A Generation of Information Anxiety: Refinements and Recommendations

Richard Saul Wurman’s groundbreaking Information Anxiety (1989) was published exactly one generation ago. The passage of time has allowed information specialists to reflect further upon the notion of information anxiety and such related concepts as “info-glut,” “techno-stress,” and “infoaddiction.” The interval has also allowed librarians to develop best practices to inoculate against information anxiety and to alleviate the symptoms of information overload. This essay will address definitional concerns regarding information anxiety and related phenomena; investigate the causes and effects of information anxiety; discuss specific difficulties in relationship to the reception, processing, and application of information; and consider the role of librarians in reducing information anxiety

A social contract for virtual institutions

Computer-mediated social groups, often known as virtual communities, are now giving rise to a more durable and more abstract phenomenon: the emergence of virtual institutions. These social institutions operating mostly online exhibit very interesting qualities. Their distributed, collaborative, low-cost and reactive nature makes them very useful. Yet they are also probably more fragile than classical institutions and in need of appropriate support mechanisms. We will analyze them as social institutions, and then resort to social contract theory to determine adequate support measures. We will argue that virtual institutions can be greatly helped by making explicit and publicly available online their norms, rules and procedures, so as to improve the collaboration between their members

Heart rate reading patterns at moment of information overload during online information searching

Users are confronted with information overload when searching for information in virtual libraries. Studies claim that information overload leads to changes in the physiological signals of an individual which later results in decreased efficiency in information processing. There is a strong perception that when something changes, there is a moment in which the change occurs. The primary purpose of this research is to detect an indication at the moment of change occurring when searching in virtual libraries by focusing on the pattern reflected in physiological data that can potentially be used as a signal to convey information overload. This study adopted user test methods and methods from psychophysiology.The results from quantitative analysis were presented through graphs and tables.The results indicated that heart rate measurement was the best measure compared to other physiological measurements and the underlying pattern signalling information overload was presented in the form of a matrix. Recommendations for future work include using the pattern to design an application to monitor information load in individuals

Preliminary analysis of wireless collaborative network on mobile devices

Users are confronted with information overload when searching for information in virtual libraries. Studies claim that information overload leads to changes in the physiological signals of an individual which later results in decreased efficiency in information processing.There is a strong perception that when something changes, there is a moment in which the change occurs.The primary purpose of this research is to detect an indication at the moment of change occurring when searching in virtual libraries by focusing on the pattern reflected in physiological data that can potentially be used as a signal to convey information overload. This study adopted user test methods and methods from psychophysiology. The results from quantitative analysis were presented through graphs and tables. The results indicated that heart rate measurement was the best measure compared to other physiological measurements and the underlying pattern signalling information overload was presented in the form of a matrix. Recommendations for future work include using the pattern to design an application to monitor information load in individuals

The impact of social media at work on job performance among government employees : perspective from the stress-strain-outcome and social capital theory

The pervasiveness of social media (SM) use in organizations is a relevant driver that can influence an employee's job performance. Several researchers have considered the direct role of social media usage in influencing job performance. However, limited studies explore how social media use may impact employees' job performance, especially innovativeness. Moreover, inconsistencies exist in the literature regarding whether social media improves or reduce employees' job performance. By integrating the Stressor Strain Outcome (SSO) model and Social Capital Theory, this study aimed to explore how SM use influences public sector employees' innovative job performance in the Malaysian context. Besides, integrating both theories will discover the advantages and disadvantages of social media, extending the comprehension of their value for work purposes. The significance of this study explains several outputs that can benefit employees, management, and the government. Hence, fourteen hypotheses are outlined to support the study's objectives, focusing on the association between SM use and job performance among public sector employees. In the methodology part, this study applies positivism as a research paradigm, and the study was conducted based on a quantitative approach. Meanwhile, the instrument of this study is a questionnaire, and items were adapted from previously validated studies. The data was collected through an online survey, and 317 employees from the public sector participated. The partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied in data analysis for this study's measurement model and structural model assessment. The findings discovered that social media use at work has a mild but statistically significant influence on information overload, communication overload, and social overload. In addition, information overload and communication overload positively influence technostress. However, SM use at work has not significantly influenced social overload, and technostress does not impact innovative job performance. The following finding shows that SM use predicts network ties, shared vision, and trust significantly. Besides, network ties and trust positively promoted work engagement except for shared vision. Subsequently, work engagement was associated with innovative job performance. Reflecting on the lack of empirical research on SM use related to innovative performance in a workplace setting, this study extends the existing literature on the advantage and disadvantages of SM use at work by integrating both theories, the SSO model and SCT. Hence, these theories enrich the understanding of the employee's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats due to SM use in the workplace. In addition, this study provides valuable insight into the following parties related to the organizational stakeholders, including employees themselves, employers, and the government concerning SM use at work. Employers and governments can offer mitigating plans and efforts on the issues of SM use at work concerning employees' innovative performance, including revising or strengthening the policy or rules. Therefore, the study has theoretically and practically contributed to the field by integrating different perspectives on SM use at work towards employee innovative performance

