The Information Sharing Behaviour of Health Service Managers: a three-part study

Objectives – The purpose of this research was to gain insight into the information behaviour of health service managers as they informed critical decisions unrelated to individual patient care.

Methods – This research used two series of qualitative interviews, documentary analysis (a calendar study), a card sorting exercise and a demographic questionnaire to explore the workplace information practices of health service managers. Thirty-six managers were interviewed. Both interview studies used the critical incident technique and cross case analysis. Results are reported with observations and conclusions supported with interview content. The Second Interview Study also used within case analysis in the form of information transaction mapping. Information transactions, calendar study and card sorting exercise data were reported quantitatively.

Results – Findings included that these health service managers practiced satisficing, integrating and balancing multiple types of information from multiple sources to inform their decisions until they reached the point of information saturation. After this point, additional information would not make a difference to their decision. Their dominant means of acquiring information was oral information sharing over information seeking.

Conclusions – Healthcare services managers support decisions with both facts and value-based information. Lower levels of managers and hybrid managers might benefit from library and information services designed to support them as information gatekeepers. The findings may also encourage health researchers and health research funders to make sure their research informs information sources that health service managers find most convenient to use. These include explicit information such as professional standards, and interpersonal sources such as positional information gatekeepers, experts and conferences.