How Do Nepotism and Favouritism Affect Organisational Climate?

This study seeks to determine the effect of nepotism and favouritism on organisational climate. Using the method of random sampling, 269 persons working in Lithuanian organisations were surveyed. The received data was analysed via the application of the methods of correlation and linear regression. It was determined that organisational climate is influenced significantly by variables such as the manager’s behaviour, safety and relationships with employees, values and traditions, communication, sharing of information, behaviour of employees, and interrelationships and tolerance of one another. Meanwhile, nepotism and favouritism are influenced by the lower number of climate variables (fear related to the absence of concreteness and security, such as joining an organisation, union and tolerance of individuals who have shared interests). This work fills the void in the knowledge of connections that nepotism and favouritism have with organisational climate, drawing attention to the mutual interaction between these phenomena. The article presents a discussion and the research limitations, and provides guidelines for further research.

Omani Adolescent Information Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Omani adolescents' information behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic is a new interesting topic in the Omani literature. Since the suspension of face-to-face classes in the Sultanate of Oman, Omani adolescents have depended on Wikipedia, blogs, friends, TikTok, and social media to satisfy their crave for information about the virus. This study aims at finding out Omani adolescents' demographic characteristics when obtaining and disseminating pandemic-related content online, their information needs, and the sources of information they use during COVID-19. It is a descriptive study in which a Google survey was used to collect data from 1000 adolescents at different grades in Omani schools. An overwhelming majority of the participants were females (72%) compared to 28% males. Findings indicate that Omani adolescents display distinct traits in terms of their gender, age, grade, and governance. In addition, the study has found that Omani adolescents have several information needs during COVID-19, among which is the educational need.

Epävarmuudesta arvokkaaseen lopputulokseen - serendipisyys tiedonhankintakäyttäytymisessä

A serendipitious event in everyday life is common: it means unexpected information that yields some unintended information and potential value later on. Serendipity as a word has been around for hundreds of years. As a studied concept it is rather recent. Serendipity is not just the unexpected information or experience but rather the ability to recognize and do something with it. Serendipitious discovery of information is different from purposive or known item search as it is more complicated and lasts much longer. The discovery of information by chance or accident is still looking it’s explicit place in models and frameworks of information behaviour. It is still not clear what constitutes the core of the research area of serendipity in information behaviour. The qualities of interaction among people, information, and objects differ in physical vs. digital environments. The bisociation, a creative association between different peaces of information may be computer supported. This article presents an overview of the research study of serendipity in information seeking behaviour. We explore serendipity mainly in the digital information environment. As a setting for our study we use six main drivers of serendipity research relating to digital enviroments presented in McCay-Peet and Toms (2017). The drivers are: 1. Theoretical understanding of the phenomen of serendipity, 2) physical vs digital, 3) information overload, 4) filter bubbles, 5) user experience, and 6) user strategies. A new refined temporal model of information encountering by Erdelez and Makri (2020) is also presented in this article. The model presents a framework for better understanding of the temporal dimension of the information acqusition. At a macro level the model positions information encountering within contextual factors related for user, information, task and environment related characteristics.

Employment information needs and information behaviour of North Korean refugees

Introduction. The employment-related information needs and behaviour of North Korean refugees during their settlement in South Korea were analysed, and provisions that public libraries should consider when providing employment-related information to North Korean refugees were suggested. Method. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted with twenty-one North Korean refugees who had job-seeking experience or who wanted to be employed. Also, five public and NGO workers that aid the employment seeking process for employment support services to North Korean refugees provided field data on the services provided and characteristics of North Korean refugees’ information behaviour. Analysis. The results were examined using content analysis according to the factors of Dervin’s sense-making theory—situation, gap, and use. We used NVIVO 12 to extract codes from interview parts according to the factors. Results. The employment situation of North Korean refugees in South Korea can largely be categorised into two types: employment-related and education-related. The frequent subjects of employment information needs were job posting, vocational education, and career. Participants suffered from a lack of intellectual, psychological, and social accessibility. North Korean refugees were most likely to get information from interpersonal sources, the Internet, and public institutions. Conclusion. We developed a model of North Korean refugees’ information behaviour based on the findings and provided guidance for public libraries on serving job-seeking North Korean refugees.

Information behaviour of HIV patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Georgia

Introduction. In this study, we examined the information behaviour of people living with HIV during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Georgia. The research took place before COVID-19 vaccines were available. Methods. We conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen participants. Analysis. The content of interviews was analysed for a priori and emergent themes and iteratively categorized. In addition, we used k-means clustering to identify the types of information users. Results. People living with HIV used government AIDS and CDC centres, primary care physicians, television, websites and their personal networks as their information sources. Some participants reported that receiving COVID-19 information increased their stress levels. Threats to their privacy and the fear of disclosing their HIV-positive status were identified as some of the barriers to seeking and sharing information they encountered. Three types of information users were identified: Netizens, Traditionalists and Lurkers. Conclusions. The findings of this study can be used to help design effective health communication campaigns and information systems for people living with HIV in general and to provide COVID-19 information in particular.

Pets and people: information experience of multispecies families

PurposeThis paper introduces more-than-human perspective in information behaviour and information experience studies. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understandings of the concept of multispecies families by exploring their significant dimensions related to information phenomena involving multiple contexts, situations, spaces, actors, species, and activities.Design/methodology/approachBased on previous research in human information behaviour and human-animal studies, our ideas around information experience of multispecies families are developed conceptually. The paper builds both on previous empirical findings about human information behaviour and the new domain of information experience.FindingsThe paper proposes a holistic approach both to information phenomena in everyday living with companion animals including embodied, affective, cognitive, social, digital, and objectual information that shapes pet care and management practices, and to the context of study, including work, domestic, and leisure aspects of multispecies family.Originality/valueThis study broadens our understanding of information phenomena in multispecies families, and so contributes to the field of information experience. It also provides insights for animal welfare scientists to help them understand the information behaviour of humans who are responsible for keeping and caring for animals.

