Development and Evaluation of an Information Management Training Program

Abstract

Effective information management skills are critical as we become more and more inundated with huge amounts of information. Drawing on applied research on information processing and situation assessment, we designed an information management training program based on the premises that 1) training in the identification of one's own information requirements will help decision makers recognize their critical information needs and focus on needed rather than surplus information, and 2) enhancement of organizational knowledge will provide decision makers with a clearer understanding of the needs and capabilities of other nodes in the organization. We developed an information management training program comprised of written and demonstration materials based on the mnemonic MISSION that was designed to help individuals identify and focus on the information needs for their mission and tasks. We conducted an evaluation of the training program and concluded that we needed to focus more strongly on behavioral rather than conceptual components of information processing. We also concluded that, to be useful, organizational knowledge needs to be integrated with the information management training.