Relations between information flow and information behaviour of users in formal organizations: a systematic literature review

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify in the literature how the relationships between information flow and informational behavior of users in formal organizations occur. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was performed in order to answer two defined research questions, through a rigorous protocol, which included the identification of the research, the selection of studies, evaluation of study quality, extraction and synthesis of data. The method enables process replication and subsequent peer verification. A total of 486 studies were identified in the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, which after applying the selection criteria resulted in five approved studies that relate the concepts of information flow and informational behavior in organizations. Of these approved studies, three have direct interference between flow and behavior. Although no approved study cites the concept of formal organization, it has been inferred that some studies dealing with companies and their respective sectors are implicitly addressing formal organizations. It is concluded that of the five publications that met the proposed objective, three address the flow of information as an element that can influence or be influenced by informational behavior in organizations. The other approved studies do not clearly present interference between flow and informational behavior. They focus exclusively on a particular concept, or only on flow or only on behavior.