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(Beasley, Branson & Hancock, 2009). Nowadays, Enterprise Risk
Management (ERM) is being promoted as a more effective way of
identifying and managing organization-wide risks and sharing
information about these so that they can be effectively mitigated.

Information professionals who serve all parts of an organization are well
placed to ensure that ERM is implemented effectively and that is
underpinned by accurate, up-to-date information. Similarly, information

management specialists are likely to play an important role in the
increasing use of master data management (MDM), in which company
data are held and on organization-wide integrated systems rather than
fragmented hubs (Zornes, 2009).

On a national and international level, there is also a pressing need
for more integrated information systems to help avoid recurrent
economic crises. For example, in the case of the current crisis, the

liberalization of the financial system and the split of regulatory
responsibilities between central banks and other bodies made it difficult
to spot the warning signs (Morgan, 2009). The information profession

should play a leadership role in liaising between governments, financial
institutions, and regulators to establish integrated, transparent financial
information systems.

Finally, information professionals must adapt to emerging forms of
communication such as online social networking sites, blogs, and other
online media (Hawkins, 2009). Increasingly used for personal and
business use alike, these forms of communication allow fast

dissemination of information to a worldwide audience. These forms of
communication offer opportunities to disseminate financial and
economic information quickly and effectively, but the ease with which

anyone can publish information online also means that inaccurate or
misleading data can spread rapidly (Sungmin, 2009). The information
profession has an important role to play not only in the appropriate use
of new forms of media but also in terms of quality control. The low

entry barriers to publishing information online facilitate the greater use
of data in decision-making but bring about a requirement for tools and
guidance to enable users to interpret the quality and accuracy of the

information, a demand which information professionals must meet
(Hawkins, 2009).
Conclusive remarks

This paper has discussed the role of information failure in the
economic crisis and has shown how the information profession must be