Journal of Information Science

Journal of Information Science
http://jis.sagepub.com/ Environmental scanning: An application of information literacy skills at the workplace
Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo Journal of Information Science 2010 36: 719 originally published online 5 November 2010 DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jis.sagepub.com/content/36/6/719

Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals

Additional services and information for Journal of Information Science can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jis.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jis.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://jis.sagepub.com/content/36/6/719.refs.html

>> Version of Record - Dec 8, 2010 OnlineFirst Version of Record - Nov 5, 2010 What is This?

Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

Environmental scanning: An application of information literacy skills at the workplace

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract.
The business environment is increasingly becoming uncertain and complex. Environmental scanning is a systematic way for organizations to detect changes, and hence formulate adaptive strategies for coping with uncertainties. Information literacy skills are required to conduct effective and efficient environmental scanning activities as it is an information intensive process. Moreover, the development of information technology and telecommunication provides various channels and applications for accessing, processing and distributing information, which also proposes higher requirements of information literacy skills for dealing with environmental information. However, despite the number of studies undertaken to investigate the role of information literacy at the workplace, few have integrated information literacy skills with a specific business management activity or have tried to evaluate the impact of information literacy on real business applications. This paper provides an overview of environmental scanning and information literacy skills. A refined model, showing the relationship between environmental uncertainty, information literacy skills and environmental scanning, is also presented.

Keywords: environmental scanning; information literacy

1.

Introduction

In recent years, the business environment has become more and more turbulent and uncertain due to political realignments, economic crises, terrorism threats, technological innovations and natural disasters [1]. Environmental scanning, as a systematic process to detect environmental signals and deal with uncertainties, is becoming critical for all types of organizations to survive and remain successful. Organizations have to closely monitor their task and remote environments, and use the acquired environmental information to assist tactical and strategic decision making. Environmental scanning is defined as a management process adopted by organizations to deal with external environmental information, the products of which would assist tactical and strategic
Correspondence to: Xue Zhang, WKWSCI Building, 31 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637718. Email: [email protected]

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © The Author(s), 2010. Reprints and Permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

719

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

decision making [2–4]. It starts from scanning needs identification and ends at information evaluation and use. The collected environmental information is filtered, interpreted and organized to formulate insights or predictions about the external environments, and then disseminated to its end users for evaluation and use. Environmental scanning is a typical application of information literacy skills in the workplace, as each of its activities could only be completed effectively and efficiently with people possessing the corresponding information literacy skills. Without proper skills to deal with information, as well as the related technologies, people would suffer from various problems by conducting environmental scanning, such as information overload, inability to locate and extract relevant information and disorganization of information. Moreover, the current advancement of information and telecommunication technology has facilitated vast improvements in developing sophisticated infrastructures, which makes a huge amount of information available to people with easy and flexible access, and also provides a variety of applications and channels for processing and distributing information.

2.
2.1.

Literature review
Definition of environmental scanning

In the field of environmental scanning, the first notable study was carried out by Aguilar [2]. Aguilar defines environmental scanning as acquiring information about events and relationships in a company’s outside environment, the knowledge of which would assist senior management in the task of charting the company’s future course of action. Subsequent studies reinforced this definition without substantially altering Aguilar’s perspective; however, the process of environmental scanning was gradually extended and has been conceptualized as an integrated information management system. For example, Lester and Waters [3] define environmental scanning as a management process of using information from the environment to aid decision making through the process of obtaining, analysing and using information. Based on the foundation of Aaker [5], Costa [6] proposes a strategic information scanning system consisting of six steps: Steps 1 and 2 specify information needs and sources; Steps 3 and 4 identify the participants of the system and assign them scanning tasks; and Steps 5 and 6 deal with the storage, processing and dissemination of the information. Similarly, Hough and White [7] view environmental scanning as a process of identifying, collecting, processing and translating information about external influences into useful plans and decisions. 2.2. Definition of information literacy skills

The term ‘information literacy’ was coined by Paul Zurkowski in the 1970s [8]. Since then, the concept has been mainly used by information specialists, and promulgated worldwide through the work of the National Forum for Information Literacy and the American Library Association (ALA) [9]. However, there is no single agreed definition of the term. Some researchers describe information literacy as requisites to lifelong learning [10–11], while others perceive it as a natural extension of the concept of literacy in our society [12–13]. Some have acquainted information literacy with information technology [14], while others have used it interchangeably with library skills [15]. Todd and colleagues [16] defined information literacy as ‘a holistic, interactive learning process encompassing the skills of defining, locating, selecting, organizing, presenting, and evaluating information’. Goad [17] gave a brief definition as ‘the ability to search for, find, evaluate, and use information from a variety of sources’. The 1989 Final Report of the American Library Association’s Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, as a milestone in the history of information literacy research, not only recognized the importance of the term, but also sought to highlight the skills of an information literate person: to be information literate, a person must be able to recognize the need for information, to effectively access, evaluate and creatively use it [18]. The famous ‘Big Six’ information problem

