MarvInformationOverloadSurvey

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Hello:

You are invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide to be a part of this study, you need to understand the risks and benefits. Your decision to take part in the study is voluntary. Your participation or non-participation should not affect your work status. You are free to choose whether or not you will take part in the study.

As a student in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering of The George Washington University, I am carrying out a research study to find out how countermeasures may or may not be effective against information overload. My name is Marvin Rosenberg and I am the investigator (person in charge of this research study) and researcher. The research will be conducted using an anonymous questionnaire that will be located at a Web site identified in an email invitation. Answering the anonymous questionnaire will take about 20-25 minutes. The data from the answered questionnaires will be transferred from the central questionnaire Web site and stored on the researchers personal computer for analysis purposes.

To the best of our knowledge, the things you will be doing have no more risk of harm than you would experience in everyday life. Although we have made every effort to minimize this, you may find some questions we ask you to be upsetting or stressful. In addition, you will not get any personal benefit from taking part in this study. There are no costs associated with taking part in this study. You will not receive compensation for participating in this study.

Your participation in this research study is voluntary. You may decide not to begin or to stop this study at any time. If you have questions about the procedures of this research study, please contact Marvin Rosenberg by telephoning (410)336-5395 during the workday. If you have questions about the informed consent process or your rights as a research subject, please contact the Assistant Vice President for Health Research, Compliance and Technology Transfer at (202)994-2995.

Your research records may be provided to the United States Department of Health and Human services, and/or authorized representatives of the George Washington University Office of Human Research and/or Committee on Human Research. Except for these entities, research records will be kept confidential unless you authorize their release, or the records are required by law (i.e., court subpoena). You will not be identified by name in any reports or publications of this study.

Thank you very much for your time and support. Please start with the survey now by clicking on the Continue button below.

Please click on your Gender.

Male

Female

Please click on your Age Group.

25 or Less

26 to 29

30 to 39

40 to 49

50 or More

Please click on your highest Academic Education level Completed.

Elementary School

High School

Associate

Bachelor

Master

Doctor

Please click on your Academic Education Major-Area-of-Study.

Liberal Arts

Sciences

Other

Please click on your Years of Work Experience.

0 to 1

2 to 4

5 to 6

7 to 9

10 to 15

16 to More

Please click the down-arrow then click on the Industry that best fits for your overall work.

Please click on your Management Level.

Individual Contributor (Non-Managerial)

1st Line

Middle

Top

Your Role as a Professional Knowledge Worker

Some researchers view knowledge work as falling into three categories:

1) Procedural, 2) Heuristic, and 3) Executive.

These categories are important because they may help to better understand the actual content of work that knowledge workers are performing.

Do you consider yourself to a professional knowledge worker?

Yes

Please click one of the following that you feel best fits your role as a professional knowledge worker.

Procedural work, which is highly structured, following predetermined algorithms or rules. Procedural work is increasingly complex, requiring considerable knowledge and experience.

Heuristic work, which has little structure and requires a high degree of creative thinking. The word heuristic comes from the Greek heuriskein to discover and learn. In sales, marketing, medicine, architecture, design, computer science, planning, management, and hundreds of other job types, heuristic workers create important knowledge for firms ranging from HR policies, procedure manuals, and complex sales contracts to new products and business strategies.

Executive work, which is also creative, but its main output is decisions that determine the course of the organization. Executives set organizational values, policy, strategy, objectives, and rules. Executives are employees of the organization and as such have a responsibility to work on behalf of their enterprise.

Other (please describe)

Brief description of situation number 1

Brief description of situation number 2

Brief description of situation number 3

Brief description of situation number 4

Brief description of situation number 5

Question Category = Personal Factors: With respect to your personal experiences, qualifications, attitudes, etc. to what degree have the following countermeasures made it easier for you to overcome your feeling of information overload?
(NOTE: Select NA if you have no experience with this countermeasure)

	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful
Improved your personal time management skills and techniques	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Taken training programs to augment your information literacy and information processing skills such as file handling, using email, classification of documents, etc.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Improved your personal information management skills	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Performed systematic priority setting practices	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Improved your information screening skills	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

First personal factors based countemeasure I have used

Second personal factors based countemeasure I have used

Third personal factors based countemeasure I have used

Question Category = Information Characteristics: With respect to the characteristics of the information (such as complexity, novelty, intensity, or ambiguity) youve reviewed and used to what degree have the following countermeasures made it easier for you to overcome your feeling of information overload?
(NOTE: Select NA if you have no experience with this countermeasure)

