Information anxiety in the workplace: Scale development and validation

Abstract

This research intends to develop and validate an Information Anxiety Scale for individuals in the context of the workplace. This study was completed in two phases. In the first phase, the statements related to information anxiety were generated based on an extensive review of the literature on information-related anxieties, library and information avoidance, and information literacy along with two focus group interviews. Afterward, these statements were submitted to a panel of experts for content and face validity. Lastly, the data were collected for pilot testing of the instrument. Whereas in the second phase, the construct validity and reliability of the scale were established using a variety of statistical procedures such as exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach alpha coefficient, test-retest The results indicated a 33-items instrument structured into six dimensions, namely, ‘Task Anxiety’ (5 items), ‘Need Recognition Anxiety’ (5 items), ‘Finding Anxiety’ (6 items), ‘Evaluation Anxiety’ (5 items), ‘Access Anxiety’ (5 items) and ‘Usage Anxiety’ (7 items). Each item had loading strengths greater than .572 and the model explained about 52% of the total variance. There were high values of reliability coefficient for overall scale (CA  =  .901) and correlation coefficients of test-retest ranging from 0.70 to .83. Thus, the newly developed scale was a valid and reliable measure assessing information anxiety in the workplace. It is hoped that this study would be a worthy contribution to the existing research on workplace information anxiety as no such scale has appeared in the existing literature.