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

720

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

solving model raised by Eisenberg and Berkowitz [19] covers the stages as task definition, information seeking strategies, location and access, use of information, synthesis and evaluation. Similarly, Doyle [20] identified 10 steps required to execute an information task, which build on each other, and formulate a total and systematic approach to being information literate. The 10 steps are: 1. recognize the need for information; 2. recognize the need for accurate and complete information; 3. formulate questions based on needs; 4. identify potential sources of information; 5. develop successful search strategies; 6. access sources including computer-based and other technology; 7. evaluate information; 8. organize information for practical application; 9. integrate new information into an existing body of knowledge; 10. use information in critical thinking and problem solving. Based on the mainstream literature on this field, Webber and Johnston [21] pointed out that most definitions in fact circle around these stages of information needs recognition, search formulation, source selection, information evaluation, synthesis and use. Similarly, Kurbanoglu, Akkoyunlu and Umay [22] concluded that information literacy incorporates the abilities to recognize when information is needed, to initiate search strategies designed to locate the needed information, to evaluate, synthesize and use information appropriately, ethically and legally, to communicate and share the results of the information problem-solving efforts accurately and creatively across the range of information formats, and to evaluate how well the final product resolved the information problem. 2.3. Information literacy at the workplace A number of researchers have pointed out the importance of information and information literacy skills at the workplace. Porter and Miller [23] report information as one of the most important elements in competitive advantages. Forward-looking companies take the view that information is a strategic asset of the enterprise in much the same way as a company’s financial resources, capital equipment and real estate, and properly employed information assets would create additional value with a measurable return on investment, and can be leveraged into strong competitiveness [24]. Drucker [25] elaborates the need for organizations to become information literate. He suggests that corporations need to learn to ask questions such as: What information is needed? In what form and how to get it? Mutch [26] also points out the potential importance of information literacy skills to business as he outlined how the concept might be employed within the business field. Information literacy is a means of helping individuals handle the massive amount of information that pervades their daily life [27]. Karim and Hussein [24] state that good quality information can improve decision making, enhance efficiency and allow organizations to gain competitive advantage. Despite its importance as highlighted in the literature, information literacy, the key to information power, has not been of great concern to the business sector. Employees tend to attend more to the need for computer skills but not information literacy ones [28]. Nevertheless, having the ability to handle technology does not necessarily mean that employees are information literate [29]. Negative examples were observed from various workplace contexts, such as ‘unable to determine the nature and the extent of the information needed’, ‘unable to retrieve information effectively from the information systems’, ‘not aware of the full range of resources available’ and so on, which may result in increased operating costs and an inability to fully exploit valuable information sources [29–30]. 2.4. Information literacy skills at each step of environmental scanning While information literacy is not mentioned specifically in mainstream scanning literature, it is an implicit aspect of environmental scanning, as the whole process could only be completed effectively

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

721

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

by people with corresponding information literacy skills. Specifically, employees should possess information literacy skills to identify information needs and to locate the best sources to obtain accurate and updated information. They should also have the abilities to filter, interpret and repackage the collected intelligence and present the information to the intended users in the right format and in a timely manner, which is extremely valuable to the overall effectiveness of environmental scanning and hence the success of the organization. By improving their own skills of creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, employees would enable their organization to modify its behaviour according to the continuously changing external environment [31]. To elaborate the importance of information literacy skills, a six-step environmental scanning process is proposed (Figure 1) based on Choo’s information management model [32] (Figure 2), and the use of corresponding skills will be discussed one by one. The formal environmental scanning process starts with clearly defined scanning needs. Organizations actively collect environmental information through various channels and from various sources. The collected information is either stored for future use or processed and synthesized with the existing organizational knowledge. After filtering (removing the irrelevant part of the information), repackaging (selecting information from different sources and merging it) or interpreting (analysing and adding organizational context and meaning to the collected information based on understanding), the processed environmental intelligence may be organized and stored in an organization knowledge repository for future utilization, or disseminated directly to target users. Unlike Choo’s information management model, we define environmental scanning to end at information evaluation and use, i.e. evaluating and using the collected and processed external environmental information for assisting tactical and strategic decision making. However, what strategy will be developed and what kind of adaptive behaviour would be formulated is regarded as a strategic management issue out of the scope of this study. Moreover, the step ‘information products/service’ is replaced with ‘information processing and synthesizing’, which can provide a more vivid picture of the systematic scanning process. Upon receipt, the end-users may evaluate its quality, such as timeliness, relevancy and accuracy, and use it for assisting with tactical or strategic decision making. If an end-user’s information need is not satisfied, a new round of acquisition, processing and distribution will occur. It is worth noting that steps like ‘information processing and synthesizing’ and ‘information distribution’ may be skipped due to certain factors, such as fulfilling urgent information needs (which requires immediate action), a lack of human resources, or the information collector will use the knowledge without sharing it with others.

