A Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking

Abstract

Individual information seeking has become increasingly a critical determinant of the success of individual organizational members and of an organization as a whole. This study tests a Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) that contains three primary classes of variables: Antecedents, which provide the underlying imperatives to seek information; Information Carrier Characteristics, which shape the nature of specific intentions to seek information from particular carriers; and Information Seeking Actions, which reflect the nature of the search itself and are the outcomes of the preceding classes. The CMIS was tested and refined in tests related to the informal channel in a large, technically oriented governmental agency (N = 380), then the refined model was confirmed by tests on the formal channel. Both tests of the revised model were supportive, suggesting that the most important variables were those related to an individual's existing information base, those associated with an individual's need for programmed information seeking, and those dealing with information carrier characteristics.