Decision-making under information overload :visual representation and 'fast and frugal' heuristics as strategies for dealing with information overload

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The volume of information available to the individual today is greater than ever before. From sources that range from verbal to non-verbal, paper to electronic and audio to visual, there is a constant and ubiquitous supply of information. For managers in an organisational context, whose job it is to manage information from various sources and make decisions based on that, this proliferation of information can be overwhelming. As a result, decision-makers can experience information overload, which can have various detrimental effects on them. Both the problems that information overload can cause, as well as some suggested solutions to the effect are explored. A brief investigation follows into the way in which information in different forms is cognitively processed by individuals is explored. Two possible ways in which decision-makers can respond to the problem of information overload are examined. The first focuses on the visualisation of information and visual management in organisations, looking at two examples, the balanced scorecard and the oobeya room. The visualisation of information often integrates information from various sources, reducing its volume to facilitate cognitive processing. The second response to information overload looks at the use of fast and frugal heuristics. These heuristics ignore some of the available information to ease cognitive processing, resulting in faster decisions that use as little information as possible. Both of these two approaches are explored as potential decision support systems for decision-makers in an organisational context, separately and in combination. One approach is structured and planned, while the other is largely unplanned and intuitive. The similarities are investigated in the way that these two approaches structure information. Both methods aim to reduce the amount of cognitive processing for the decision-maker, minimising the chances of information overload occurring and can be used under certain appropriate conditions to minimise the negative effects of information overload on decision-makers in organisations to result in more effective decision-making processes.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University