Fig. 1. Environmental scanning process. Adapted from [32].

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

722

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

Fig. 2. Choo’s information management model [32].

2.4.1. Scanning needs identification The first step in developing an environmental scanning strategy is to accurately appraise the needs of information users in the organization. Understanding their needs and requirements would be a significant step in developing information strategy and tools for providing effective information services and promoting organization-wide creativity and innovation [24]. Theoretically, perceived environmental uncertainty will trigger the need for scanning [33–34]. Decision makers perceive uncertainty of the environment when they do not feel confident that they understand the major events or trends happening in the external environment or when they feel unable to accurately assign probabilities to the likelihood that particular events and/or changes will occur [35]. Specifically, two environmental characteristics, degree of complexity and rate of change, influence perceived environmental uncertainty [36–37]. A degree of complexity refers to the number of external factors that are relevant to the organization [36–38], while rate of change refers to the frequency of changes that occurs in the organization’s external environment [36–37]. Daft et al. [33] further propose that scanning is affected more when perceived environmental uncertainty is located in strategically important sectors. They note that uncertainty by itself will not lead to scanning behaviour, unless the external factors are perceived as important to organizational performance. The combination of perceived environmental uncertainty and strategic importance creates ‘perceived strategic uncertainty’ for decision makers, and is expected to generate a need for them to conduct scanning for the selected environmental sectors [33] (Figure 3). Daft’s model also states that, based on the perceived strategic uncertainty, executives may conduct scanning differently in terms of frequency (frequency of collecting environmental information) and mode (use of various information sources). This model is widely adopted in the environmental scanning literature [34, 39–40]. In an organization, the identification of information needs begins with an analysis of tasks performed by key decision makers and the environment of the organization, and key decision makers are found to be not only at the top of the organization, but also among middle managers and tactical employees [41]. In other words, the identification of an organization’s information needs starts from the identification of individual information needs. To ensure that the organization’s scanning needs are captured, individuals working in the organization must firstly be able to identify their own information needs clearly; secondly, they must possess essential communication skills to express those needs; finally, the ‘leader’ of the aggregation of individual information needs should be capable in information processing and synthesizing, and should conclude the organization’s overall scanning needs. 2.4.2. Information acquisition Information acquisition aims to satisfy the identified information needs. In previous literature, three key issues were highlighted during this step, i.e. where to collect, how to collect, and when to stop. ‘Where to collect’ concentrates on the source of the information. Case [42] categorized these sources as either internal (the company manager and staff) or external (printed and broadcast media).
Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

723

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

Fig. 3. Perceived strategic uncertainty and environmental scanning. Adapted from [33].

Choo [32] divided information sources into three categories: textual, online and human. Information literate workers should realize that each kind of information source has its own advantages and disadvantages, and sources need to be matched with the information needs and strategic objectives as well as their ‘accessibility’ and ‘reliability’ [43]. For example, textual sources are well suited to situ. ations when the information is structured and formal, or when the transmission accuracy of information is highly demanding; online sources are especially useful when reasonably complete and up-to-date information needs to be gathered swiftly; human sources tends to be preferred when dealing with ambiguous, unstructured problem situations [32]. ‘How to collect’ concerns the methods or techniques used for gathering information. People could be routinely getting information through various media channels, like newspapers, market reports or television, or acquiring first-hand data through active research methodologies, for example questionnaires, interviews and participant observation [41], or passively receiving information through subscribed alerting services provided by information vendors. With the number of methods and techniques available, people in charge of collection of environmental information should be able to select the most appropriate one, with consideration of the quality of information and the cost of collection. Moreover, possessing search skills and knowledge of search operators (e.g. Boolean operator, truncation, wildcard) is essential for formulating a proper search strategy to retrieve information from databases or through online search engines. Information literate workers would be able to formulate a suitable search strategy to find more relevant and updated information. Last but not least, collectors should be aware that the methods and techniques hired should be based on legal collections of opensource or public domain information, without involving immoral, unethical or illegal activities. ‘When to stop’ is about the judgment of ‘enough’ information, which could satisfy the identified information needs. Over-collection of information would result in information overload. Both qualitative and quantitative criteria are helpful for making rational choices to determine when the collected information is ‘enough’ [44]. The personal judgment of experienced information workers would also help identify the quantity of collection. 2.4.3. Information organization and storage Collected or created information should be organized and stored systematically in order to facilitate future information retrieval and sharing. Stored information reflects a significant and frequently consulted component of the organization’s memory and its perception of the environment [45–46].
Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

