Purpose

This paper focuses on the links between information culture and the perception of the information overload on the example of higher education institutions in Estonia. The aim of this study is to understand how different types of information culture affect coping with information overload.

Design/methodology/approach

Two focus-group interviews with 14 participants and 17 semi-structured interviews with representatives of four HEIs were conducted. First, the questions on the values, norms and assumptions as well as information related practices were discussed to assess the dominant components of the information culture. Second, the perception of information overload was explored. Further, the strategies for coping with information overload were examined. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyse the interview data.

Findings

The results of the study suggest that the construct of information culture is valuable in understanding information environments and their relation to the perception of information overload. The participants representing the open information culture prefer informal information sharing and are more vulnerable to perceive information overload than the participants representing the integrated information culture. Organisational information management is the key to effective coping with information overload.

Originality/value

The current study sheds light on the perception of information overload in connection with information culture.

中文翻译：

---

信息文化与应对信息超载的策略：以爱沙尼亚高等教育机构为例

目的

本文以爱沙尼亚高等教育机构为例，着重介绍信息文化与对信息过载的感知之间的联系。这项研究的目的是了解不同类型的信息文化如何影响应对信息超载的情况。

设计/方法/方法

进行了两次针对14名参与者的焦点小组访谈，以及针对四个HEI代表的17次半结构化访谈。首先，讨论了有关价值，规范和假设以及与信息相关的实践的问题，以评估信息文化的主要组成部分。其次，探索了对信息超载的感知。此外，研究了应对信息超载的策略。持续的比较分析被用来分析访谈数据。

发现

研究结果表明，信息文化的构建对于理解信息环境及其与信息超载感知的关系具有重要的价值。与代表集成信息文化的参与者相比，代表开放信息文化的参与者更喜欢非正式的信息共享，并且更容易感知信息过载。组织信息管理是有效应对信息过载的关键。

创意/价值

当前的研究揭示了与信息文化有关的信息超载的认识。