Contextualising information behaviour: The example of Laos

<p>The ways in which people need, seek, and use information vary considerably from one context to another. This thesis reports on a qualitative study investigating the contextual factors affecting information behaviour in a developing country. The literature review revealed that cultural and social factors have a significant impact on cognition and information behaviour, yet contextualised understandings of information behaviour that take diverse local conditions into account have yet to be developed for non-Western, developing country contexts. An interpretivist research design was employed in this study, using Dervin’s sense-making methodology, the critical incident technique, and discourse analysis to collect, analyse and interpret interview data on everyday information behaviour from 30 participants in Laos. The primary objective of the research was to identify the contextual factors that affect information behaviour in Laos, and to understand how contextual factors influence how people need, seek, manage and use information. The findings indicated that a number of interdependent primary and secondary contextual factors play a key role in how people engage with information in Laos. Primary factors included the social and cultural contexts of an individual, with numerous secondary factors such as personal, situational, physical, and economic contexts also playing a role in information behaviour. The interpretation of the findings enabled the development of a contextualised understanding of information behaviour for individuals in Laos. In addition, the research methods provided a framework from which contextualised understandings of information behaviour in diverse local contexts can be explored, fulfilling a secondary objective of the research. These findings have implications for information professionals, information systems design, and international aid projects, by providing contextualised understandings of information behaviour, facilitating the development of more relevant services and resources.</p>

Impact of Information Culture and Information Behaviour on Information Quality

<p>Purpose: Although Information Quality (IQ) is a widely discussed topic, people’s influence on the Information Quality remains insufficiently explored. There are many indicators in the academic literature that people play an important role in creating and maintaining information, however, there is a lack of studies investigating how people’s behaviour and attitude towards information influence the Information Quality within the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of Information Culture and Information Behaviour dimensions on Information Quality. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey has been conducted among office workers of Wellington based medium and large companies. Adapted from previous research questionnaires have been used to determine people’s perceptions of the Information Culture of the companies, the Information Behaviour of employees and Information Quality. Findings: Research reveals that Information Culture has moderate positive impact on Information Quality. Information Behaviour has a strong positive relationship with Information Quality. Research limitations/implications: Research has drawn attention to Information Quality problems, but this time from a slightly different angle focusing on the impact of Information Culture and Information Behaviour on Information Quality. The presented study provides an insight into what factors of Information Culture and Information Behaviour are the most favourable for maintaining good quality information. This knowledge is important for organisations that seek ways of improving Information Quality. However, due to the limited time framework, the small sample and taking into account that this paper is probably the first research of its kind, the results need further investigation by other research studies. Originality/value: The presented research appears to be the first of this kind and provides valuable knowledge into how employees might influence the quality of the information, which is the strategic resource of contemporary organisations.</p>

Contextualising information behaviour: The example of Laos

<p>The ways in which people need, seek, and use information vary considerably from one context to another. This thesis reports on a qualitative study investigating the contextual factors affecting information behaviour in a developing country. The literature review revealed that cultural and social factors have a significant impact on cognition and information behaviour, yet contextualised understandings of information behaviour that take diverse local conditions into account have yet to be developed for non-Western, developing country contexts. An interpretivist research design was employed in this study, using Dervin’s sense-making methodology, the critical incident technique, and discourse analysis to collect, analyse and interpret interview data on everyday information behaviour from 30 participants in Laos. The primary objective of the research was to identify the contextual factors that affect information behaviour in Laos, and to understand how contextual factors influence how people need, seek, manage and use information. The findings indicated that a number of interdependent primary and secondary contextual factors play a key role in how people engage with information in Laos. Primary factors included the social and cultural contexts of an individual, with numerous secondary factors such as personal, situational, physical, and economic contexts also playing a role in information behaviour. The interpretation of the findings enabled the development of a contextualised understanding of information behaviour for individuals in Laos. In addition, the research methods provided a framework from which contextualised understandings of information behaviour in diverse local contexts can be explored, fulfilling a secondary objective of the research. These findings have implications for information professionals, information systems design, and international aid projects, by providing contextualised understandings of information behaviour, facilitating the development of more relevant services and resources.</p>

Impact of Information Culture and Information Behaviour on Information Quality

<p>Purpose: Although Information Quality (IQ) is a widely discussed topic, people’s influence on the Information Quality remains insufficiently explored. There are many indicators in the academic literature that people play an important role in creating and maintaining information, however, there is a lack of studies investigating how people’s behaviour and attitude towards information influence the Information Quality within the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of Information Culture and Information Behaviour dimensions on Information Quality. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey has been conducted among office workers of Wellington based medium and large companies. Adapted from previous research questionnaires have been used to determine people’s perceptions of the Information Culture of the companies, the Information Behaviour of employees and Information Quality. Findings: Research reveals that Information Culture has moderate positive impact on Information Quality. Information Behaviour has a strong positive relationship with Information Quality. Research limitations/implications: Research has drawn attention to Information Quality problems, but this time from a slightly different angle focusing on the impact of Information Culture and Information Behaviour on Information Quality. The presented study provides an insight into what factors of Information Culture and Information Behaviour are the most favourable for maintaining good quality information. This knowledge is important for organisations that seek ways of improving Information Quality. However, due to the limited time framework, the small sample and taking into account that this paper is probably the first research of its kind, the results need further investigation by other research studies. Originality/value: The presented research appears to be the first of this kind and provides valuable knowledge into how employees might influence the quality of the information, which is the strategic resource of contemporary organisations.</p>