724

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

In enterprises, information on paper could be stored in traditional filing systems, or digitized and archived on hard disks attached to file servers. No matter what format, the design and performance of the system, such as its creation of taxonomies, resource description and comprehensiveness, would greatly affect the accessibility and retrieval of stored information, especially when the majority of information is collected from electronic sources and the internet [47]. On the organizational level, there is a need to have a clearly stated policy for information organization and storage. Individual employees should have the awareness and knowledge of proper organization and storage of information. Without employees possessing sufficient information literacy skills, organizations would not be able to categorize their knowledge base properly, which may result in various barriers for future retrieval and use. 2.4.4. Information processing and synthesizing The collected or generated information could be directly stored for future accessibility, or processed into information products or services through some sets of value added activities, such as filtering, interpreting and repackaging. Analysing the collected information and extracting meaning from it is the most important part of environmental scanning and, moreover, today’s complex and turbulent environment places a premium on the reliability and quality of information. The collected information should be analysed for issues and trends that may influence the organization, to assist users to acquire a better sense of situations and make better decisions, and hence facilitate the creation of a dynamic knowledge capability. The relevant information from each source should be extracted and information from multiple sources should be organized. Srinivas [48] pointed out that the following questions need to be addressed during processing: which parts of the information collected would be used? What additional data are needed? How can information be best presented to enable situation understanding and problem solving? However, a 2005 study reports that knowledge workers are spending more time collecting information and less time analysing it [49]. Inadequate filtering of information would result in information overload; with inadequate time for analysis, the collected information will provide either a recital of facts or a ‘dump’ of data with little advice or confirmation [41]. Without proper information processing skills, the gathered information would be underutilized as ‘the organization does not know what it knows’ [50]. Moreover, there are more than 100 different analytical techniques which could be used to glean meaning from the collected data and information, such as blind spot analysis, competitor benchmarking and SWOT analysis [41], and due to the rapid technological development, more advanced information systems equipped with enterprise decision support tools are available. However, these tools still rely heavily on human interpretation and cognition [24]. If staff have insufficient knowledge of these techniques, and are without the ability to manage information flows for future utilizations and developments, advances in information and communication technology may also impose immense challenges for people with handling the existing overly loaded information [24]. 2.4.5. Information distribution The processed environmental information, with potential effects on the organization, should be reported to the appropriate decision makers within the firm. Myburgh [41] and Albright [51] suggest some points deserving special attention in information distribution. Firstly, to ensure that the correct information or intelligence makes its way to the correct destination, as the decision makers may be scattered throughout the organization; secondly, the information should be delivered through vehicles and in formats that mesh well with the user’s information preferences and work habits; thirdly, the intelligence also must match the users’ requirements of presentation, such as its orientation and content. Briefly, the real issue is getting the right information to the right person at the right time and in a usable form. The digital information era has brought incredible advances which have made the advent of new methods of communication, such as email, instant message tools and Web 2.0 tools, possible. To ensure those tools’ effectiveness as information dissemination platforms, besides the essential operational knowledge, users should also be able to identify their respective strengths and weaknesses and make deliberate selections.
Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

