Running Head: INFORMATION OVERLOAD: INFO-TSUNAMI HAZARD ZONE

Information Overload: Info-Tsunami Hazard Zone

Trident University International

*NAME*

Module 1: Case Assignment

IMT501: Mgt. Info. Syst. and Bus. Strategy

Sam Biragbara

23 January 2012

Information Overload

Information overload can be referred to a person having difficulty understanding an issue

and making decisions that can be caused by the presence of too much information. Within every

organization there is a struggle between what people are supposed to do and how things get

done. Particularly in an environment of cost control, cash preservation and risk aversion,

managers implement new policies, guidelines and processes that increase their degree of control.

Information overload can be looked at as time wasted or procrastination. People will view this

as “one just wanting to hear oneself talk or basically not knowing the information.”

In the work setting, information overload can cause an employee a great deal of stress,

become bored, or even loss of interest. As the amount of information increases, so does

information processing and the quality of decision-making. However, after a certain point is

reached, the decision-maker has obtained more information than he or she can process.

Information overload has occurred and decision-making ability decreases. Any information

received beyond that point will not be processed, may lead to confusion, and could have a

negative impact on the individual’s ability to set priorities as well as remember previous

information. With this proposition of information overload, organizations distinguish the best

solution between their technical systems or their social systems. In my opinion, organizations

will be more likely to find the most improved information overload with changes to their social

systems.

The general causes of information overload include: a rapidly increasing rate of new

information being produced; the ease of duplication and transmission of data across the Internet;

an increase in the available channels of incoming information (telephone/e-mail); large amount

of historical information to dig through; contradictions and inaccuracies in available information;

a low signal to noise ratio; a lack of a method for comparing and processing different kinds of

information.

Technical Systems or Social Systems

The socio-technical systems (STS) approach is devoted to the most valuable merger of

both the technical and social systems of an organization. These two characteristics must be

considered interchangeable because arrangements that most favorable for one may not be the

most favorable for the other. Socio-technical system is a mixture of people and technology. In a

socio-technical system the needs of the people help to maintain equilibrium. By balancing the

logic of efficiency and the logic of sentiments information technology executives can maintain

this equilibrium. Equilibrium leads to cooperation and values are forged through coordination

and cooperation. One of the major objectives of the socio-technical philosophy is “the provision

of learning experience for all employees that will provide challenge and enable them to increase

their skills, to work cooperatively with others, and to become efficient decision takers and

problem solvers” (Mumford and Axtell, 2003, p. 335). Technical systems are easy to create. Technical systems give the false impression of

action and leadership. Technical systems foster the belief that the problem is solved.

Technology plays a significant role in the cause of information overload. It not only helps to

create content information, it also gives us access to vast amounts of it. Learning how to use the

technical systems introduce more information with which to contend. We often see

management take the view that simply putting