Relations between information flow and information behavior of users in formal organizations a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to identify in the literature how the relationships between information flow and informational behavior of users in formal organizations occur. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was performed in order to answer two defined research questions, through a rigorous protocol, which included the identification of the research, the selection of studies, evaluation of study quality, extraction and synthesis of data. The method enables process replication and subsequent peer verification. A total of 608 studies were identified in the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, which after applying the selection criteria resulted in six approved studies that relate the concepts of information flow and informational behavior in organizations. Of these approved studies, four have direct interference between flow and behavior. Although no approved study cites the concept of formal organization, it has been inferred that some studies dealing with companies and their respective sectors are implicitly addressing formal organizations. It is concluded that of the six publications that met the proposed objective, four address the flow of information as an element that can influence or be influenced by informational behavior in organizations. The relationships between flow and informational behavior in formal organizations are under explored in the literature. Analyzing the details of these relationships is relevant to the field that aims to propose solutions involving these two phenomena in organizational contexts.

KEYWORDS:
Information transfer; Information flow; Information users; Organizations; Literature reviews; User studies