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| Information Overload | | | Information Addiction |
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Walk into the average office and it is not hard to spot the signs of information
overload: desks piled with paper; in-trays spilling over; filing cabinets
bulging; and shelves groaning under the weight of periodicals, box files and
books.
Downsizing, combined with the advent of desktop computers, which have decimated
secretarial support, has dramatically increased the time pressure under which
many executives now work.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that people have an ever increasing
volume of electronic information to contend with. The fax machine, for example,
has become one of the most heavily used items of office equipment. Moreover,
when people send faxes they generally want them to be seen as more urgent and
important than classic paper mail - 'p-mail' or 'snail mail' as it is sometimes
dubbed.
In addition, there is electronic mail, or e-mail, which is becoming so
widespread that many managers have to allocate an hour or more each day to deal
with it. At present it is not unusual for someone to receive 60 e-mails a day,
and senior people in large multinational corporations may typically find more
than 200 e-mails waiting in their electronic in-baskets in the morning.
Many office workers also have access to dial-up services providing news and
business information, travel information and specialist reference databases. Of
course there is the World Wide Web. Internet search engines can help hunt down
specific items of data, but on the other hand they may come up with thousands of
'hits' to choose from. Of these, a huge proportion may be irrelevant, but
picking the wheat from the chaff can be a time consuming and arduous.
Network congestion, access problems and slow transmission times are further
contributing to make using the Internet a more frustrating experience than
rush-hour on the motorway. Not surprisingly, many people are suffering symptoms
similar to 'road rage' when they can’t get what they want.
Intranets, which are internal company networks modeled on the Internet, are now
being hailed as a possible solution to the corporate information problem. They
have certainly helped cut down on the number of in-house phone directories and
copies of company employee handbooks, but in most cases they are yet to be
deployed to great effect.
Once information overload hits an individual it becomes extremely difficult
for that person to escape from it. The further they fall behind, the more the
backlog builds up. People may find they can get away from it for a couple of
weeks in the summer. But returning from holiday becomes a nightmare because of
the deluge of information waiting to be dealt with.
This scenario is striking all kinds of workplaces, but it is particularly common
among professionals such as business people, government officials, lawyers,
civil servants and doctors. Financial planners are worried about failing to
notice an accounting error that might end up costing millions of pounds;
marketing managers are concerned that they might miss an important move by a
competitor; lawyers are under pressure to spot key precedents that could win
their clients’ cases. The pressure is on for such individuals to be prepared
for all eventualities.
| Every day, approximately 20m words of technical information are recorded. A reader capable of reading 1,000 words per minute would require six weeks reading eight hours every day to get through one day’s output. At the end of that period he would have fallen five and a half years behind in his reading. |
Constant information overload may eventually lead to a condition termed Information Fatigue Syndrome (IFS), which in turn can manifest itself in a number of ways:
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IFS sufferers recount stories of pouring milk in the bin rather than the
coffee mug, holding the phone the wrong way up and shouting into the earpiece:
'I can’t hear you!', and turning up for meetings at the right time but a month
early.
Not surprisingly, all aspects of their personal lives begin to feel the strain.
Personal relationships start to feel the strain, and the victim may be drawn
into a downward spiral of illness, depression and inability to cope. IFS is a
primitive survival response. Our forebears reacted to pressure in one of two
ways 'fight' or 'flight.'
However, neither of these is really suitable for dealing with the stresses
caused by information overload. Research shows that when forced to choose from a
series of options in the face of vast amounts of potentially important
information and against the clock, we move into a state of excessive stress. Our
brains go into panic mode.
This creates a sense of hyperarousal that dulls the senses and undermines
performance, making it harder to think clearly or act sensibly. Foolish
decisions and flawed conclusions are then inevitable because data is misread.
Perspective is distorted as information takes on gigantic proportions in
people’s minds.
| 'I can see the pile of papers on my desk grow right
before my eyes just like those time-lapse films of flowers opening up.' Peter Guilford, spokesman for the European Commission in Brussels.
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Diana Harris, a marketing analyst, knows all about IFS. At the age of 22 she
joined an oil company where she was expected to work an average of 13 or 14
hours a day. Her task was to compile information for the management of the
company which she received and researched from a variety of sources. She had to
sift through a great deal of information in order to acquire the relevant facts,
scouring three computer print-outs each day as well as dealing with phone-calls
and faxes from five accountants in subsidiary companies. She also had to work
through memos from managers, computer spreadsheet information, and management
profit and loss reports. In addition, the job involved a lot of traveling.
Diana was given no formal training on the specific areas that she covered, and
she was always held to very strict daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly
deadlines. 'I had information all around me and did not know what to do with it
all,' she says.
While at work, Diana was permanently exhausted, and had to take quite a few days
off because she simply could not get out of bed. She
suffered panic attacks, palpitations and stomach pains because of the deadlines.
Other symptoms included depression and muscular and joint pains. Finally she
felt she had no choice but to leave her job, and to have a break from work.
Her recovery from IFS was a long and painful process, and required her to take a
complete break from work to alleviate the stress.
Ruth Sacks, an independent management consultant, had similar experiences.
Ruth, who is also a part-time university lecturer at Sheffield Hallam
University, describes herself as an active, healthy person. Yet over a period of
time, she felt her health was suffering as a result of IFS. The symptoms she
developed over this period included extreme fatigue and stomach pains, and
deterioration of eyesight. 'I couldn’t sleep and was always tired,' she says.
Ruth attributes her problems to severe stress induced by the feeling that she
had more information to deal with each day than she could feasibly cope with.
She was forced to work late and felt the need constantly to accumulate more and
more information to make decisions.
Fortunately, Ruth works for herself, so she has been able to change her work
schedule and devise a rigorous time management plan. Now she is much more
assertive in asking for information and in saying she doesn’t want it. Other
helpful measures have included taking up exercise and investing in a huge
waste-paper basket.
An information strategy is not just nice to have - it is a business
imperative and an essential weapon in the battle against increasing information
overload. It is the only way to ensure that everyone in an organisation has the
information they need to do their jobs effectively. It should also greatly
reduce the quantity of data that is erroneous, irrelevant, or duplicate.
Organisations that want to compete in the next millennium will need to adopt a
completely new way of thinking about information as knowledge. They will need to
evolve a culture of knowledge-sharing, and to work out ways of rewarding people
for disseminating their expertise.
If this sounds expensive or difficult to achieve, consider the consequences of
failure: employers could face a barrage of litigation as employees take action
against their employers for causing information overload. In 1996, for example,
a social worker from Tyne and Wear made legal history when he became the first
person to argue successfully in the High Court that his employers were liable
for his nervous breakdown.
| 'I think it is pretty well established now that companies
owe a duty of care to employees’ mental well-being as well as physical
well-being. The best protection is to be able to demonstrate that the
company has taken steps to help employees cope with information so that
you can’t have the finger pointed at you.' Dr David Lewis, psychologist and author |
There are also important business reasons for managing the flow of information through an organisation. As many companies are aware, information is a key asset and it is fundamental to the value a company adds. The efficient handling of corporate information is crucial to competitive advantage.
| • Half of UK companies believe that their
information is more valuable than their brand names and trademarks. • Nearly one in four regards information as their most important asset. • One in ten values it more highly than their people. Information as an Asset: the Invisible Goldmine, Reuters 1995 |
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Information Overload | Information Addiction