Information overload and information poverty: challenges for healthcare services managers?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into managers' decision‐making practices when challenged by inappropriate information quality, and to test frameworks developed from research to see whether they apply to these managers.Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory, multiple case study used the critical incident technique in 19 semi‐structured interviews. Responses were analyzed using framework analysis, a matrix‐based content analysis technique, and then considered with respect to the research literature on information overload, information poverty and satisficing.Findings – The managers in this study tended to satisfice (terminate the search process and make a good enough decision, while recognizing that information gaps remain). Those challenged by too little information appear to fit descriptions of information poverty, while others described aspects of information overload.Research limitations/implications – A shortage of information behavior research on managers makes it diffic...

[1]  David Bawden,et al.  Conceptions of "information poverty" in LIS: a discourse analysis , 2007, J. Documentation.

[2]  Kgomotso H. Moahi,et al.  A study of the information behavior of health care planners, managers and administrators in Botswana and implications for the design of a national health information system (NHIS) , 2000 .

[3]  Anne Goulding,et al.  Information Poverty or Overload? , 2001, J. Libr. Inf. Sci..

[4]  Paul Solomon,et al.  Looking for Information—A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior , 2003, Information Retrieval.

[5]  Carol Tenopir,et al.  Quandaries about users, user research, and each other: The impressionistic essays , 2006 .

[6]  James G. March,et al.  A primer on decision making : how decisions happen , 1994 .

[7]  R. Brown,et al.  Consideration of the origin of Herbert Simon's theory of “satisficing” (1933‐1947) , 2004 .

[8]  Marcia J. Bates,et al.  AN INTRODUCTION TO METATHEORIES, THEORIES, AND MODELS , 2009 .

[9]  François Champagne,et al.  8. An Informatics Perspective on Decision Support and the Process of Decision-Making in Health Care , 2004 .

[10]  E. Salas,et al.  Taking stock of naturalistic decision making , 2001 .

[11]  K. Weick.  FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[12]  Lawrence A. Gordon,et al.  Information overload: A temporal approach☆ , 1990 .

[13]  Herbert Poole,et al.  Theories of the middle range , 1985 .

[14]  Tonyia J. Tidline.  The Mythology of Information Overload , 1999, Libr. Trends.

[15]  B. Dervin.  AN OVERVIEW OF SENSE-MAKING RESEARCH: CONCEPTS, METHODS AND RESULTS TO DATE , 1983 .

[16]  Heidi Julien,et al.  A Longitudinal Analysis of the Information Needs and Uses Literature , 2000 .

[17]  Robert M. Losee,et al.  Minimizing information overload: the ranking of electronic messages , 1989, J. Inf. Sci..

[18]  Errol R. Iselin.  The effects of information load and information diversity on decision quality in a structured decision task , 1988 .

[19]  David Bawden,et al.  The dark side of information: overload, anxiety and other paradoxes and pathologies , 2009, J. Inf. Sci..

[20]  Patrick Wilson,et al.  Interdisciplinary Research and Information Overload , 1996, Library Trends.

[21]  Yazdan Mansourian,et al.  An integrative model of "information visibility" and "information seeking" on the web , 2008, Program.

[22]  Donald O. Case,et al.  Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs and Behavior , 2012 .

[23]  Peter A. Bath,et al.  Healthcare managers' decision making: findings of a small scale exploratory study , 2008, Health Informatics J..

[24]  Sarah Elizabeth Zach.  When is "enough" enough? : an investigation of the information-seeking and stopping behavior of senior arts administrators , 2003 .

[25]  G. Walton,et al.  Information overload within the health care system: a literature review. , 2004, Health information and libraries journal.

[26]  D. Hantula.  Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions , 2001 .

[27]  Yazdan Mansourian,et al.  Search persistence and failure on the web: a "bounded rationality" and "satisficing" analysis , 2007, J. Documentation.

[28]  Calvin N. Moore,et al.  Mooers' Law or Why Some Retrieval Systems Are Used and Others Are Not , 2005 .

[29]  G. Zipf,et al.  Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An Introduction to Human Ecology. , 1949 .

[30]  Henry Mintzberg.  The Nature of Managerial Work , 1974, Operational Research Quarterly (1970-1977).

[31]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  Structuring computer-mediated communication systems to avoid information overload , 1985, CACM.

[32]  Peter A. Bath,et al.  Healthcare Services Managers: What Information do They Need and Use? , 2008 .

