3fINAL cHAE LITERARTRUREEIW

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CHAPTER THREE

LITERATURE REVIEW

3.0 Introduction

The reviewed literature not only built a conceptual frame work for this study but also

identified the practical value of information to organizations. As a result it has

created an important pathway to the perception of the importance of information,

justifying the significance of this research. The literature review is divided into six

categories and each category deals with its theme in general and ultimately

emphasizes on how each theme specifically relates to financial services sector and

managerial functions. The six categories are indicated below:

1. An identification of various aspects of information was relevant. Different

scholars have perceived information differently to identify it as a

fundamental component for managerial and organizational activities.

2. Information needs and information seeking behaviour of the managers and

organizations were appropriate. This established the core features

necessary for this research.

3. The role information sources and their use by organizations conveyed how

managers are information dependant.

4. The literature related to the information services to fulfill the information

needs of managers and organizations was important as it steered the

literature review to another stage that would be dealt in the study.

5. It was needed to review, the studies exploring obstacles to meet

information needs because it is an evident fact that the problems affecting

beneficial access to information are common among managers.


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6. It was necessary to review the studies concerning the managers

satisfaction in the fulfillment of their information needs.

3.1 Information as a Fundamental Component Concerning Managerial and

Organizational Activities

The reviewed literature establishes a context for the affirmation that information is

one of the principle aspects for the standards of managerial and organizational

performance. Concepts for the term information are many.

In the study related to the link between environmental scanning and organizational

information behavior, an interesting description suggested a critical and an

innovative view of information. Information in organizations is compared to images

of machines, organisms, political systems and culture. The machine is compared to

information as a resource that keeps the wheel ticking over (Kirk, 1999, cited in

Karim, 2004 p.357) Organism is the information from internal and external

information sources which keeps organizations equilibrium. Information is

considered as a political system because different groups in organizations have

divers interests, they use information diversely with regard to power, influence and

when supporting and negotiating is necessary. Culture was considered as powerful

with shared beliefs, values, norms and meanings and its weight upon ritual myth,

language and symbol (Kirk, 1999, cited in Karim, 2004,).

This description indicates a close liaison among the key feature of an organization

which are organizational functions, environment, human resources, and how these

features relate to information for their existence.

This view could be supported by the description of Kirk as cited by Karim (2004)

which shows how organizations are information dependant.


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The role played by information is multifaceted and complex. The managerial

activities and organizational culture which are rich in information have to efficiently

make use of information if they are to meet their goals. Achieving organizational

goals can be a result of the use of information in a trend which upholds the

organizational and managerial capabilities. A ground braking study was conducted

recognizing six types of information behaviors and values that can detect an

organizations ability to use information efficiently. These values and behaviors are

fundamental for nurturing organizational and managerial capabilities. These are:

Integrity (using information with reliance and principles); Transparency (frankness

and giving details of errors); Control (obtainable information about performance);

Sharing; Proactiveness (usage of updated information to react promptly to change);

Formality (use and trust of informal sources and formality) (Marchand et al. 2001,

cited in Choo , 2007).

Information helps to gain knowledge. A study explored that organizations possess

three kinds of knowledge: tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge and cultural

knowledge. Tacit knowledge is the personal knowledge that is learned during lengthy

periods of experiences of doing a task. During this phase the individual develops a

feel for and ability to make instinctive views about the successful implementation of

the activity. Explicit knowledge is put across formally using a system symbols and

may be object based or rule-based e.g. document, software code, rules, routines or

operating procedures. Cultural knowledge is the beliefs an organization considers

true, based on attributes about itself and its environment. (Nonaka and Takeuchi,

1995, cited in Choo 2001).

According to the proposed model by Mintzberg, managers use external and internal

information sources. Using information and managerial positions they perform four

decisional roles. They are first, entrepreneurs, second, resource allocators, third,


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disturbance handlers, and finally negotiators (Mintzberge, 1973, cited in Auster and

Choo, 1994).

Opoola (2000) studied on scanning the environment for competitive advantage: A

study of corporate banking managers in Nigeria. The researcher focused mainly on

investment analysis, improved services, conflict resolution, market research, and

business strategy and their relationship with information. Researcher identified the

relationship patterns of information gained through environment scanning and how

they effect the banking sector. An important feature in Opoolas study is that, it is

based on environmental scanning by a particular user group, who are bank managers.