725

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

The benefits of a wider distribution of information are also highlighted in earlier literature. Nutt [52], from the perspective of decision-making theory, found that, when the same piece of informa, tion is distributed to many individuals, multiple interpretations could be resolved and a consensus would be reached. Daft [53] discovered that multiple interpretations of the same information could improve the decisions by redefining the problem. A wider distribution of information may bring more broadly based and more frequent organizational learning, as retrieval efforts are more likely to succeed and individuals and units are more likely to be able to learn [54]. However, in practice, it is found that organizations differ in the extent to which information is disseminated: some firms may allow a wide distribution of all information; some may permit a sizeable amount of information to be accessible to all employees; there are also some firms which restrict the access to certain types of information due to its confidential nature [55]. Although, as already suggested, key decision makers are not only at the top of the organization [41], in a highly centralized, while less information literate organization, information dissemination can be strictly limited to the top management only [56]. Moreover, many employees narrow-mindedly focus only on what they or their divisions need, without considering the broader picture of sharing information with others [29]. 2.4.6. Information evaluation and use On receiving the processed information, the end-users would evaluate and use it for assisting with decision making. In the current information intensive business environment, the utilization of information is indeed a critical factor in the achievement of organizational success [57]. Information liter. ate decision makers would be open-minded and objective, rely not merely on the guidance of instincts and their experiences, but use information from a variety of sources presenting different viewpoints. At this stage, various information literacy skills are required. For example, decision makers need information evaluation skills to make judgments about the quantity and quality of the received information in terms of reliability, accuracy, timeliness and so on. If they find the information insufficient or unqualified, they may initiate a new round of scanning; with sufficient and high-quality information, they may still need to process and synthesize it based on the real-time situation and different usage.

3.

Proposed research models

As an integrated process, equal importance should be attached to the different steps of environmental scanning. Based on the above literature review, information literacy skills are concluded as essential for conducting effective scanning processes. In addition, several studies have found that scanning activities could be completed through staff from different functional units and at different hierarchical levels [1, 58], not restricted to the top management level. For example, a senior manager needs information for product repositioning. They may assign staff from the sales department to acquire information like existing customers’ feedback and market trends through talking to customers, or conducting online searching for related news or market reports. To retrieve and obtain more relevant information efficiently, those employees should be able to formulate a suitable search strategy, and have the ability to filter and synthesize the collected intelligence using their own knowledge and interpretation skills, and report it to the senior manager in a timely manner and presented in an easily useable format. As a result, to investigate the role of information literacy skills in environmental scanning, we should include all staff participating in the scanning process. Daft’s model [33], as the most widely adopted theoretical foundation of study on the relationship between uncertainty and environmental scanning, states that senior managers’ perceived strategic uncertainty would determine the scanning frequency and mode, i.e. how often and in what way would organizations collect information about their external environment. Besides information acquisition, whether the other steps of environmental scanning, such as identification of information needs and information distribution, would also be influenced by perceived uncertainty levels remains unexplored. Moreover, this model has not considered the role of information literacy skills in environmental scanning, as well as the participation of employees.
Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

726

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

Fig. 4. Coverage of Daft’s model and the refined model.

A refined model has been proposed addressing the limitations of Daft’s model (Figure 4). This model is developed based on a formal six-step environmental scanning process conducted to fulfil top management’s needs for strategic decision making. In this refined model, equal importance has been attached to the scanning steps starting from ‘scanning needs identification’ to ‘information evaluation and use’. Furthermore, besides acknowledging senior managers’ directing role in the whole process, employees participating in environmental scanning are also covered through the influence of their information literacy skills on carrying out corresponding scanning activities. Figure 5 shows the refined model in detail. Senior managers’ (strategic decision makers) perceived strategic uncertainty is still proposed to have influence on frequency and rate of importance for environmental scanning, but is not restricted to the step of information collection. The other steps would also vary to cope with different uncertainty levels. ‘Implemented frequency’ refers to how often organizations would conduct the corresponding scanning activity; ‘rate of importance’ refers to the importance attached to each scanning step, in terms of conducting manner (primitive, ad hoc, reactive or proactive) [59] and assigned scanning unit (CEO, a dedicated unit or a nondedicated unit) [60]. Moreover, a perceived level of information literacy skills is also proposed to have influence on the scanning frequency and rate of interest. Bandura [61] found that motivation levels, affective states and actions are more based on what people believe than what is objectively true. In the context of environmental scanning, people involved in the activities may not have an objective view of
Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

727

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

Fig. 5.

