The Information Overload Paradox: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of Data from New Zealand, Spain, and the USA

The information overload phenomenon has been studied for many years, and has proven to be more complex than researchers believed it to be. The study presented here aims at shedding some light on the complexity of information overload, by examining the relationship between perceived information overload intensity and three traditional and one nontraditional information overload predictors. The nontraditional predictor was power distance, which was manipulated through the collection of data from 184 local managers and professionals in New Zealand, Spain and the USA. The data analyses employed partial least squares-based structural equation modeling, and led to one surprising conclusion: perceived information overload intensity seems to be more strongly related to power distance than to the volume of written information or number of information transactions processed by an individual. This conclusion is referred to here as the information overload paradox.