The environmental sectors they scan are customer, competition, technological,

regulator, economic and socio-cultural sector. It was concluded that core of

information handling job of the managers in the banking industry is to gather,

process, assess, and interpret information acquired from the business environment by

creating a path way to the profit maximization of the bank. Information, according to

the researcher, could be used for banks future actions and for decision making. This

would bring about interesting factor; which is, while information which being

managed is not static indefinitely due to various reasons of the environment, but

should not be altered unwisely as information could be used for future course of

action.

The study by Weerasinghe (2007) on knowledge management emphasizes the

relationship among special Liberians, knowledge management and information users

of the organization. The author comments that these librarians are an important

knowledge base for the organization which calls for librarians as active participants

where information management is concerned.


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Weerasinghe further more indicates that importance of knowledge management is

increasing and her study related to the financial services sector in Sri lanka, shows

that the importance of knowledge management although a new concept is needed to

the financial services sector in Sri Lanka if it is to achieve competitive advantage.

The study to determine the usage of information by financiers of micro enterprises of

Sri Lanka by Weerasinghe ( 2002) reveals as to how the Sri Lankan financial

services sector renders its services to the development of micro entrepreneurs and as

to how the information is used for this purpose. It shows that the sample of

development banks, commercial banks, NGOs, Samurdi Banking Societies and

Coorporative societies as active participants in this area. They are portrayed as

seekers of information and disseminators of information as well, apart from their

financial services

3.2 Information Needs and the Information Seeking Behavior of the Managers

When reviewing literature on information needs and information seeking behavior of

managers in organizations, it was necessary to identify the subject area of user

studies which deals with information needs and information seeking behavior in

general. This lays the basis for the reviewing literature on information needs of the

managers in organizations.

Exploring information needs of the users is an issue which is not easily dealt with.

The development of theoretical concepts of information needs, after the survey of

users information seeking behavior by Royal Society Scientific Information

Conference (Royal Society 1948) has been slow. Anyway, the field of information

needs of the users could be noted even before 1948. According to the conclusions of

the authors this situation is due to the ineffective methodology and the lack of

research which can be developed (Wilson 2006). According to Wilson (2000) the


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need for user studies is fundamental as it can boost the quality of information

services.

J. M. Brittain and Maurice Line are two of the initiators to define the terminology of

information needs. According to Brittain, as cited by Elayan and Younis ( 2004), the

difference between information demand and information needs could be identified as

follows. An information demand is a vocal or written demand; for a example a

request made to a an information system or library. While indicating that defining

information need is difficult, in some situations, information need could be

synonymous to information demand where the user understands the information

which is appropriate to his work and makes a demand of an information source.

A need can be identified asemptiness more specifically a gap which can occur at

any time in an individuals life.Information needs occur due to recognition of a gap

in ones knowledge and when that individual decides to fill that knowledge gap

(Belkim, cited by Nicholas 1996).

Information needs can be discussed with manifold definitions but identifying

information needs serves only one purpose, that is to fill the knowledge gap. This is

apparent in the definition of information needs given by Elayan and Younis (2004);

Nicholas (1996)

Accordingly, Wilson (2006) too supports the above idea. Furthermore, he adds that

Information needs is a secondary need which occurs in order to fulfill one or more of

the three basic needs namely physiological need (food, shelter etc) psychological need

(need for domination, security etc) and cognitive need ( need to plan and learn a skill

etc). Compared to the basic human needs, it could be indicated that information needs

are also equally important. The reason for this is to fulfill the basic needs, it is

necessary to fulfill the information needs although it is not considered as a primary


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need. Individuals are not always aware of their needs and information gaps. This is

called dormant need. Moreover, they do not know that there is relevant information

available to help them. When they identify the information they identify its worth.

Dormant needs could be fulfilled with the help of the information professional due to

the fact that information professional knows the information available.

Nicholas (1996) claimed that the importance of identifying information needs of the

users have good and pressing reasons to believe that the neglect of user needs cannot

continue. To face the high cost of computerizations, assessing the system in keeping

with the user needs is required. Due to the questions on the expenses of information

and the strict inspections of information has given rise to the need to identify

information needs of users. Identifying information needs of the user is considered

important by information professionals due to another factor which is to safeguard

their jobs. As a result it is a need that they pay attention to work and requirement of

their users.

Nicholas added that information demand being a request for information believed to

be needed or wanted is the starting point of the information seeking behavior. The

user is first encountered by the information professional, communicates with an

information system, source or intermediary. Users could demand information they do

not need; for example, a user may be disappointed by reading a book prescribed by

another person as it did not fulfill the information needs of that particular individual.