	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful
Use an information source that defines quality standards to raise the general quality of its information content. (i.e. its usefulness, conciseness)	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that provides value-added information (either by filtering software or information specialists) such as: inclusion of additional information on the topic that the retrieved document is focused on.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source or system that promotes the use of sensible rules for communicating information. Such as following good email etiquette by using informative titles for all messages and documents, not forwarding or saving material without careful thought, or using attachments sparingly.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that compresses, aggregates, categorizes and structures the information content.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that aids in visualization of the information trends and relationships by using graphs.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that includes a formalization of the language used to provide the information. Such as providing more information with the same, or reduced, amount of symbols.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that is branded for reliable, useful, and current information and services.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that provides a higher level of usability (or ease of use) in balance over a high level of functionality.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that is simple to use and minimizes complex features.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that customizes the information for your specific needs.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful
Use an information source that provides an intelligent interface that learns from your requests, performs searches independently, and suggests alternative, but possibly, more relevant information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that determines various versions of the information, with various levels of detail, and elaborates additional information that serves as a summary.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that provides information with relevant hypertext links imbedded to support user-directed navigation.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that associates and links various information types such as internal information with external information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

First information characteristics based countemeasure I have used

Second information characteristics based countemeasure I have used

Third information characteristics based countemeasure I have used

Question Category = Tasks and Processes: With respect to your tasks and processes which need to be completed with the help of information to what degree have the following countermeasures made it easier for you to overcome your feeling of information overload?
(NOTE: Select NA if you have no experience with this countermeasure)

	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful
Employ standardized operating procedures when assigning or performing information seeking tasks.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use pre-define decision models that are developed for specific decision processes that incorporate existing decision rules.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Employ an information system that reports any deviations from what is expected, such as an exception-reporting system.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Allow more time for completing task assignments.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Plan and schedule uninterrupted blocks of time for completing critical information gathering and processing work.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Select the appropriate media for obtaining the task information. Such as using readily available paper sources of reference materials versus an electronic media search.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Address and determine how to handle all incoming information as soon as it arrives.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Collaborate with local/team information specialists to obtain task level information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

When the information is qualitative and ambiguous, bring the decision requirements to the source of the information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Employ tools that enable and assist with understanding and use of the information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful
Use an information source that supports a simpler information retrieval and processing strategy.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source, or tool, that allows you to regulate the flow of information so that you can focus on understanding and organizing the information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Employ a search strategy that supports the refinement of the search-results to reduce its size to a more useful working-set while retaining many of the potentially interesting documents as possible.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Employ an approach that defines specific, clear goals for use of the information in order to put it in context and turn it into meaningful knowledge.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that allows you to communicate your information needs directly to the information provider.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, a task process that provides incentives that are directly related with decisions, in order to more effectively process decision relevant information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in use of, a measurement system for information quality in order to decide which data to collect, which sources of feedback to use, when and how frequently to collect data, and who should review the data.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

First tasks and processes based countemeasure I have used

Second tasks and processes based countemeasure I have used

Third tasks and processes based countemeasure I have used

Question Category = Organizational Design: With respect to the organizational design of an enterprise you are, or have been, associated with to what degree have the following countermeasures made it easier for you to overcome your feeling of information overload?
(NOTE: Select NA if you have no experience with this countermeasure)

	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful
Establish, or participate in, coordination of information research by inter-linking with other groups in your organization.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, an increase in information processing capacity by making changes in organization design.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, lateral relationships that move the level of decision making down in the organization to where the information exists but does so without reorganizing around self-contained groups. Such as liaison roles, task forces, and project teams.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, coordination of behavior between interdependent subtasks by use of rules, goals, and the decision making hierarchy.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, self-contained tasks that form autonomous groups with a reduced division of labor and authority. Such as changing subtasks from resource/input-based to output-based categories and give each group the resources it needs to produce the output.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, reducing divergence among the expectations of people through socialization and frequent face-to-face interactions.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, use of appropriate measures of performance that provide feedback to the information provider in order to identify areas that need improvement.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Hire additional employees to increase the information processing capacity of the organization.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, creation of slack resources by increasing planning targets or goals. Such as extending completion dates until the number of exceptions that occur are within the information processing capacity of the organization.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

First organizational design based countemeasure I have used

Second organizational design based countemeasure I have used

Third organizational design based countemeasure I have used

Question Category = Information Technology: With respect to your use and application of information technology to what degree have the following countermeasures made it easier for you to overcome your feeling of information overload?
(NOTE: Select NA if you have no experience with this countermeasure)

	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful
Establish, or participate in, use of an automated/intelligent information prioritization system that supports defined work goals and objectives.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information source that provides voting capabilities to make users evaluate the information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, use of receiving (known as pushing) information from pre-selected information sources.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Establish, or participate in, use of an automated facilitator support tool (know as a group support system GSS) to assist in a working-group task such as idea generation.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an automated decision support system (DSS) to reduce a large quantity of information to a more manageable size when preparing to make a decision.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use a natural language information retrieval system to submit query requests as focused full sentences.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use of an information filtering tool/process to improve the quality of the received information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use intelligent data selectors/agents to perform automated scanning, summarizing, and routing of information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

Use an information system that provides options to automatically filter and save/organize incoming information.	NA	0 No Help	1	2	3	4	5 Moderately Helpful	6	7	8	9	10 Very Helpful

First information technology based countemeasure I have used

Second information technology based countemeasure I have used

Third information technology based countemeasure I have used

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MarvInformationOverloadSurvey

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