A refined model of perceived strategic uncertainty, perceived information literacy skills and environmental scanning.

their actual level of information literacy skills; instead, their scanning behaviours are determined by their perceived level of information literacy skills. Decision makers guiding the scanning process may adjust the scanning frequency and rate of importance for each step according to their perceived strategic uncertainty level, as well as their perceptions towards the participants’ overall level of related information literacy skills, such as skills for gathering, processing, disseminating and presenting information. However, how this perceived level of information skills would affect the process remains unexplored. If the decision makers feel the overall level is low, it would be possible that they require the participants to conduct more frequent scanning with higher attached importance, in order to fulfil their information needs. It is also possible that the senior managers choose to complete the steps by themselves, seek help from consultant companies, or just avoid the challenging tasks due to low expectations of the outcome. For employees participating in environmental scanning, their perceived level of their own related information literacy skills, or in other words, self-efficacy of information literacy skills, would also impact their conducted scanning activities. Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one is capable of performing a particular behaviour or task to attain certain goals [62–63]. Self-efficacy belief provides the foundation for human motivation, well-being and accomplishment, and it will determine how long individuals will persevere, how resilient they will be in the face of difficulties, and how much effort they will expend on an activity [22, 64]. If participants perceive that they have the corresponding information skills to produce the desired outcomes, they will be willing to perform the scanning activities; if they feel the task in hand exceeds their capabilities, they will have little incentive to act. The implemented frequency and rate of importance for each scanning step would impact its effectiveness, and hence influence the final outcome of the whole scanning process, i.e. the quality of environmental information ready for assisting strategic decision making, in terms of relevance, accuracy, reliability, timeliness and so on. This model is proposed based on the formal scanning process, which is directed by the clearly identified strategic information needs of senior managers. Moreover, the generic model would be revised for each scanning step based on the real situation. For example, the implemented frequency

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

728

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

may not be applicable for the step ‘information processing and synthesizing’, ‘information organization and storage’ and ‘information dissemination’. For the step of ‘information acquisition’, some other factors may also need to be taken into consideration, such as ‘quality of information sources’ in terms of reliability and accessibility [4]. It is also worth noting that this model only covered the perceived level of information literacy skills, as the actual level of skills could only be assessed approximately through a reliable and comprehensive instrument, and the relationship between perceived and actual levels of information literacy skills for conducting environmental scanning remains unexplored. Upon verifying the model through a combination of quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative (interview and case study) research methods, we also plan to discover whether these two are correlated, and hence reveal the influence of information literacy skills on environmental scanning through a more objective perspective.

4.

Conclusion

Environmental scanning could provide early warning signals for organizations, and help companies develop and modify business strategies to meet changing external circumstances and hence improve their competitiveness and performance. To achieve effective results, environmental scanning should be conducted as an integrated systematic process with equal importance attached to its various steps. Furthermore, environmental scanning is an information intensive process, and the development of information technology and telecommunication provides various channels and applications, but also creates challenges for accessing, processing and distributing environmental information. To obtain high-quality environmental information for assisting tactical and strategic decision making, each employee participating in environmental scanning must possess the corresponding information literacy skills. In reviewed mainstream literature, the majority of studies investigating environmental scanning activities, as directed by Daft’s model, have mainly focused on the information collection step, with some easily measurable variables, such as frequency of scanning, use of different kinds of information sources and scanned environmental sectors, while neglecting other activities, such as needs identification, information processing, organizing, dissemination and utilization. Moreover, the role of information literacy skills for conducting various environmental scanning activities has not been covered in this model, and has not been deliberately investigated in the reviewed empirical studies. Additionally, Daft’s model does not consider the influence of employees participating in various scanning activities. According to its guidance, the majority of empirical studies collected data only from senior managers, who play a leading role in the scanning process, while ignoring the contribution of employees from various function units and hierarchical levels. The proposed model aims to address the limitations of Daft’s model as well as to cover the influence of information literacy skills on the final outcome of environmental scanning. In the refined model, environmental scanning is re-defined to end at ‘evaluation and use of information’, without covering the formulation and implementation of adaptive behaviour. The reason for this exclusion is that several other factors, such as leadership style, availability of resources and personal intuition, can play a significant role in decision making and strategy implementation. With such clearly defined boundaries, the contribution of information literacy skills on scanning could be evaluated through the users’ perception towards the quality of environmental information that is captured, synthesized and ready for use, while removing the impact of annoying factors. The refined model attaches equal importance to each scanning step, without restricting it to information acquisition. It proposes that all scanning steps may adjust accordingly to cope with different uncertainty levels. The model also incorporates the influence of information literacy skills and acknowledges the role of all participants, through the decision makers’ perception of the overall skills level, as well as employees’ self-efficacy of information skills.

