Information overload and worker performance: a process-centered view

✍ Scribed by Ned Kock

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 93 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1092-4604
• DOI: 10.1002/1099-1441(200010/12)7:4<256::aid-kpm79>3.0.co;2-u

✦ Synopsis

The information overload phenomenon has been receiving increasing attention in recent years, particularly in the popular business and information technology literatures. While prescriptions and computer tools have been developed to reduce information overload based on `commonsense' assumptions, few careful research investigations have been conducted. We contribute to ®lling this research gap with an analysis of quantitative and qualitative information overload perceptions evidence collected from a sample of managers and professionals. Our ®ndings suggest that, contrary to prevalent beliefs, task productivity and outcome quality are not strongly linked with information overload. Additionally, we found that time pressure is a stronger determinant of information overload than amount of information processed. These and other ®ndings are discussed from a process-centered perspective, and academic as well as organizational implications are explored.