitted, is that information not needed to perform one’s work might be noise, and it is reasonable to withhold such information.

{NEED-TO-KNOW, SIGNAL/NOISE, SUBJECTIVITY, CERTAINTY HOLDER, HIERARCHY, CLIQUE}