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

729

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

References
[1] S. Majid and R. Kowtha, Utilizing environmental knowledge for competitive advantage, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Resources Management (Association for Information Systems, Canada, 2008). [2] F.J. Aguilar, Scanning the Business Environment (Macmillan, New York, 1967). [3] R. Lester and J. Waters, Environmental Scanning and Business Strategy (British Library, Research and Development Department, London, UK, 1989). [4] C.W. Choo, Environmental Scanning: Acquisition and Use of Information by Chief Executive Officers in the Canadian Telecommunications Industry (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Toronto, 1993). [5] D.A. Aaker, Organizing a strategic information scanning system, California Management Review 25(2) (1983) 76–83. [6] J. Costa, An empirical-based review of the concept of environmental scanning, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 7(7) (1995) 4–9. [7] J.R. Hough and M.A. White, Scanning actions and environmental dynamism: gathering information for strategic decision making, Management Decision 42(6) (2004) 781–793. [8] C. Kapitzke, Information literacy: a positivist epistemology and a politics of outformation, Educational Theory 53(1) (2003) 37–53. [9] J. Feather and P. Sturges (eds), International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (2nd edn) (Routledge, London, 2003). [10] V.E. Hancock, Information literacy for lifelong learning (1993). Available at www.stx.k12.vi/PDF/nat/ InfoLit/InfoLit1.pdf (accessed 12 July 2010). [11] P. Moore, An Analysis of Information Literacy Education Worldwide (2002). Available at http://citeseerx. ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.130.9783&rep1&type=pdf (accessed 12 July 2010). [12] C. Bruce, Information literacy as a catalyst for educational change: a background paper. In Lifelong Learning: Whose responsibility and what is your contribution?, Proceedings of the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts (Prague, The Czech Republic, 2002). [13] C.M. Stern, Information literacy ‘unplugged’: teaching information literacy worldwide without technology, White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy. Information Literacy Meeting of Experts (Prague, The Czech Republic, 2002). [14] P. Mitchell, Online technology in the curriculum: a reality, Paper presented at the ASLA (Australian School Library Association) XIV: Beyond the Horizon, Fremantle (1996). [15] C.C. Kuhlthau, Information skills for an information society: a review of research, Information Reports and Bibliographies 19(3) (1990) 14–26. [16] R.J. Todd, L. Lamb and C. McNicholas, The power of information literacy: unity of education and resources for the 21st century, Proceedings of the Annual meeting of the International Association of School Librarianship (Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1992). [17] T.W. Goad, Information Literacy and Workplace Performance (Quorum Books, Westport, 2002). [18] ALA, A Progress Report on Information Literacy: an Update on the American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (1989). Available at www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/ acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential.cfm#opp (accessed 11 June 2010). [19] M.B. Eisenberg, and R.E. Berkowitz, Information Problem Solving: The Big Six Skills Approach to Library & Information Skills Instruction (Ablex Publishing Corp, Norwood, NJ, 1990). [20] C.S. Doyle, Information Literacy in an Information Society: a Concept for the Information Age (ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology, Syracuse University, NY, 1994). [21] S. Webber and B. Johnston, Conceptions of information literacy: new perspectives and implications, Journal of Information Science 26(6) (2000) 381–397. [22] S.S. Kurbanoglu, B. Akkoyunlu and A. Umay, Developing the information literacy self-efficacy scale, Journal of Documentation 62(6) (2006) 730–743. [23] M.E. Porter and V.E. Miller, How information gives competitive advantages, Harvard Business Review 63(4) (1985) 110–128. [24] N.S.A. Karim and R. Hussein, Managers’ perception of information management and the role of information and knowledge managers: The Malaysian perspectives, International Journal of Information Management 28 (2008) 114–127. [25] P. Drucker, Be data literate – know what to know, The Wall Street Journal 16(3) (1992).