An individual may need or want information which they do not demand. This brings

out that information needs of the users are not easily always fulfilled. The social

impacts, the knowledge of the user on information retrieval, such as the capacity to

browse an information system, also depend on the fulfillment of information needs.

Wilson (2000) describes certain features related to human information behavior


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1) Information behavior is all the facets of human behavior concerned with

information sources, information channels, active and passive information

seeking. Face to face communication is considered to be an active information

seeking and use, while watching T.V. without taking a step on the information is

the passive side of information seeking and use.

2) Information seeking behavior means seeking for information deliberately resulting

from a need to satisfy an objective. When information seeking is taking place the

user would interact with manual information systems such as news papers or

computer based information systems (such as the World Wide Web).

3) Information searching behavior is the micro-level of behavior used by the

searcher using information systems. This act involves situations such as the levels

of humans using computer; for example the use of the mouse and click on links or

intellectual level such as Boolean search strategy .

4) Information use behavior is identified by using physical and mental capabilities to

include the gathered information to persons knowledge; for example physical acts

like highlighting a part of a text to identify its significance or mental acts like

comparing new information with the existing information.

These descriptions lead us to figure out that human information behavior is a result of

the main motivational factor the information need. Human information behavior is

diverse and it has a close relationship with an individuals interest, chance,

knowledge, social impact, and also his choice.

Wilson (2006) argued that numerous decisions are made using incomplete

information or on the basis of belief. Due to this factor, information seeking may not

take place or there could be a time gap between the information need identification

and the information seeking act. According to the argument by Wilson, information

needs do not always bring about human information behavior. The motivational


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factors, persuasive factors come into the scene again for the fulfillment of the

information needs through information seeking behavior.

Job satisfaction plays a significant role in the fulfillment of the information needs by

the user because if an individual is satisfied about his job he is prone to improve it

and keep up to date. More specifically he would take a keen interest in meeting his

information needs (Nicholas, 1996). Thus, job satisfaction is a motivational factor

leading to human information behavior.

Executives are not homogeneous concerning their information needs. Some always

communicated with the same nature in information content and form and need

significantly customized needs, at the same time other executives need highly

multipurpose systems to communicate with different information (Adam and Murphy

1997)

In the study carried out by Karim and Husssein (2007) with regard to mangers

perception of information management and the role of the information and knowledge

managers: the Malaysian perspective, the researchers has taken various variables into

consideration. For example managers, information, knowledge, etc. The managers are

chosen from several industries such as banking industry, IT, telecommunication

services, oil and gas company As. to the conclusion of the study which is of

descriptive and of exploratory nature the Malaysian managers information needs are

not highly divers. Their information needs are mostly fulfilled through informal

information sources. In order to fulfill information needs of the managers user

profiling is necessary. The findings of this study have paved the way for the user

profiling which helps to develop information and knowledge management strategies.

Managers greatly depend on informal social communication patterns to fulfill their

information needs. Therefore, it could be indicated that knowledge and information


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management should have strong relations with good social information environment.

Quality of information is an important element of Information management.

Malaysian managers are mostly in agreement with the fact that effective information

management is needed for good performances and productive decision making. The

findings of this study can be considered to be a frame work for implementing KM and

IM specifically in the Malaysian organization. It could be indicated that the

conclusions are mainly drawn from the findings as it should be. But it could be stated

that conclusion are not a critical evaluation of the findings but only self evident.

The study by Weerasinghe (2007) of a number of domestic banks in Sri Lanka further

adds to the body of literature concerning information management and financial

services sector of Sri Lanka. It reveals how Sri Lankan banks are using libraries for

their work. It could be argued that if a library is constantly disseminating information

to banks to achieve their goals, the banks are usage of libraries will be high in order to

seek information is through their organizational library. This feature is justified in the

study by Weerasinghe (2007) in the limelight of the Sri Lankan banking context. The

author further pinpoints in the discussion related banking context of Sri Lanka

specially in the banking industry, competition, customer, financial regulations, trade

and globalization as foremost important aspects. This view functions as a

generalization applicable to banking context as well. If above aspects are of

importance to banks it is beyond debate that Sri Lankan banks give prominence to the

information on above aspects.

