Work-task types, stages, and information-seeking behavior of strategic planners
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2018-0015 |
| Published date | 14 January 2019 |
| Pages | 2-23 |
| Date | 14 January 2019 |
| Author | Yuelin Li,Ying Li,Ying Pan,Hongliang Han |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Work-task types, stages, and
information-seeking behavior of
strategic planners
Yuelin Li and Ying Li
Department of Information Resources Management,
Nankai University, Tianjin, China
Ying Pan
Besunyen Holdings Company Limited, Beijing, China, and
Hongliang Han
Department of Information Resources Management,
Nankai University, Tianjin, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine information-seeking behavior (ISB) of strategic planners
in enterprise across different work-task types and stages.
Design/methodology/approach –A case study was conducted in a pharmaceutical company in China,
labeled as T Company. One of the authors worked in the department of strategic planning of this company as
an intern. The data were collected via participant observation and unstructured in-depth interviews. Open
coding was performed to analyze the data.
Findings –Four work-task stages were identified: project preparation, gathering, discovery and
presentation, and strategy formulation. The results indicate that work-task types, work-task stages, and
strategic planners’work role or position affect their information needs, source selection, and seeking process.
Task complexity, task familiarity, and task goal are of the most important task attributes that directly shape
strategic planners’ISB. Work role determines the extent to which strategic planners can access the
information of the company. Internal information has priority, but external information is also important
when internal information is not sufficient; both are equally important for strategic planning projects.
Social media has been a very important channel to access, disseminate and share information. Workshops are
an important approach to producing final project reports. Face-to-face discussion and information exchange
play a critical role in the formulation of new strategies.
Research limitations/implications –This is a case study with data collected from only one company in
China. Some of the results may not be generalizable. However, it adds new knowledge to ISB research in
enterprise, informs people how to provide better information services for strategic planners, and informs
MBA education for students’better information-seeking skills.
Originality/value –Though myriad studies on ISB, little research has been done to examine strategic
planners’ISB from a business context, especially taking into account the effect of work-task types and stages.
Keywords Strategic planning, Enterprise information seeking, Information-seeking behaviour,
Strategic planners, Work-task stage, Work-task type
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Task as a motivation and predictor of users’information-seeking behavior (ISB) has been well
documented(KimandSoergel,2005;Kim,2009;Liand Belkin, 2010). To facilitate information
science research, task has been categorized as work task, information-seeking task, and
informationsearchtask(ByströmandHansen,2005;LiandBelkin,2008).Worktaskisa
motivation of information-seeking task and information search task; work task and search task
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 75 No. 1, 2019
pp. 2-23
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-01-2018-0015
Received 26 January 2018
Revised 13 May 2018
Accepted 2 June 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
This study was sponsored by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 17AZD036). We also
appreciatethe supportfrom T Company and all participantsof this study.Without their generoushelp, we
could not finish this study. We also appreciate the reviewers and benefit a lot from their comments.
2
JD
75,1
are closely related to each other (Li, 2009). The current study views work task as a motivation of
the information-seeking activities of strategic planners and examines how it shapes their ISB.
Task is regarded as a multi-dimensional variable and can be viewed from different
dimensions (Li and Belkin, 2008). Among these dimensions, task complexity, task difficulty,
task stage and task topic have been investigated in various studies (e.g. Byström and
Järvelin, 1995; Byström, 2002; Liu and Belkin, 2010; Liu et al., 2012; Li and Hu, 2013;
Saastamoinen and Kumpulainen, 2014; Liu and Wei, 2016). These studies have revealed that
different dimensions of task affect users’ISB in the workplace as well as in information
retrieval (IR) systems.
Various studies have examined the relationships between task stages and scientists’or
students’ISB in different settings; for example, in IR systems and their daily life (e.g.
Kuhlthau, 1991; Vakkari et al., 2003; Liu and Belkin, 2014). Some researchers are concerned
with search-task stages (e.g. Kuhlthau, 1991; Vakkari et al., 2003; Liu et al., 2014), while
others focus on work-task stages and examine their influence on information search and
information seeking (e.g. Wang, 1997). However, it still lacks studies that are concerned with
work-task stages and ISB in the enterprise or business context. A few studies have
investigated the related issues (Freund, 2012, 2015; Du et al., 2013; Cleverley et al., 2015).
These studies usually focus on a certain user group, like software engineers, marketing
professionals, or a specific context such as oil and gas enterprises, hi-tech companies and
likewise, to examine the relationships between contextual factors and users’ISB.
Along this line, the present study attempts to examine how strategic planners seek
information for different work-task types and at varied work-task stages in enterprise, by
which to promote the research in enterprise ISB and to examine the influence of work tasks
on users’ISB. Specifically, the research questions are as follows:
RQ1. How do strategic planners seek information for different types of work task?
RQ2. How do strategic planners seek information at different work-task stages?
In some large-scale enterprises, strategic planners are considered as environmental analysts.
They are responsible for investigating the recent development in different areas that
managers at different levels are interested in, and providing reports to support managers’
decision making. As Mintzberg (1994) states, strategic planners can help managers
understand the “map”in their minds.
To target the research questions, we conducted a case study in a famous pharmaceutical
company (we call it “TCompany”) in China. One of the authors worked in the Department of
Strategic Planning as an intern ( from October 2013-January 2014) and collected the data. We
tried to answer how strategic planners seek information for different types of work tasks at
different work-task stages, including their information needs, information types needed,
approaches to obtaining information, and the process by which they gather and use information.
By examining these issues, we aim to reveal the characteristics of strategic plann ers’ISB. The
study can inform information needs in the workplace, help understand strategic planners’ISB
better, and add new knowledge to enterprise ISB research. It can also provide insights for
improving information services for strategic planners in different enterprises.
Literature review
This section reviews related literature on work-task types, stages, and ISB, in order to
provide a theoretical background and empirical evidence for the present study.
Work-task types, stages and information seeking
Tasks have, for a long time, been a concern in the information area. Byström and Järvelin
(1995) and Byström (2002) categorize work tasks as different types based on task
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Work-task
types, stages,
and ISB
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