Information systems: Why it can be good to forget information at work
Information systems support employees in routine activities in the sense that they can safely forget certain information. This was the finding of a study by psychologists and business informatics specialists.
The amount of information and data that many people are confronted with every day at their workplace has increased massively in recent years. Globalization and digitization are steadily increasing the complexity of business and work processes: What is current today may be outdated tomorrow. As a result, decision-makers must constantly distinguish relevant from irrelevant information.
Forgetting makes you capable of acting
In doing so, they often receive support from digital information systems. Modern organizations, businesses and administrations use these systems, for example, for business calculations and analyses, product development and marketing concepts. But how do these tools affect the user? And do information systems make users "stupid" because they are no longer challenged? On the contrary, say psychologists and business informatics experts from the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster (WWU): the ability to forget things is what makes people capable of acting in the first place - both individuals and entire organizations. The results of the study were published in the journal Ergonomics.
Information systems lead to better decisions
The team led by Guido Hertel, Professor of Organizational and Business Psychology, Prof. Dr. Jörg Becker from the Institute of Information Systems at WWU simulated typical business processes in production companies in which people had to repeatedly decide to which fictitious countries their company's products should be shipped for sale. The results showed that the availability of supporting information systems not only led to economically better decisions, but also freed up the users' cognitive capacities. The study participants retained details of other company products better in their memory than people in the control group who made decisions without system support - and therefore had to retain more information in their memory. In addition, the participants who were able to use the information system reported feeling less stress when working on the difficult tasks.
Trust in information systems necessary
However, forgetting is not always easy for many decision-makers. "The central prerequisite for these positive effects was that the test subjects trusted the information system - only then were significant performance gains observed," emphasizes Guido Hertel. The scientists found that technical reliability and the quality of the information content provided appear to be essential for trust in information systems. In addition, however, the perceived competence and experience of the respective users as well as the existing support structures also played an important role. "We were surprised to find that trust in information systems was determined by many different influencing factors, but that even a small thing, such as a one-off technical problem, was sufficient for distrust to arise," explains Guido Hertel.
Research continues
The results of the studies provide an initial model for the design of trustworthy and thus effective information systems, so that users and decision-makers in organizations can "confidently" forget about superfluous information. The findings are relevant for all areas of work in which computer systems continuously process extensive data for decision-making. Here, well-designed information systems can improve performance, relieve users and free up resources for other tasks. In follow-up studies, the research team is now investigating further factors influencing targeted forgetting, such as the costs of any wrong decisions or the personal security orientation of a decision-maker. The aim is to be able to adapt information systems as well as possible to different framework conditions.
Information on the research project: https://www.getrost-vergessen.de/