As for information seeking Weerasinghe (2002) in the study related to the information

usage by financiers of micro entrepreneurs states that personal contacts, media, other

libraries and own library as the means by which micro entrepreneurs accessed

information. The financiers mostly used personal contacts in order to seek information


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Weerasinghe further found through the study the information types ranked as high in

importance with regard to the whole sample. They were financial schemes, economic

information, investments and savings, and market opportunities. Information types

that ranked medium importance were legal, raw material and supply, market location,

and training. Lastly, the information types of the lowest importance were weather and

standards. Mostly disseminated information types were financial schemes (74%)

market information (44%), economic information (43%) and investment and savings

information (43%)

3.3Role of Information Sources in Managerial and Organizational Activities

Information sources in its simplest sense can be defined as the persons, groups, and

documents from which data are obtained. Apart from that Kaye (1995) have included

certain information systems also as internal organizational information for example:

office automation systems, Management information systems, expert systems and

executive information systems etc. Reviewed literature revealed that the information

sources which are of diverse types play a fundamental role in managerial and

organizational activities.

Choo (2001) in a study related to environmental scanning as information seeking and

organizational learning, identified information seeking as source usage and

preference. He added that according to the organizations level of ability to analyze

and intrude into the environment four modes of scanning can be identified. They are

undirected viewing, conditioned viewing, enacting and searching. The researcher has

studied the types of information sources used by organizations relative to these four

modes. The term undirected viewing was first used by Aguilar (1967). Undirected

viewing takes place when the organization is unable to analyze the environment and

therefore when it does not intrude the environment. When this takes place the


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organization is contented with informal information sources such as irregular

contacts. Conditioned viewing once again a term first used by Aguilar (1967) takes

place when organization is able to analyze the environment but is passive about

intruding the environment. During this situation information sources used are routine

sources such as standard procedures, internal non-personal sources and also external

reports, databases, sources highly accepted in the industry. Enacting takes place when

the organization is unable to analyze the environment, but when it intrudes the

environment actively. The information sources used are external sources that

organization has built up through its influence for example a feedback about its

actions that the organization is responsible. Searching (considered as Discovery in the

original Daft and Weick paper) takes place when the organization is able to analyze

the environment and when it can intrude the environment actively. The sources used

are formal, often quantitative data specifically from surveys and market research

activities. A feature that can be drawn by Choos study is that four modes of

environmental scanning depends on organizational choice according to its needs and

the variation of information sources used depends on these four modes.

Information sources of multinational corporations are identified as external and

internal. External sources include customer, supplier, bankers, competitors,

newspapers, conferences and seminars and publications. Internal sources are

executives based abroad, products, international division executives and computer

data banks within the company (Preble et al ,1988 and Ginter and Duncan, 1990, cited

in Karim, 2004).

Berry and Robertson (2004) studied the overseas bankers in the UK and their use of

information for making lending decision: Changes from 1985. It could be stated that

this study focused on the information usage by bankers and how this usage pattern

changes overtime Information sources at hand to the borrower were ranked as very


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important ,fairly important and not very important and also according to year (2001 to

1985) and frequency of use. The sources of information considered in this study were

audit accounts, banks internal records from previous experience of loans to the

company, interim reports, company memorandums and articles and published

government statistics. The results based on the order in which they are included in the

questionnaire are discussed. They are the sources of information available to the bank

use without assistance to the borrower, the sources information which the banker may

have access to, the Ratios and financial indicators used by bankers, desired

improvements in the information provision. As for the sources of information

available to the bankers without use of assistance to the borrower, the audit accounts

continued to be the most important sources of information for lending decision and

the ranking of the first three items of importance has not changed with time. With

regard to annual reports, the increase of the importance of cash flow statement was

very high in 2001and not very important in1985. Another change which is not

statistically important is the increased importance of ratings of directors report which

now includes operating and financial review. The results also indicted a decreasing

value of the extent of reading with regard to auditors report and statement of

accounting policies, that is, their extent with regard to these 2 situations were high

in1985 than in 2001.When observing the results of the sources of information to

which bankers may have access, there is a very little change in the importance of

personal interviews between the years 2001 and 1985 and there is an important

change with regard to the importance and frequency of use of valuation reports. The

importance of management accounts and project financial statement were more or less

the same but the frequency of use has increased. As for the ratios and financial

indicators used by bankers the results indicated that liquidity is ranked 1st in 2001 and

3rd in 1985. As for the researchers conclusions of the study, the major conclusion is

the most important source of information is published accounts. Clear understanding


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that one can reach with regard to this research is the theme of the research deals with

a specific area more than a general area in comparison to the study by Opoola (2000)

which is dealt below. The study by Berry and Robertson (2004) has dealt with the

lending decision making in the banking sector.

Opoola (2000) has dealt with the study on scanning the environment for competitive

advantage: A study of corporate banking managers in Nigeria.

