Information Management Practices: How Knowledge Workers Act as Amateurs When Using Information at Work

The proliferation of Internet technologies in the workspace provides tremendous possibilities for knowledge workers to access vast amounts of information from a large number of sources. The information abundance offers new opportunities which empower the knowledge worker but at the same time may create information overload. This study explores academics’ information management practices, by applying a theoretical framework build on three theoretical perspectives. These involve mindfulness, sense-making, and decision-making heuristics. The theoretical framework is used to analyse diary data about three tasks: email management, communication with colleagues, and information search. Our findings show that the knowledge workers have developed their own relatively simple but seemingly suitable practices for dealing with information overload and being empowered from the abundant information available to them. The relative amateurism and professionalism of the participants are discussed and limitations of this study as well as areas for future research are delineated.