Information Overload

Book Review by
Lynne Cagle Cox

Spira, J. B. (2011). Information overload: How too much information is hazardous to your organization. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 
Information overload is defined by Spira as a general "inability to manage the flow of information so that people can easily find what they are looking for without being overwhelmed" (p. 6). In 2010, according to Spira, information overload cost the U.S. economy almost $1 trillion and at least 28 billion productivity hours. In an era when nearly 80 million people (over 40% of the workforce) in our country are considered knowledge workers employed specifically in the acquisition, manipulation, and production of knowledge, the impact of information overload the American economy is simply staggering. 

Information has exploded at an unprecedented rate in the last five years with the shift to a 24-hour/7-day news cycle and the unprecedented growth of national annual Internet traffic from 10 exabytes in 2008 to a predicted 767 exabytes in 2014. From relentless email, instant messaging, text messages, and social media exchanges to redundant software, inefficient search tools, and endless required meetings, information overload is taxing the individual modern knowledge worker as well.

Information overload: How too much information is hazardous to your organization begins with an introduction that chronicles the history of information since the development of clay tablets as communication tools in 4000BC to the modern era of electronic tablets and cloud storage options. The book itself is divided into two parts: Part I – How We Got Here and Part II – Where We Are and What We Can Do. Topics include technology/software developments and generational differences that have contributed to the information glut we currently face, aspects/components of information overload, research-based attempts to manage information on an organizational level, and general recommendations for minimizing the impact of overload on individuals and organizations.