As for the information sources used by managers colleagues were most frequently

used source. This showed that respondents used more heavily the informal sources.

Least accessible source was company directories. To identify the perceived quality of

information the perceived relevance and reliability of sources were found out.

Customer was the most reliable and relevant source. One of the most unhealthy factor

which discovered through the results was that government official, and

radio/television provided information of low quality. Their information was less

reliable and less relevant. Coefficient was used to find the relationship between

frequency of use, perceived source accessibility and perceived source quality. Main

purpose of environmental scanning was for investment analysis and for improved

services. Least importance of environment scanning was for recreation.

A study has been carried out by Karim and Husssein (2007) with regard to mangers

perception of information management and the role of the information and knowledge

managers: the Malaysian perspective. With regard to data analysis related to

information sources, the most important sources were books, journal, newspapers

magazines, reports, bulletins and newsletters. The mean score was 3.92. Second

important information source was internet. Lastly were the board members.

As for the sources of information used Weerasinghe (2002) has divided the

information sources in to two categories namely Non institutional information sources


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and institutional information sources. Non institutional information sources that were

used by financiers were seminars and workshops, government publications, feasibility

studies, newspaper articles, periodicals, newsletters and books. Mostly used non

institutional information sources by the financiers as a whole were seminars and

workshops. The institutional information sources used by the financiers according to

the study were IDB, Divisional Secretariat, Government Ministries and Provincial

Councils. Mostly used institutional source according to the findings was IDB.

3.4Library and Information Services as a Fundamental Component for Access to

Information

With the evidence of reviewed literature it could be accepted that library and

information service rendered to any target audience functions as a core factor which

facilitate access to specific type of information when concerning that particular user

group.

The paper by Koh (2000) suggests that providing a new understanding and a new

definition to the term library technical services is fundamental due to the speedy

changes taking place in the world. He, in comparison with the present global situation

adds that, 3 forces impacts on these services namely economic pressures, user

expectations and technology. He elaborates certain plus points of the knowledge

access manager who is fundamental to provide a better information services to a

particular user group. Not only facilitating effective intellectual access to collections

but also organizes information according to the need of the user and delivers them by

individualized and customized packaging. The author, furthermore, categorizes

information resources as internal and external and once again brings out another

division in internal and external information resources internal tangible (books, video

cassettes, etc) and internal intangible (data bases, electronic resources on CD-ROM


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etc.). External tangible sources are available through interlibrary lending or other

resource sharing. Thus, by evaluating the details brought out by the Koch it is evident

that, in order to provide a better information service the interrelation of two

fundamental components which are the collections and the knowledge access

managers is a necessity. In addition the knowledge access manager should carry out

his service in accordance with the situation of the economic situation, user

expectations and also technology.

Another factor with regard to library and information services which could be

compared to the details highlighted above by Koch is brought out by Hsieh et al

(2000). According to Hseih the demanding expectations are increasing and due to this

it is necessary to improve the quality of services. But financial constraints are an

important feature which pressurizes the library managers. Thus, the library managers

are facing a dilemma when attempting to exploit resources. Consequently, the

initiatives such as ISO 9000 (Johannsen, 1996 cited in Hsieh) standards and 5s

movement (Taipei Municipal library) have been implemented to improve the services

quality.

In comparison with the view and facts pointed out by the scholars Koch (2000) and

Hsieh et al (2000), it could be perceived that while Koch claims that knowledge

access managers and collections provide a service to fulfill the needs of the customer,

Hsieh et al (2000) reinforce and extends the Kochs findings with the what has taken

place in order to provide a better service. The ISO 9000 standards implementation and

5s movement have been initiated in order improve the library image and service

quality.

The paper by Deventer and Snymann (2004) suggests the vitality of library and

information services as below.


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Knowledge economy literature indicates that proof of an organizations sustainable future and

growth lies in multi-dimensional evaluation rather in traditional one-dimensional monetary or

financial capital perspective. This article attempts to provide a multi-dimensional framework

within which a library and information service (L &IS) could measure its performance. As a

pre requisite, for implementation of the stated framework , the L&IS management (and Staff)

needed to understand that: (

Measuring should be done for local development and progress using the L& IS mission and a strategy

for a sustainable future as a focal area;

Sustainability requires more than providing proof of spending the stakeholders money wisely; and

Adding value for the customer in isolation also does not ensure sustainability. (p.1)

Consequently, due to the view point of Deventer and Snyman (2004) it is justifiable

to say that the library and information services has a role that has a decisive impact

upon an organization. Not only the impact, but also its responsibility is formidable

and the known factor which is the mission and the vision of the mother organization

should be reflected by it information centre or the library is a evident and a salient

feature.

