Abstract
This study focuses on understanding employees’ information behavior following COVID-19. Its purpose was to examine whether and how the pandemic had an effect on the use of information sources and storage devices in organizations. Web-based questionnaires were distributed in the first year of the pandemic outbreak in four government ministries in Israel, and were completed by 716 employees. We conducted a series of paired sample t-tests to address the change in the use of information sources and storage devices. The results reveal that despite the frequent transition to flexible employment mechanisms, employees’ preferred information resources and storage devices have not changed significantly since the COVID-19 outbreak. Specifically, personal folders on the computer and mail folders in the email box were reported as both information sources (73.88%, 73.74% respectively) and storage devices (75.51%, 67.88% respectively) particularly popular during COVID-19. Naturally for the adoption of a restrictive policy of social distancing, we find that there is a 7% downward trend in turning to colleagues to obtain information. With the transition to a digitization-oriented work environment, a 14% increase in the use of the Internet in pursuance of organizational information was detected in the pandemic, while an 11% decrease in the organizational information storage on hard copies was detected. This study provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the conduct in remote work environments and encourages future studies to continue researching information behavior in the “new normal” in organizations.
Presenters
Dan BouhnikProfessor, Computer Science, Jerusalem College of Technology, Israel Maayan Nakash
Student, Department of Information Science; Department of Management, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2024 Special Focus—People, Education, and Technology for a Sustainable Future
KEYWORDS
COVID-19, Information Behavior, Information Seeking, Storage Devices, Digital Transformation
