Intranets: a Guide to their Design, Implementation and Management

Chapter 14Information overload

Information overload occurs when the amount of time required to read and process incoming information exceeds the amount of time available to the individual for this purpose. Business correspondence, junk-mail, telephone calls, meetings, memos, faxes, newsletters and ad hoc conversations on the way to the vending machine, have always been plentiful in keeping the average worker occupied (or distracted?) even before the advent of Internet technologies in the workplace. If it was a straightforward case of these new technologies replacing their conventional counterparts then the results of this transition may not prove to be such a problem. Unfortunately, like most changes in work-processes, there is an extended period ...