Deventer and Snyman (2004) adds that

In order to be sustainable in the knowledge economy it is necessary to understand that

the relationship between the human, structure, customer, and stakeholder capitals are

vital. The L&IS sector would therefore , in the first instance, be required to ensure that

customer could trust that they are receiving the services and products that maximize

their own productivity and asset utilization. Secondly L&IS stakeholders would need to

be assured that they are receiving the best value for their investment. Lastly, but

perhaps most importantly, L & IS staff would have to be assured that they have the

necessary skills and resources to provide for a motivating environment and that the

infrastructure created will ensure continuous improvement for all. (p.1)


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Thus, for the overall stability of an organization which achieves competitive

advantage, a productive library and information services is a necessity. The quality

service, disseminating mission critical information in an organization is an absolute

need for present organizations.

The study conducted by industrialists information needs and interests in Jordan: A

case study of Zarca Governate by Elayan and Younis ( 2005) deals specifically with

the types of information services needed by a selected sample of industrialists. It

focuses on bank managers as well. The particular information services dealt in this

research are the loan of library materials, internet, photocopying, in-library reading,

references and guidance and other various informatory services. Majority of

respondents considered internet and photocopying as the main information services

needed.

As highlighted by Koh (2000), Hsieh (2000), Deventer and Snyman (2004), the

importance of a knowledge manager for the fulfillment of information needs of a

customer is once again reinforced by Karim and Hussein (2008) in their case study.

This way these studies bridge the two components the information manger and the

collection in order show the requirements for quality information service to bring

about optimum customer satisfaction and also achieve competitive advantage. Hence

the reason for importance of effective and an efficient information manger is

identified in the study by Karim and Hussein and the importance of the information

manager is focused according to view points by the managers in their study. An

information manager is considered as a source of information who helps to collect and

high quality information. Information managers timeliness is also appreciated. He is

also considered as someone who can help achieve organization performance through

decision making because they are able professionals. They can manage information


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systems and databases. They assist in public relation and develop information policy.

They also assist in research.

Weerasinghe (2007) in the study related to knowledge management states that special

librarians have a responsibility to cater its services in accordance with the mission of

their mother organization. The author also is of the view that extending these services

indicates that the librarian should avoid a passive role and actively perform in the

fulfillment of the organizational information needs.

The special libraries duties could be fulfilled productively and efficiently if their

potentiality is reinforced with ICT. This view is brought out by Weerasinghe

(2007) as the study refers to the services of internet, intranet, email, and library

software and their contribution to the important positive information needed by an

organization.

Another factor brought out by Weerasinghe is the selective dissemination of

information which plays a fundamental role in the identification of information needs

and facilitating access to information through user profiling and selecting appropriate

information needed by a specific user. This too is a contributing factor to knowledge

management in organizations.

3.5 Problems related to the Fulfillment of Information Needs of the Managers and


Obstacles to meet the information needs of the managerial and organizational

activities are common and strategies to combat these obstacles are daily improving.

But at the same time the complexity of the problems too develop due to the

information explosion and various other reasons. Review of literature provides insight

to this situation.


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Nicholas (1995) in his work which deals on tools and techniques for assessing

information needs discusses numerous obstacles which hinder the fulfillment of

information needs of the users. In keeping with the information needs of the

managers, it could be said that, these obstacles hinder the managers fulfillment of

information needs in organizational activities. Nicholas put forward that, problems

such as reluctance of some information professionals to consult the users concerning

their duties which they consider as their own professional matters. Information

professionals pay more attention to the information systems, although some

information systems are not suitable to the users information needs. Poor

communication skills of the information professional are also an obstacle to the

information needs fulfillment. The high cost of resources needed to acquire the

information needs data is a problem in comparison with the budget allocations by

the mother organization of the information centre. There is no commonly accepted

basis assessing information needs and it is a difficult task to obtain data related to the

information needs. With the explanation of Nicholas (1996), it is evident that an

information centre is an important information system to the user for the retrieval of

information. The inefficient information centres including inefficient staff are vital

reasons where the information needs of the users are unmet.