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

730

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

[26] A. Mutch, Information literacy: an exploration, International Journal of Information Management 17(5) (1997) 377–386. [27] P. Lyman, Information literacy, Liberal Education 87(1) (2001) 28–37. [28] C. Bruce, Workplace experiences of information literacy, International Journal of Information Management 19(1) (1999) 33–47. [29] B. Cheuk, Information literacy in the workplace context: issues, best practices and challenges, Proceedings of the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts (Prague, 2002). [30] C. O’Sullivan, Is information literacy relecant in the real world? Reference Services Review 30(1) (2002) 7–14. [31] J. Giesecke and B. McNeil, Transitioning to the learning organization, Library Trends 53(1) (2004) 54–67. [32] C.W. Choo, Information Management for the Intelligent Organization, the Art of Scanning the Environment (Information Today, Inc., Medford, NJ, 2002). [33] R.L. Daft, J. Sormunen and D. Parks, Chief executive scanning, environmental characteristics, and company performance, Strategic Management Journal 9 (1988) 123–139. [34] D.S. Elenkov, Strategic uncertainty and environmental scanning: the case for institutional influences on scanning behavior, Strategic Management Journal 18(4) (1997a) 287–302. [35] F.J. Milliken, Three types of perceived uncertainty about the environment: state, effect, and response uncertainty, Academy of Management Review 12 (1987) 133–143. [36] R.B. Duncan, Characteristics of organizational environments and perceived environmental uncertainty, Administrative Science Quarterly 17(3) (1972) 313–327. [37] S.P. Robbins and M. Coulter, Management (Prentice Hall, NJ, 2005). [38] J. Child, Organizational structure, environment and performance-the role of strategic choice, Sociology 6(1) (1972) 1–22. [39] B.P. Ebrahimi, Perceived strategic uncertainty and environmental scanning behavior of Hong Kong Chinese Executives, Journal of Business Research 49(1) (2000) 67–77. [40] O.O. Sawyerr, Environmental uncertainty and environmental scanning activities of Nigerian manufacturing executives: a comparative analysis, Strategic Management Journal 14(4) (1993) 287–299. [41] S. Myburgh, Competitive intelligence: bridging organizational boundaries, Information Management Journal 38(2) (2004) 46–55. [42] D.O. Case, Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior (Academic Press, New York, 2002). [43] L.Raymond, P.A. Julien and C. Ramangalahy, Technological scanning by small canadian manufacturers, Journal of Small Business Management 39(2) (2001) 123–138. [44] C. Prabha and L.S. Connaway, What is enough? Satisfying information needs, Journal of Documentation 63(1) (2007). [45] J.P. Walsh and G.R. Ungson, Organizational memory, Academy of Management Review, 16(1) (1991) 57–91. [46] E.W. Stein, Organizational memory: review of concepts and recommendations for management, International Journal of Information Management 15(2) (1995) 17–32. [47] W.A. Katz, Introduction to Reference Work (McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA, 2002). [48] H. Srinivas, Information for Decision-making (2009). Available at www.gdrc.org/decision/info-decision. html (accessed 9 July 2010). [49] Anonymous, Knowledge Workers Shifting Research Information Sources, T + D 59(10) (2005) 15. [50] C. O’Dell and C.J. Grayson, If only we knew what we know: identification and transfer of internal best practices, California Management Review 40(3) (1998) 154–174. [51] K.S. Albright, Environmental scanning: radar for success, Information Management Journal 38(3) (2004) 38–45. [52] P.C. Nutt, Surprising but true: half the decisions in organizations fail, Academy of Management Executive 13(4) (1999) 75–90. [53] R.L. Daft, Essentials of Organizational Theory and Design (South-Western College Publication, Cincinnati, OH, 2001). [54] G.P. Huber, Organizational learning: the contributing processes and the literature, Organization Science: a Journal of the Institute of Management Science 2(1) (1991) 88–115. [55] R.M. Kowtha, Environment Scanning Initiatives by SMEs in Singapore (Unpublished Manuscript, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, MSc, 2006). [56] R.M. Beal, Competing effectively: environmental scanning, competitive strategy, and organizational performance in small manufacturing firms, Journal of Small Business Management 38(1) (2000) 27–47.

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

731

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

[57] A.L. Souchon, J.W. Cadogan, D.B Procter and B. Dewsnap, Marketing information use and organizational performance: the mediating role of responsiveness, Journal of Strategic Marketing 12 (2004) 231–242. [58] X. Zhang and S. Majid, Environmental scanning initiatives of SMEs in Singapore, Libri: International Journal of Libraries and Information Services 59(2) (2009) 114–123. [59] S.C. Jain, Environmental scanning in US corporations, Long Range Planning 17(2) (1984) 117–128. [60] M.D. Olsen, B. Murthy and R. Teare, CEO Perspectives on scanning the global hotel business environment, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 6(4) (1994) 3–9. [61] A. Bandura, Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control (W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, NY, 1997). [62] A. Banduras, Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change, Psychological Review 84(2) (1977) 191–215. [63] J.E. Ormrod, Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006). [64] S.S. Kurbanoglu, Self-efficacy: a concept closely linked to information literacy and lifelong learning. Journal of Documentation 59(6) (2003) 635–646.

Journal of Information Science, 36 (6) 2010, pp. 719–732 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551510385644
Downloaded from jis.sagepub.com by guest on December 1, 2012

732