Delivering Business Value through Information Literacy in the Workplace

This paper presents a real-life example as to how the world's largest environmental consulting firm – Environmental Resources Management (ERM) – recognises ‘information literacy’ as a critical component of its knowledge management program to create value for the company. With the rise of information technology which allows vast amounts of information to flow across an organisation very quickly, many employees have been complaining about ‘information overload’ and ‘knowledge underload’. Companies in the past 10 years have ‘recognised’ the value of information and knowledge, and it is becoming a strategic issue to provide employees with access to the right information at the right time. As a result, managing information and knowledge becomes a business critical agenda item discussed in the boardroom, with the aim to apply global knowledge to deliver the highest quality solutions to clients. Despite all the investment, however, employees find that the information/knowledge management systems generate too many reports/results which nobody reads, and when employees need information to support their work, they are not getting what they want. Why are employees not getting the full benefits out of a global knowledge management system? What is the common perception of the ‘information overload’ problem in the workplace? Is this a symptom of a much bigger problem? Is there an alternative perspective that can shed some light on this issue? The modern workplace requires employees who are confident and competent in interacting with information to deliver maximum business value. In this paper, the author argues there is a body of existing information literacy knowledge (mostly developed in the education context) which can be adapted to address ‘information overload’ in the workplace context.