Area of interest being one requirement to assess the information needs can cause

several problems when it comes to its specification; for example too much of

simplification or generalization of the area of interest. The difficulty faced by both

user and the intermediary in translating users key words into key words employed in

the information system. The other obstacles indicated by Nicholas are lack of time,

poor access to information sources and systems, lack of resources and information

overload. The personality of the important professionals is also important. In this

context it refers to the lack of determination to continue looking for information over


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a reasonable period of time and attempting a new strategy when first f attempts are

unsuccessful. Another aspect of the personality is lack of thoroughness or lack of in

depth search which is appropriate to the information need. Being disorganized in both

retrieval and storage of information and Lack of motivation leading to poor

commitment to the job, the task or the customer are also problems related to the

personality of some information professionals. The last feature related to the

personality is the interest to accept information from others. Lack of time is brought

about by increased number of information queries and the increased amount of work

expected of the information professional in the same amount of time. .

Due to the hindrances to the rapid accessibility to information sources or systems, it is

doubtful that a users carryout information seeking. And the author has added that

information overload; mainly due to vast technological developments is also a

hindrance to the meeting of information needs.

Other barriers to meeting information needs are age, lack of experience in the work,

educational qualification and training, gender, working situation such as working

alone or with a team. When providing an overall comment on the obstacles to meet

information needs brought out by Nicholas, he has described these problems in the

limelight of social economical, cultural, and also personal factors.

Karim( 2004) in his study on the link between environment scanning (ES) and

organizational information behavior : implication for research and the role of

information professional., claimed that unlike the past, present information

overload seriously calls for evaluation of quality of information, as inaccuracies such

as incorrect information or lack of validity in information can result in crucially

negative results. Karim also commented on the time constrain as on of the main

reasons that CEOs are unable to be good environmental scanners though they are


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considered as key users of information. The studies dealing with environmental

scanning, which is a fundamental component of information seeking reveals that

environmental scanning could even be considered as a basis for fulfillment of

information needs. If environmental scanning is hindered it would necessarily be an

obstacle to the fulfillment of information needs.

Wilson, as cited by Wilson (2000) suggested that his information seeking model

which he developed was a result of physiological, cognitive and affective needs of a

person. He further indicated that these primary needs of an individual can occur in his

personal life or working environment and the obstacles to information search could be

a result of the same situation. This assertion further supports how social, economical,

cultural, personal, issues impact the fulfillment of information needs which were

discussed hither to.

The paper on information flows amongst executives their implications for systems

development by Adam and Murphy (1995) discussed the lack of communication and

an increased number of mechanistic reporting, justifying the assertions of past

research that senior executives face the problem of information overload because of

receiving regular reports due to upward organizational communication and the

executives inability asses these reports for relevancy and further improvement. One

could arrive at the conclusion that information overload can be a result of

disorganized working patterns and disorganized communication patterns leading to

the difficulty of information filtering .

Owens et al (1996) in their study on information, business and performance

discusses the information systems and services in high performing companies. The

problem that was nearly commonly accepted is not assessing the information systems

after it is developed. This is considered to be a result of lack of financial support and

time. The researchers further found that in the companies where library staff was


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surveyed there was a low interest to get use to new technology. Usage of computer

based catalogues was mainly limited to the library staff as majority of were stand-

alone machines. Library staff took part in information systems provision only when

these systems were being developed for the library operations. Lack of finance and

lack of trained library staff was the foremost reason that the libraries were slow in

getting use to technologies. The issues highlighted by Owens et al. (1996) are

connected to the situation where information professionals are in a transition between

obsolete and modern situations.

Organizational impact of information technology (IT) on banking and insurance

sector in Nigeria was examined by Ugwu et al (2000). The results showed that

sending messages around the globe electronically will have negative aspects as their

can be unlawful access to the information virtually for malicious reasons.

A case study on knowledge management implementation in the banking sector was

carried out by Kidan and Gouling (2006). This case study is justified and it fills the

research gap by focusing on bringing out a framework made to fulfill the banking and

financial needs through knowledge management services. It was found through this

study that some respondents were not clear about the idea of knowledge management

and they had a difficulty in differentiating clearly the fields knowledge management,

information technology, intellectual capital, processing of organizational knowledge,

HR management and organizational learning. According to some respondents certain

banks were not prepared to change to KM based institutions. One also indicated that

KM should be developed at the beginning of a bank. As for the lack of KMS

(knowledge management systems), the respondents indicated that most banks were

not aware of KMS. The insufficient organizational process and lack of skills, the

problems with regard to the field of KM, knowledge lost, the lack of knowledge, error

duplication were some of the salient problems the respondents faced. Some even said


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information is not interpreted well and also there were problems with competitors,

customers, alliances, and internal and external environment. In the conclusion the

researchers indicated an important factor that is KMS is to a greater extent new to

Libyan banking sector so to gain the full benefit of KMS, Libyan banks are not ready.