[33]  M R Louis,et al.  Surprise and sense making: what newcomers experience in entering unfamiliar organizational settings. , 1980, Administrative science quarterly.

[34]  J. W. Jones,et al.  THE STRUCTURE OF EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS , 1986 .

[35]  S. Schneider.  Information overload: Causes and consequences * , 1987 .

[36]  Reijo Savolainen,et al.  Filtering and withdrawing: strategies for coping with information overload in everyday contexts , 2007, J. Inf. Sci..

[37]  Jennifer M. Berryman,et al.  Judgements during information seeking: a naturalistic approach to understanding the assessment of enough information , 2008, J. Inf. Sci..

[38]  D. Mcgregor,et al.  The Human Side of Enterprise , 1960 .

[39]  George Kingsley Zipf,et al.  Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort: an Introduction to Human Ecology , 2012 .

[40]  Suellen Adams.  Information Behavior and the Formation and Maintenance of Peer Cultures: A Case Study of MMORPG' , 2005, DiGRA Conference.

[41]  R. Merton.  Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge , 1972, American Journal of Sociology.

[42]  Gloria J. Leckie,et al.  Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals: A General Model Derived from Research on Engineers, Health Care Professionals, and Lawyers , 1996, The Library Quarterly.

[43]  Pat Armstrong,et al.  Health Care in Canada , 1994 .

[44]  François Champagne,et al.  4. An Organizational Science Perspective on Information, Knowledge, Evidence, and Organizational Decision-Making , 2004 .

[45]  Ksenia Iastrebova,et al.  Managers’ Information Overload the impact of coping strategies on decision-making performance , 2006 .

[46]  Heidi Julien,et al.  A Content Analysis of the Recent Information Needs and Uses Literature , 1996 .

[47]  Martin J. Eppler,et al.  A framework for information overload research in organizations , 2003 .

[48]  Lynn Akin,et al.  Methods for Examining Small Literatures: Explication, Physical Analysis, and Citation Patterns. , 1998 .

[49]  T. D. Wilson,et al.  On user studies and information needs , 2006, J. Documentation.

[50]  T. D. Wilson,et al.  Information overload: implications for healthcare services , 2001 .

[51]  J. Britz.  A critical analysis of information poverty from a social justice perspective , 2006 .

[52]  Yuen Ren Chao,et al.  Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An Introduction to Human Ecology , 1950 .

[53]  Johannes J. Britz,et al.  To Know or not to Know: A Moral Reflection on Information Poverty , 2004, J. Inf. Sci..

[54]  Lisl Zach,et al.  When is enough enough? Modeling the information-seeking and stopping behavior of senior arts administrators , 2005, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[55]  T. Childers,et al.  The Information-Poor in America. , 1975 .

[56]  R. Westrum.  A typology of organisational cultures , 2004, Quality and Safety in Health Care.

[57]  Lynn Silipigni Connaway,et al.  What is enough? Satisficing information needs , 2007, J. Documentation.

[58]  J. C. Flanagan.  Psychological Bulletin THE CRITICAL INCIDENT TECHNIQUE , 2022 .

[59]  Elfreda A. Chatman,et al.  The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders , 1996, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[60]  Brenda Dervin,et al.  Sense-Making the Information Confluence : The Whys and Hows of College and University User Satisficing of Information Needs Phase II Report , 2007 .

[61]  Maureen L. Mackenzie.  Managers look to the social network to seek information , 2005, Inf. Res..

[62]  Anne Morris,et al.  The problem of information overload in business organisations: a review of the literature , 2000, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[63]  Elfreda A. Chatman.  Channels to a Larger Social World: Older Women Staying in Contact with the Great Society. , 1991 .

[64]  Marija Norvaisaite,et al.  Review of: Fisher, Karen E., Erdelez, Sandra, and McKechnie, Lynne E.F. Theories of information behavior. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc. 2005 , 2006, Inf. Res..

[65]  J. March,et al.  Environmental Scanning : Acquisition and Use of Information by Managers , 2011 .

[66]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[67]  Ali F. Farhoomand,et al.  Managerial information overload , 2002, CACM.

[68]  C. O'Reilly.  Individuals and Information Overload in Organizations: Is More Necessarily Better? , 1980 .

[69]  R. Lawson,et al.  The effects of time pressure and information load on decision quality , 1992 .

[70]  Sarah Bowen,et al.  More than "using research": the real challenges in promoting evidence-informed decision-making. , 2009, Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante.