Information overload: context and causes

Abstract

This paper present interim results on a research project on information management issues within the UK telecommunication and financial sectors. The specific focus of the paper is information overload. Our research, although at an early stage when this paper was written, suggests that organizational climate may play a significant role in influencing the degree to which human information behaviour moves from being beneficial to the organization to creating overload. We argue that there is a recursive relationship between climate and culture and illustrate our arguments with data from one of our case study organizations: a large multi-national bank. Here a climate of mistrust reinforced a culture of ‘risk avoidance’. We describe the antecedents of these elements of the work organization and their influence on information behaviour.