The present state of knowledge sharing in knowledge intensive business service

Knowledge management (KM) has become one of the cornerstones in recent management literature. It is known to positively effect firm performance and innovation. Global market environment has created a new interest in knowledge as a resource especially in internal processes of an organization. Studies have concluded knowledge sharing to be the most important process of knowledge management. This supports the selection of knowledge sharing as the KM process to study. The target of the study is a single case organization. The study is motivated by the strategy change inside the case organization which included enhancement of knowledge sharing tools and practices. The theory framework consists of widely used KM concept: knowledge types explained with the DIKW-hierarchy and knowledge dimensions with the SECI-model. KM in both small and medium sized firms (SMEs) and KIBS are included in theory. The present state of knowledge sharing is studied in four different levels: individual, technological, organizational and other. The categories are based on Riege’s framework on knowledge sharing barriers with an added other level. The other level included barriers which could not be categorized in the three earlier levels. Both positive and negative aspects called enablers and barriers of knowledge sharing are included in the study. The study is conducted with a mixed strategy involving two strategies: a single case research and action research. A multimethod sequential analysis is used in the primary data gathered with interview and survey. Interviews from management team and a survey to middle management are analysed to present the state of knowledge sharing. The study includes also the past state analysing to compare how the organizational strategy change has affected the knowledge sharing. It was concluded that it affected positively but there were still problems carried from past state to present state. The main problem carried was creating well-established organizational changes. It is suggested to create better practices for change to overcome this problem. The findings are aligned with the relevant literature about KM. The KM strategy concluded is the personalization strategy with some practices from codification. As the personalization strategy featured more tacit knowledge, the sharing problems were found out to be linked to explicit knowledge sharing. Especially the SECI-model process of combination was found to be problematic. The present state enablers and barriers were identified from the present state. Six enablers were found with three of them in organizational and one in every other category. Technological tools were concluded to be the biggest sole enabler in the case organization. There were seventeen barriers which of five were identified as major barriers and twelve as minor. The two biggest barriers were lack of time and organizational culture for knowledge sharing. The sequential analysis method provided validity for the findings with triangulation. The findings were also aligned with recent literature about KM in SMEs and KIBS. In conclusion it is suggested that managers of SMEs and KIBS pay more attention to KM and create a systematic strategy as early as possible. The KM strategy should include a responsible that supervises its effectiveness

U.S. Military Psychologists\u27 Contemporary Lived Experiences of Burnout

Currently, the high level of burnout among military psychologists resulting from contemporary military service is gaining attention. However, there is insufficient knowledge of their lived experiences of burnout. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore burnout, based on the military occupational mental health, military job demand-resources models, and biopsychosocial models. Eleven active duty and prior service military psychologists were recruited for interviews using snowball sampling. The first phase of data analysis employed NVivo software. The second and third phase used the 7-step modified version of the Van Kamm method, resulting in 7 themes and 1 discrepant case. The key findings indicated that the unique nature of military bureaucracy provided the environment that fostered burnout into a taboo milestone. Furthermore, the challenging task associated with finding meaning and balance for the ambiguous role of being a military psychologist also compounded the experiential factors contributing to burnout. Several shared experiential indications foretelling of burnout were identified. However, the reality of how military psychologist experienced burnout differed from textbook knowledge, indicating there is a theory-practice gap in personally diagnosing burnout progression. Military psychologists also indicated the theory-practice gap between the available resources for burnout and their limiting utilization practicability. The results of this study can be used to make a positive social change by better informing the development of prevention strategies benefiting not only military psychologists but potentially all military members who routinely describe themselves as burned out