Kutty, Ambalika D.; Shee, Himanshu Kumar; Pathak, R.D. --- "Decision-making - Too much info!" [2007] MonashBusRw 56; (2007) 3(3) Monash Business Review 8

Decision-making
Too much info!

Ambalika D. Kutty, Himanshu Kumar Shee, R.D. Pathak

The gap between the volume of information and the tools we have to assimilate it is known as ‘information overload’. This phenomenon has five influencing factors:

1. Personal factor information (PFI) such as individual attitude, qualification, experience, processing capacity and motivation level;

2. Information characteristics (IC) such as information quality, quantity and frequency;

3. Task and processes (TP) which represents standardised procedures;

4. Organisational design (OD) which includes countermeasures such as co-ordination, processing capacity and creation of lateral relationships;

Information technology (IT) application which includes countermeasures such as intelligent information management, preferring push to pull technologies and filing systems.

The questions posed in this study were:

1. Does effective decision-making (EDM) need all five constructs?

2. Do all five constructs contribute to EDM processes?

A random sample of 200 managers from 35 Fijian organisations were polled and 104 respondents revealed that decision-making is not straightforward but is quite individual. Information overload is a root cause of poor decisions but can be controlled with high value, convenient information. All five factors mentioned above greatly influenced decision-making. Managers also agreed that all the countermeasures of these factors helped reduce information overload and ultimately improved EDM.

In regards to the second question, only PFI (time management, training, personal information management skills, priority setting and information screening skills) and TP help in decision-making. While earlier studies simply stated that a person’s capacity to process information is limited, other studies include specific limiting factors such as personal skills, the level of experience and motivation.

The cause of information overload may be related to task and process problems, hence impacting on decision-making. TP (standardised operating procedures, collaboration with information specialists within the process teams and use of facilitators or collaborative tools) is significantly associated with EDM.

IC, OD and IT were not found to be significantly associated in this study. The scale items under IC (brand names and customisation of information) are higher order countermeasures that might not be so relevant. Meanwhile, scale items under OD (creation of lateral relationship and reducing divergence) are beyond the practice of most Fijian managers.

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Cite this article as

Kutty, Ambalika D.; Kumar Shee, Himanshu; Pathak, R.D.. 'Decision-making'. Monash Business Review. 2007.; Monash University ePress: Victoria, Australia. http://www.epress.monash.edu.au/. : 8–9. DOI:10.2104/mbr07056

About the authors

Ambalika D. Kutty

Himanshu Kumar Shee

R.D. Pathak

Ms Ambalika D. Kutty is Program Portfolio Manager at the Fiji Council of Social Services. Dr Himanshu Kumar Shee is a Lecturer at Victoria University. Dr R.D. Pathak is a Professor in the School of Management, University of the South Pacific, Fiji.