This field formed in the early 2000s[1] and consists of "norms, principles and rules governing various types of data."
[2] There have been several international groups established by research organizations that aim to grant access to their data.
When companies seek to take charge of their data, whether by choice or necessity, they empower their employees, establish processes, and utilize technology to accomplish this objective.
In a recent report conducted by CIO WaterCooler community, 54% stated the key driver was efficiencies in processes; 39% - regulatory requirements; and only 7% customer service.
[8] Successful programs identify drivers meaningful to both supervisory and executive leadership.
Common themes among the external regulations center on the need to manage risk.
Data governance initiatives may be aimed at achieving a number of objectives including offering better visibility to internal and external customers (such as supply chain management), compliance with regulatory law, improving operations after rapid company growth or corporate mergers, or to aid the efficiency of enterprise knowledge workers by reducing confusion and error and increasing their scope of knowledge.
[citation needed] Many data governance initiatives are also inspired by past attempts to fix information quality at the departmental level, leading to incongruent and redundant data quality processes.
Therefore, knowledge workers within large organizations often do not have access to the data they need to best do their jobs.