1 Introduction
On a daily basis, people spend a considerably amount of time on such tasks as
checking emails, typing tweets and checking and updating Facebook and LinkedIn.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the main characteristic of information was
its scarcity. This situation has gradually been changing, bringing more information
and increasing its quality and its diversity. The introduction and evolvement of
information and communication technologies such as personal computers, the Internet and smart phones have driven humanity towards the digital economy which is
characterized by an abundance of information.
However, the huge growth of information has been accompanied by a decline in
its marginal value of meaning comparable to the inflation of currency; the more there
is of it, the less it seems to ‘buy’ in meaning (Klapp 1986). As a result of this
information saturation process or ‘information overload’ (IO), people cannot keep
pace with the information flowing towards them. The phenomenon of IO, which is a
result of the abundance of information provided by ICTs, negatively impacts various
social communities and society at large. Strategic and managerial decisions should
be taken to decrease IO and thereby improve the health conditions in organizations
and increase sustainability.
The topic of IO has been studied from multiple angles including organization,
marketing, accounting and management information systems by both social and
technical scientists. However, few researchers have done interdisciplinary research
into the topic of IO (Eppler and Mengis 2004). This research combines the study of
information technology in its pure terms with the study of limitations that are
imposed on the decision-maker.
The objective of this research is to achieve a better theoretical understanding of
the concept of IO, by studying the interaction between the decision-maker and the
information provided by the information system. I aim to conceptualize the relation
between the cognitive and personality characteristics of decision-makers and the
quality of the information provided by the information system and their impact on
the degree of IO decision-makers’ experience. The practical significance of this
research is that it can give practitioners a better understanding of IO.
We approach the decision-maker as a certain combination of cognitive and
personality characteristics that determine the efficiency of information processing
and, as a result, the decision-making outcome. We adopt the theoretical framework
proposed by the decision-making school claiming that technology is designed in
order to overcome human weaknesses (DeSanctis and Poole 1994). However, we
step aside from the major implication that is often driven from the decision-making
theoretical perspective. While the representatives of this school tend to agree that
factual technological inefficiencies result from errors in systems design, development or implementation phases, we focus on the interaction between the decisionmaker and the information system and attempt to provide a logical explanation to the
paradox why information systems that are initially designed to improve human
information processing (HIP) often add to individual IO and reduce decision quality.
162
G. van de Kaa
On a daily basis, people spend a considerably amount of time on such tasks as
checking emails, typing tweets and checking and updating Facebook and LinkedIn.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the main characteristic of information was
its scarcity. This situation has gradually been changing, bringing more information
and increasing its quality and its diversity. The introduction and evolvement of
information and communication technologies such as personal computers, the Internet and smart phones have driven humanity towards the digital economy which is
characterized by an abundance of information.
However, the huge growth of information has been accompanied by a decline in
its marginal value of meaning comparable to the inflation of currency; the more there
is of it, the less it seems to ‘buy’ in meaning (Klapp 1986). As a result of this
information saturation process or ‘information overload’ (IO), people cannot keep
pace with the information flowing towards them. The phenomenon of IO, which is a
result of the abundance of information provided by ICTs, negatively impacts various
social communities and society at large. Strategic and managerial decisions should
be taken to decrease IO and thereby improve the health conditions in organizations
and increase sustainability.
The topic of IO has been studied from multiple angles including organization,
marketing, accounting and management information systems by both social and
technical scientists. However, few researchers have done interdisciplinary research
into the topic of IO (Eppler and Mengis 2004). This research combines the study of
information technology in its pure terms with the study of limitations that are
imposed on the decision-maker.
The objective of this research is to achieve a better theoretical understanding of
the concept of IO, by studying the interaction between the decision-maker and the
information provided by the information system. I aim to conceptualize the relation
between the cognitive and personality characteristics of decision-makers and the
quality of the information provided by the information system and their impact on
the degree of IO decision-makers’ experience. The practical significance of this
research is that it can give practitioners a better understanding of IO.
We approach the decision-maker as a certain combination of cognitive and
personality characteristics that determine the efficiency of information processing
and, as a result, the decision-making outcome. We adopt the theoretical framework
proposed by the decision-making school claiming that technology is designed in
order to overcome human weaknesses (DeSanctis and Poole 1994). However, we
step aside from the major implication that is often driven from the decision-making
theoretical perspective. While the representatives of this school tend to agree that
factual technological inefficiencies result from errors in systems design, development or implementation phases, we focus on the interaction between the decisionmaker and the information system and attempt to provide a logical explanation to the
paradox why information systems that are initially designed to improve human
information processing (HIP) often add to individual IO and reduce decision quality.
162
G. van de Kaa