Information Overload That Affects Organizations - Case Study Example

Are organizations likely to find better solutions to information overload through changes to their technical systems or their social systems -- or both? Why? Free flow of information is the basic characteristic of the modern world. Pioneers of the modern world anticipated that, the modern world would find solution to most of its problems if it attains the state of free flow of information. Although free flow or availability of information provides a solution to the modern world problems, it fails to become a complete solution to most of our problems. Organizations are the most affected since they have to separate useful information from worthless information as part of their daily routine (Blair, 2010). The problem of information overload is evident in all media presented as problem and possible solutions. Most of the media present it as a problem of the lucky members of the society who had have a chance to secure jobs or have access technology and communication systems. However, work has to continue and it is up to such people to separate useful information from redundant, outdated and uninteresting information (Liu, & Errey, 2006). Most of these organizations are concerned about the effects that information overload has on their employees. Changing both technical and social system within an organization is likely to yield the most sought after solution to information overload currently being experienced by different organizations. This essay will therefore analyze reasons why organizations require changing their social and technical systems to achieve a solution to information overload that currently affects them. A solution is considered sufficient if it is complete and exact. Such solution will address all dimensions of the problem under consideration and provide sufficient measures to tackle the current and any consequential problem. The current information overload that organizations are complaining of is a result of human behaviors and the nature of current information systems. This indicates that both the social systems and information systems within an organization must be considered in order to develop an appropriate solution to the problem. The aspect of social systems within an organization that is significant to the topic of information overload is the patterns of flow of information within the organization. Human beings are the main source of problems that affects them. The need to establish orderly flow of information has left organizations vulnerable to bureaucracy. This is the main factor that has contributed to information overload in most organizations. In some severe cases, two people working in the same office find themselves requiring communicating through business documents. This indicates that human behavior is a critical part of the problem and hence a requirement in any possible solution to the problem. In the modern business world, technology has revolutionized the way people conduct their businesses to the extent of revolutionizing how they think. Technology has enhanced effectiveness and efficient management; it would therefore illogical to eliminate technology from an organization. Being part of the problem indicate that a complete solution must incorporate or involve technology. In this case, technology includes technology outside an office building or technology within an organization. The basic dimension of information overload is the availability of excessive information. A solution to this problem lies in the creation of advanced search engines, ploys and filters. These are the basic solutions provided by technology to counter the problem of excessive information. However, an organization can realize the benefits of these solutions if they are integrated into the organization (Green, 2010). Adopting these solutions within an organization indicates a change in the organization’s social system. This is because the people working in a particular organization have to adopt the innovations. This will involve changing their attitude toward the usual and friendly systems and adopting the new system. This demonstrates solutions to information overload within an organization can only be achieved through adopting new technology and social systems. Attitude is all that is required to change status of information overload in most organizations. Problems that build up into information overload results directly from the attitude of current managers and supervisors within different organizations. The inability to differentiate quantity and quality and their significance to the duties of an employee has been the main reason why workers are being drowned with information. Mangers need to get rid of the idea that quantity of work done is equivalent to the quality of work done. This idea is similar to the idea of data and information. According to Bellinge, Castro & Mills, data is the unrefined information that has little or no use in an organization (2004). On the other hand, information is the useful part of the data or the knowledge that is derived from the raw data. This knowledge will introduce a series of change in the social structure within an organization. Such changes will involve changing the systems through which information within an organization flows. Such changes will also involve changing working schedules for employees and possibly reducing the workload or expectations of each employee. This will also require the creation of supportive technology to enhance productivity of employees. Supportive technology will involve adopting information technology systems that are supposed to simplify the flow of information within an organization (Bellinger, Castro, & Mills 2004). Supportive technology will also enable organizations to separate information from data. Application of technology to separate data from information and change of attitude of managers toward quality and quantity of data is a possible solution to the problem. This indicates that any possible solution to the problem must involve both technical and social structures within an organization. The inevitability of technology within our organization is the basis for most argument that can be raised against the significance of combining technical reforms with social reforms in order to solve information overload. Other counter arguments will be based on human behavior. An argument against the papers position can state that organizations do not need to change their technology and social system in order to solve the problem of information overload. This is because it is human nature to work under pressure. In addition, overload of information is inevitable in the modern-day information age. The best solution in this case would be to continuously increase the in formation load of workers in order to boost their information handling capacity. In this case, changing technological and social systems within an organization would be immaterial. Other possible counter argument against the significance of change in technical and social systems within an organization to provide a solution to the problem would consider technology and social structures within an organization as independent factors. In such scenario, changing technological systems within an organization is sufficient to solve the problem of information overload. In this case, the solution would not involve change in social structures within an organization. This is because people have become over dependent on technology and therefore changes in technology will cause consequential changes in social structure. Organization can find better solution to information overload by changing both their social and technical systems. A better solution to overload of information cannot be achieved by increasing information load. In addition not all individual will respond positively too information overload. This shows that such solution is insufficient and incomplete since it does not cover all the dimension of the problem under consideration (Miller, 2010). If we eliminate people from the problem, the resultant solutions would also be incomplete since social structures within organization contribute to information overload. In the two cases, the resultant solutions are incomplete and hence not the best since, a better solution needs to be complete and sufficient. In conclusion, information overload has become a major problem in modern day organizations that requires urgent interventions. Organization can find better solution to the problem by changing both their social and technical structures. Both the social and technical structures are causes of the problem and hence they have to be part of any logical solution to the problem. Changes in social structures will require supportive technology while technological changes would require change of attitude towards the new technology this proves that the two factors are essential part of the solution. References Bellinger, G., Castro, D., & Mills, A. (2004). Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom.  The Way of Systems.  Retrieved April 29, 2012, from: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm Blair, A. (2010). Information Overload, Then and Now.  The Chronicle of Higher Education Review.  November 28. Retrieved April 29, 2012, from: http://chronicle.com/article/Information-Overload-Then-and/125479/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en Green, P. (2010 ). Social Media Is Challenging Notions of the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) Hierarchy.  CMS Wire. August 16. Retrieved April 29, 2012 from: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/social-media-is-challenging-notions-of-the-data-information-knowledge-wisdom-dikw-hierarchy--008320.php Liu, X. &Errey, C. (2006). Socio-technical systems - theres more to performance than new technology.  PTG Global.  Retrieved April 29, 2012, from: http://www.ptg-global.com/PDFArticles/Socio%20technical%20systems%20-%20Theres%20more%20to%20performance%20than%20new%20technology%20v1.0.pdf Miller, C. (2010). For Google, the Browser Does It All.  New York Times Business Day, November 24.  Retrieved April 29, 2012, from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/technology/25chrome.html?_r=1 Read More