Information Overload in a Groupware Environment: Now You See It, Now You Don't

Abstract

The growth of computers and communications during the last several decades has caused great concern about information overload, a state in which the amount of information that merits attention exceeds an individual's ability to process it. Paradoxically, technology has also been called upon to provide mechanisms that enable us to cope with the information glut that it has helped generate. Groupware constitutes such a technology. It simultaneously increases both the volume of communication that managers have to deal with and the degree of control they have over the information they consider. We investigated how information load, human processing capacity, and control over communication interact in a groupware mediated environment and the net effect of these factors on information overload. Our longitudinal study at a large insurance company provided evidence that both the amount of information and control over it increase with the adoption of a groupware technology. Information overload did not overtly manifest itself in this organization, leading to the possibility that humans' tendency toward selectivity protects them from being overwhelmed by information. This selectivity may, however, inhibit the potential positive effects that groupware was designed to deliver.