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The overarching aim of my research is to explore and analyze the complex and at times contradictory role of ICT in information rich environments. Here, I define such environments as environments in which information and knowledge are imperative to the performance and function of the particular environments, and where core activities involve creating, storing, retrieving, combining, transferring, distributing and applying information and knowledge. Further, information rich environments are characterized by an active use of ICT in order to manage large volumes of information and knowledge at various levels. In contemporary western society, information rich environments, as described above, are present in most fields and businesses. Formal organizations, small and midrange firms and large enterprises all include large numbers of examples of environments that primarily deal with information and knowledge as their fundamental asset and material. Such environments may consequently vary considerably in terms of aims with their respective business; however, they do share some common challenges and opportunities by virtue of being information rich environments.
For example, a major challenge that has received much attention in the academic community is information overload. Information overload is often referred to as the problem of receiving too much information, however, also cognitive overload, sensory overload, communication overload, knowledge overload and information fatigue syndrome are frequently used in order to describe problems related to high degrees of information and knowledge The main focus of studies directed towards information overload is to explore and analyze how the individual decision making process varies with the amount of information an individual is exposed to (Eppler and Engis, 2004).
A common result in such studies is that the performance (in terms of quality of decision making) of individuals improves with the available amount of information up to a certain level. If the amount of available information exceeds that particular level, the decision-making performance decline in a rapid pace (Ibid, 2004). Consequently, in environments that primarily deal with information and knowledge, information overload represents a clear example of a challenge necessary to address. Information rich environments however also include opportunities and potentialities. The knowledge-based perspective (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) for example claims knowledge to be of fundamental importance to firms since services and products delivered by firms essentially are dependent on intangible assets such as knowledge (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). Knowledge is considered to exist at multiple levels and in various forms, for example, knowledge can be individual, related to groups or exist at the organizational level. Further, knowledge can be tacit or explicit (sometimes referred to as information) and therefore, different types of knowledge can be created, articulated, recorded and applied in very different ways.
Opinions on how knowledge can be created and managed, and what the nature of the relationship between information and knowledge looks like come apart, however, a common conception within the knowledge-based perspective is that knowledge represents a core asset that can produce considerable competitive advantage (Alavi and Leidner, 2001). For sure, information rich environments represent environments that have great potentialities in terms of the production and application of knowledge.
Regardless of whether one examines challenges or opportunities related to information rich environments, information communication technologies (ICT) play important parts in the shaping of such environments. As Zuboff so eloquently noted already some twenty years ago, information technology has a capacity to both informate as well as automate activities, events and objects in organizations and thus include a unique capability to re-structure organizational operations that depend upon information for their respective purposes. The technological development since Zuboffs account of information technology has been tremendous in many respects, however ICT is still considered as a key element in the performance or lack of performance of firms and organizations.
For example, ICT is often considered as a key facilitator for information and knowledge management, however, ICT is also frequently viewed as a central cause for problems related to information overload and as a core catalyst in information growth processes. The role of ICT in organizations and firms is thus frequently described in contradictory terms in the academic literature, or, as noted by Orlikowski and Iacono, IT artifacts tend to be viewed as relatively stable, discrete independent and fixed and thus often assumed to be unproblematic. Taken together, this implies that the role of ICT in fact might not be very well understood. The analytical light of my research is therefore focused towards examining the intricate and complex role that ICT assumes in organizations and firms that primarily deal with information and knowledge. Specifically, I am interested in investigating the role of ICT in knowledge management initiatives in information rich environments.