A common feature that is brought out by Weerasinghe (2007) is the difficulty of

convincing the management of an organization to increase the budgetary allocations

for the requirements of the library. This is owing to reasons such as investments of

funds in projects by the financial services institutions. One could comment that this

problem, although has fair grounds for its existence, can have an impact on the

organization itself as it will not have a well equipped and appropriately resourced

information centre to fulfill the organizational information needs. But as a remedial

measure to this Weerasinghe ( 2007) proposes maintaining a membership with an

information network. Hence the importance of information sharing.

Weerasinghe (2002) has found in her study, as problems encountered by financiers

with regard to their information needs fulfillment , lack of sources , accuracy,

timeliness and transparency. Mostly experienced problems were lack of sources and

accuracy.

3.6 Satisfaction of Managers in Their Fulfillment of Information Needs for


Identification of the extent of satisfaction of the information needs fulfillment is an

integral part of a study if remedies to the information related problems are to be

recommended for a particular user group. Reviewed literature in the section concerns

mainly the satisfaction of the fulfillment of information in managerial and

organizational activities.


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Smith et al ( 1998) in their study which determined the impact of information on

corporate decision making within the context of the insurance sector selected 410

middle and senior staff from managerial positions or above from 3 organizations as

his sample. According to the general comments of the 241 respondents who returned

the questionnaires, it was identified that several were satisfied with the information

services and some admired services that they received. These respondent described

that the library environment had a friendly atmosphere, the responses for the queries

were of high standard, information delivery was prompt and the staff were very

helpful. Other comments were library took quick actions to the information requests

and the library staff delivered an excellent customer service. In all 3 organizations

the satisfaction of the fulfillment of their information needs far outweighed the

complaints. This research also indicated a few critical comments by the managers

and one or two respondent indicated negative experiences with their library services;

for example the reluctance and unwillingness of the information centre staff to

provide material which were not client specific nature.

The respondents also commented on information officers lack of knowledge. One

respondent commented contradictorily to one of the positive comment of a user

saying that the requests were not answered quickly. Some of the constructively

critical comments were the need of assistance to find ideas and answers in addition to

data, need for developed enthusiasm to be helpful by the librarian, need for

adequately equipped library staff. The description of Smith et al. (1998) paves the

path way for the common understanding that any information or a library cannot

fulfill all the information needs of the customers as several constraints limits them

from being perfect without any flaws. But libraries and information centres can

improve the quality of their services by so many means. Customer satisfaction not


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only depends on the quality of information service but also due to the factors such as

customers personality and their expectations as well.

The study by Ugwu et al (2000) revealed that there was a positive impact of IT with

regard efficiency and productivity of the organizations when considering direct and

induced local measures and direct and induced global measures. According to the

above finding it could be indicated that the respondent expressed their satisfaction

with regard to the impact of IT as it helps to fulfill their information requirement. The

researchers have considered reduced paper work, savings in labour, speedy access to

data, and inability to use machines skillfully as induced local measures. The induced

global measures were new business positions, increased market share, and network

insecurity. These findings and the conclusions gives an opportunity to put forward the

views that although IT has negative impacts the positive side of the usage of IT is

increasingly felt by organizations. Organizations are ready to accept IT even it effects

the normal patterns of handling information followed earlier. Hence IT makes certain

patterns of information handling obsolete but organizations are satisfied with the

contributions of IT to the fulfillment of information needs.

Vlahos et al ( 2003) in their study to identify the use of computer based information

systems (CBIS) by German managers to support decision making. The German

managers were selected from the functional areas marketing and sales, information

systems, accounting and finance, human resources and other areas such as

manufacturing. Findings revealed that 62% of respondents were very confident that

the CBIS they used were not compromised due to lack of sufficient security. When

reviewing this study in terms of the satisfaction of fulfillment of the information

needs of the managers, the computer based information systems boost the information

retrieval process. The managers who identify the usefulness of CBIS tend to alter


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these systems according to their managerial needs which would further improve the

information retrieval process bringing about more satisfaction.

Contribution of the case study related to the DFCC bank would be mainly the

identification of several specific issues concerning the information need of the DFCC

Bank managers and make recommendations on improved usage of information which

would be appropriate for managerial information needs in the banking industry of Sri

Lanka in common.


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