Dealing with information overload: a comprehensive review

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Information Science
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Digitalization and information/communication technologies (ICTs) are increasing workplace information overload.
• Existing research lacks a comprehensive overview of prevention and intervention strategies.
• Understanding effective measures is crucial for employee well-being and productivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and synthesize existing measures for preventing and intervening in information overload.
• To categorize interventions based on behavioral and structural levels.
• To assess the evidence base for different approaches to managing information overload.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review adhering to PRISMA standards.
• Keyword searches across interdisciplinary and practice-oriented databases.
• Inclusion of 87 studies, field reports, and conceptual papers.

Main Results:

• Numerous interventions identified at the behavioral prevention level.
• Multiple proposals for structural prevention through work design.
• Work design approaches span ICT, teamwork, and organizational regulations.
• Evidence strength across the reviewed studies is mixed.

Conclusions:

• A wide array of interventions exist for information overload, targeting individual behavior and organizational structures.
• Both technological and organizational/teamwork strategies are proposed for work design.
• Further research is needed to strengthen the evidence base for effective information overload management.