Abstract
The information workers of today have a wide range of information sources available to make valuable decisions, so much so that it can lead to information overload. The purpose of this research was to investigate the extent of information overload in the South African banking industry. The empirical part of this study was done at the Standard Bank of South Africa, where 115 questionnaires were distributed to three categories of employees. It was found that e-mail is one of the most used computer-mediated applications and is used more than the World-Wide Web, instant messaging or peer-to-peer file sharing. Of the respondents, 65% felt overwhelmed by the amount of e-mails they received as 25% received more than 60 e-mails per day. A third of the respondents dedicated three hours or more to e-mails per day. Respondents agreed that the implementation of policies is important to ensure compliance with legislation, protection of privacy rights and copyright, and the filtering of spam. In conclusion, the respondents indicated that formal training in e-mail management should make a significant difference in the usage of e-mail within the organization and reduce e-mail overload.
Highlights
1.1 Research problem 1.2 Rationale of the study 1.3 Research methodology2
The following central research question was formulated for this study: To what extent does the information overload phenomenon in the South African banking industry influence the productivity of the information workers, with special reference to e-mail overload?
Cavanagh (2003) indicates that people like e-mail for the following reasons: z E-mail enables people to send and respond at their convenience. z It encourages a quick response in real time. z E-mail enables the sender to distribute the same message to many parties. z E-mail provides an audit trial. z It facilitates the easy transfer of data and information
Summary
The average employee is bombarded with increasing volumes of information. This causes a state where an individual's efficiency in using information in his or her work is hampered by a surplus amount of relevant and potentially useful information available to him of her, in other words, information overload (Bawden, Holtman and Courtney 1999). Z The impact on employees' productivity, owing to the time spent on e-mailing activities z Employees' attitudes towards e-mail z Compliance with corporate policies (e.g. policies governing electronic communication and computer use) z Surveillance and monitoring of e-mail z The quest for finding formal archiving solutions.
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