Information networking as technology tools: uses and sociotechnical approaches

Social Networking - Technology

Information overload is a continuous problem affecting all types of modern organizations. In order to adequately deal with this problem, technical systems should be repeatedly assessed and upgraded as often as practicable to handle information and minimize its overload. In addition, social/human systems must be continually assessed and changed as often as practicable to handle information and minimize overload. Given the vital human-machine relationship inherent in an organization, an organization's problem of information overload is better solved through changes to both technical and social systems.

Organizations Are Likely to Find Better Solutions to Information Overload Through Changes to Both Their Technical Systems and Their Social Systems

Organizations are likely to find better solutions to information overload through changes to both their technical and social systems. This is true for at least two reasons, given in no particular order of importance. First, technical systems should be repeatedly assessed and upgraded as often as practicable to handle information and minimize its overload. Speaking from personal experience as well as research, obsolete hardware and software can make electronic records extremely difficult or even impossible to read (Blair, 2010). In addition, as the flood of information continually rises, new and better technical tools for collecting, sorting, storing, selecting and summarizing are vital for handling that information with unavoidably limited resources, including but not limited to money, time, staff, energy and other assets (Blair, 2010). Secondly, purely technical changes in an organization's systems cannot cure or replace some human factors vitally affecting an organization. In the face of an organizational problem, the mere introduction of new technology ignores the "two-way relationship between people and machines" (Errey & Liu, 2006, p. 1) and may fail to solve or even exacerbate the problem because it does not account for both negative and positive human factors. If organizational policies and practices create a counterproductive situation, such as Errey's and Liu's example in which employees were not given adequate incentive to cross-sell or refer leads, new technology will not solve the problem of low cross-selling or leads referral; rather, the organization must also employ adequate incentives for humans to cross-sell and refer leads (Errey & Liu, 2006, p. 2). On the other hand, technology cannot replace the positive and exclusively human trait of wisdom, the ability to employ data (symbols), information (processed data), knowledge (the application of data and information) and understanding (the synthesis of knowledge to create new knowledge) in order to envision, design, assess and continually improve the optimum human/technical organization (Bellinger, Castro, & Mills, 2004).

Certainly, there are arguments or at least practices disagreeing with the need for changes in both technical and social systems to handle information overload. Some organizations overemphasize technical aspects and minimize the importance of human wisdom or even negate it entirely (Green, 2010). Some other organizations fail to account for negative human factors such as the lack of incentive or training (Errey & Liu, 2006, pp. 2-3). Examples can be seen in organizations that merely treat symptoms of an organizational problem as a purely technical problem, employ new hardware and software to solve the problem and fail to remedy that problem because they have not accounted for invaluable human wisdom and/or poor human performance management. Errey and Liu give insightful examples of technical changes made to remedy performance problems in a financial institution, a call center and an airline that do not account for human wisdom and/or poor human management. Those technical changes failed to remedy the problems because they did not account for the ability of humans to assess and remedy problems or the poor management of employees through lack of incentives and/or training (Errey & Liu, 2006, pp. 2-3). Ignoring the necessary social/human element of organizations leads to technical changes that are inadequate to solve an organization's information problems.

The overemphasis of social systems to the detriment of needed technical changes also militates against hybrid technical-social changes to effectively deal with information overload. Inherent in Blair's explanation of the difficulty in accessing and reading electronic records with obsolete hardware/software is the organizational practice of relying on humans to compensate for those obsolete systems (Blair, 2010). Some organizations force employees with unavoidably limited resources, including but not limited to money, time, staff, energy and other assets, to compensate for outdated technology. As Blair's article illustrates, technological changes must keep pace with increasingly dramatic influxes of information in order to adequately collect, sort, store, select and summarize that information (Blair, 2010). Ignoring the necessary technical element of organizations leads to purely social/human solutions that are inadequate to solve an organization's information problems. Research and examination of organizational dynamics shows that the human-machine relationship should be thoroughly considered when dealing with information and that the problem of information overload is better solved through changes to both technical and social systems.

3. Conclusion