Managerial Information Overload

Study participants rely primarily on themselves to filter, delegate, and eliminate excess information, rather than seek out organizational solutions.

• What does information overload mean to you?
• How often do you experience it?
• What are its primary sources?
• In what ways does it affect your work?
• When facing it, what do you do to improve the situation?

We also asked several demographic questions, distributing the entire set on floppy disks in Microsoft Word format. Respondents were encouraged to think critically about the issues and use clear and concise prose to describe their views. The documents they returned ranged from one to three pages, depending how much detail we sought in the open-ended questions.

The qualitative data analyses of the written assessments were obtained using a software analysis package called QRS NU*DIST from QRS International of Melbourne, Australia, designed to code nonnumerical text data for indexing, searching, and theory building. Codes and categories were held and explored at nodes in an index system and software database searchable by patterns of coding to help us explore the meanings in the data [8]. The process involved feeding the raw data, in this case the individual text files, into the database, then mapping each question to the nodes in the index system, in this instance a roughly designed index tree, after which each node was examined more closely. We studied individual answers to identify suitable categories, which we then added to the index tree before processing each document again.

Overall, 57% of the study participants had more than five years of business experience, and 55% had been with the same organization more than five years. They worked in a range of industries, from financial services, to manufacturing, to transportation, to IT, as well as in government. Almost 75% were in marketing, finance, and information systems. Most (94%) described themselves as managers or professionals.

Rather than needing less information, we actually may need lots more, specifically information about information, or metadata.

Frequency. Over 50% of the study’s respondents reported they encounter information overload regularly (see Table 1). Just over 33% reported experiencing information overload every day. We found the frequency of information overload to be statistically independent of subject gender, age, organizational level, or years of experience.

Sources. Though widely praised as a source of infinite amounts of information, the Internet and the Web are also most commonly cited in the news media as key sources of managerial information overload. The most immediate cause of Web-related information overload has been ascribed to the Web trying to play the dual role of private and public information and communication medium [1]; the focus of this view is that these sources are external to the organization.

About 40% of the study’s respondents cited external sources as the number one contributor to information overload, in contrast to 60% citing internal sources. Information from external sources includes print correspondence, faxes, email, business-related news, advertising, and promotional material. However, the main internal causes of information overload are email (interpersonal, interdepartment, and interoffice), announcements, memoranda, and reports for and minutes from meetings. The inability of IS/IT departments to understand user requirements for designing search and sort interfaces is another internal source of information overload. Users are not always clear about their information needs, and system designers are often confused about which information they need for making business decisions. One respondent wrote, "The system designer is not sure about what information is vital to us, so he puts all the data in the system and lets us choose the useful information. Some of it is redundant, some is new, some even conflicts with each other." Informal information, including gossip and opinions, also contribute to information overload, as managers have difficulty evaluating it, along with the trustworthiness of people’s opinions.

Study respondents generally (60%) pointed to the Internet and email as the number one external sources of their personal information overload. A notable complaint relates to their own inability to sift through extraneous information when searching the Web. Almost 25% of the respondents cited improper use of email as the number one source of their personal information overload.

Effects. Table 2 outlines the effects of information overload experienced by the knowledge workers in our sample. A majority (72%) complained about loss of time. However, we again found no direct association between the effects of information overload and subject gender, age, organizational level, or years of experience. One respondent wrote, "Information overload causes delays, mistakes, and nonperformance. Eventually it erodes the quality of work. My efficiency is decreased, and I find it hard to prioritize my tasks." Nevertheless, few respondents (3%) thought that work overload caused by information overload damages their personal lives, though 16% did report being frustrated, tired, stressed, even panicked when facing the daily flood of information. Another respondent wrote, "It leads to frustration and confusion. It can make me feel restless, anxious, sometimes panic. The worst is the discouraging effect on my commitment to my job."

Solutions. Table 3 outlines the solutions respondents employed or recommended. They can be divided into four categories: personal, technological, organizational, and ignore. The first four solutions in the first category, labeled P1 to P4, are personal attempts at dealing with information overload. Information filtering was cited most frequently, followed by eliminating the source, delegating, and prioritizing. About 50% of the respondents try to filter, say, incoming documents and email. One wrote, "I try to be objective in selecting the appropriate information. It is screened until the appropriate amount and quality is reached. Consulting other colleagues and my supervisor is also helpful in providing insight in getting the right information." Elimination of sources is one response to excessive email. Delegating work, especially for screening and filtering information, was another popular response. Almost 25% of the respondents delegate routine work to assistants, secretaries, and other subordinates. One wrote, "I delegate part of the screening job to my assistant and ask my colleagues to read my email and brief me on what is important." Prioritizing information and work tasks was viewed as important by 22% of the respondents.

Though information overload results from both internal and external sources, it is unclear whether the various strategies are equally effective in handling the problem from both sources. The second solution category in Table 3, labeled T1, reflects the use of technology. Although computer systems are often viewed as the source of the problem, few respondents (14%) suggested using them to solve it. Their experience seems to indicate they have little faith in the ability of the organizational IT department to resolve their problems.

The third solution category, labeled O1–O5, concerns such organizational solutions as devising work processes and operations, consulting top management, and getting help from the IT department. They were ranked lowest in terms of effectiveness. Only 6% reported they would consult the IT manager or the IT department for technical solutions to information overload. This response indicates that, from the users’ perspective, the IT department is not effective at dealing with information problems throughout their organizations.

Meanwhile, few people apparently deal with information overload by totally ignoring the information, labeled I1.