Social Systems Change as Possible Solution to Information Overload in Organizations - Essay Example

? Social Systems Change as Possible Solution to Information Overload in Organizations Social Systems Change as Possible Solution to Information Overload in Organizations Introduction More often than not, people engage themselves with various forms of information in one way or the other in their daily lives, be it in social settings or at the corporate level. With the tremendous rise in technology, people find themselves in situations where the information that is available for them greatly supersedes their capability of ingesting the same information. On a daily basis, the generated information can take an average person weeks or even months to ingest through reading, listening, or viewing (Becker, 2008). Information overload is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges that the modern society has to grapple with especially with the rapid advancement of technology. The information overload does affect people not only at the individual level, but the impact has also penetrated into the corporate world where it is the current major enemy to the efficient production within many organizations. A lot of organizations claim that due to information overload, they have experienced decreased productivity and the general reduction in efficiency of many employees. Indeed, technology is the main cause of information overload as in the ancient days when technology was still low, the rate of information overload was relatively low as compared to modern times. This is because technology advancements generate more information to people, which may affect them negatively if not well managed (Becker, 2008). With many organizations suffering from the impact of information overload on their highly esteemed employees, a number of them have taken measures in order to deal with the menace in a rational and logical manner. It is only through organizations implementing radical changes in their social systems that they will be able to find both short-term and long-term solutions to the negative impacts of information overload. When organizations embrace social changes to their structures, they will be able to curb the negative effects of information overload significantly, as they deal directly with the subjects of information overload instead of going for the technology that is the object of information overload. Therefore, organizations ought to implement changes in their social systems if they are to mitigate the effects of information overload (Strother, Ulijn, & Fazal, 2012). The Merits of Social Systems Change in Solving Information Overload Although the benefits that come with technological advancements are good to any organization or nation, the information overload that comes with technology is detrimental to both the personal and organizational growth. The negative impacts of information overload include reduced overall performance, fatigue, incompetence, laziness, forgetfulness, and the inability to make sound decisions especially during critical situations. This problem has gradually developed over time and is now the epidemic that troubles many corporates. Recognizing the fact that human beings are not the objects of information overload by rather the subjects, organizations should make overhauls that affect the operations of their employees. This is so, because no one can reverse technological advancements, but one can mold a human character to fit in given situations and circumstance in order to negate the effects of information overload (Strother, Ulijn, & Fazal, 2012). One of the major reasons why organizations should go for the social systems change in curbing information overload is that the impact of information overload is more or less social in nature. Some of the adverse effects of information overload include poor performance at work, increased health risks of the individuals, and breakdown or reduced vigor in social relationships. As seen, these effect rest directly upon the subjects of information overload as the object that include technology does not have a direct part to play, but it is the humans that endeavor to ingest this information and who face the full impact of information overload (Jackson, 2000). The second reason as to why social system change will be a more efficient method is because human beings have the capacity to regulate the information that comes their way through the intelligent approach unlike the technical approach that involves a myriad of technical restrictions. The organization can choose whether subjecting its workers to tasks that involve multitasking brings in more benefits to the company or they just add up to the list of inefficiencies. Apparently, the latter is true with many organizations because technological interruptions reduce the creativity and productiveness of the human resource within organizations. Therefore, it is better for the organizations to involve the employees in training sessions and seminars to enlighten them on how people can adapt to technological changes by embracing moderation in all the endeavors and aspects of human life (Weick, 2009). Additionally, supplying organizations with information overload coping procedures is more effective than changing the technical aspects of operation within a corporation. This is because the organization consists of both people and technical tools, but since it is easier to change peoples’ perception and behavior than the technical aspects of an organization, the social systems change is more preferable within an organization in curbing the impacts of information overload. In many occasions information overload affects the social relationships of the employees where the given employees cannot properly concentrate at their particular workstations, besides, relating poorly with other members of the organization (Strother, Ulijn, & Fazal, 2012).This means that the best approach that the organization can apply to the staff to alleviate the work overload implications is to consider dealing with the employees directly by either enforcing policies or persuading them to adhere to certain work procedures. By doing so, the management will be in a position to revert any possible behavior that could be leading to the poor organization performance occasioned by information overload (Jackson, 2000). The Demerits of Social Systems Change in Solving Information Overload There is no doubt about the benefits of embracing the social systems in easing the organization of staff drowning under the heavy weight of information overload. However, this approach faces a number of challenges and limitations that tend to affect its effectiveness in one way or the other. One of the shortcomings of this approach is that the problem of information overload is not really with the information, but rather the organization in the sense that information overload is supposedly a misnomer for organization under-load. In this case, it is assumed that it is the duty of the organization to filter the information that comes in in order to ensure that the workforce within the organization utilizes only that information that is useful to them leaving out all the irrelevant pieces of information. The systems change approach assumes that the problem is with the information instead of actually recognizing that the underpinning challenge lies with the organization itself especially considering the fact that every organization has the right to choose which kind of information gets some audience within their premises (Weick, 2009). Additionally, the social systems change approach does not explicitly distinguish between raw information and knowledge, but works towards regulating the individual behavior of the staff in question. This is especially so when attempting to focus on the information that gets into the organization. Due to this, most corporations are not eradicating the real issues of information overload thereby accentuating the problem instead. Perhaps another equally challenging task while managing information overload through the social means is that more often than not, this approach fails to deliver the expected returns on investment (Jackson, 2000). Another limitation of the people centered approach is the fact that it encompasses both reactive and proactive measures to avert the adverse effects of information overload. As far as the proactive measures are concerned, there is not much problem, but when it comes to the reactive measures, the danger of escalating the problem is real. This is because such reactive measures including delegation, multitasking, altering, and escaping do not really resolve the issue of information overload, but instead aggravate the impending obstacle (Jackson, 2000). Review of the Original Position Although there are a number of challenges that the social systems change approach faces, it is plausible to argue that the approach delivers more results as compared to the technical systems approach. In as much as the reactive measures do not completely solve the problem of information overload, it plays a major role in mitigating the harmful impacts of information overload (Weick, 2009). Undeniably, performance drivers fluctuate a great deal, but this does not negate the fact that the training of the people within an organization to cope with information overload solves the problem in half. The best solution to this problem is the social systems change approach (Jackson, 2000). Despite the fact that the social systems change approach takes a relatively long time to implement, it has both short-term and long-term effects, as its efficiency can stand the test of time. Contrary to the technical systems approach, the social systems approach takes into consideration the human factor when solving the problem of information overload, an attribute that has an immense contribution to the behavioral aspects of an organization’s workforce (Becker, 2008). References Becker, M. C. (2008). Handbook of organizational routines. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Jackson, M. C. (2000). Systems approaches to management. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Strother, J. B., Ulijn, J. M., & Fazal, Z. (2012). Information overload: An international challenge to professional engineers and technical communicators. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Weick, K. E. (2009). Making sense of the organization (Vol. 2). Chichester, U.K: Wiley. Read More