This book examines the role of Information literacy in the digital workplace context. It discusses a set of information handling skills and competencies that employees and managers must need to excel at a workplace undergoing digital transformation.
Introduction: Advancing Theory on Workplace Information Literacy Farhan Ahmad and Gunilla Widén
1 Literature Review: In Search of the Many Meanings of Information Literacy José Teixeira and Muhaimin Karim 2 Digital Literacy in a Post-Digital Era: Rethinking ‘Literacy’ as Sociomaterial Practice Mika Mård and Anette Hallin 3 Methodological Choices of Information Literacy at the Workplace: Qualitative, Quantitative or Mixed-Methods? Shahrokh Nikou and Farhan Ahmad
4 Investigating Information Seeking and Information Sharing Using Digital Trace Data José Teixeira
5 Making Do with Limited Transparency of Sensitive Information in Secretive Organisations: Collective Information Literacy Through Hinting Inti José Lammi and Anette Hallin 6 Information Literacy Competencies for Career Transitions in the Digital Age Marina Milosheva, Hazel Hall, Peter Robertson and Peter Cruickshank 7 The Importance of Information Literacy for Work Satisfaction in a World-Wide-Workplace Context Angela Djupsjöbacka, Jannica Heinström and Eva Österbacka 8 Entrepreneurs’ Digital Information Sources Selection: A Perspective on the Impact of Information Literacy and Generational Differences Thao Orrensalo, Malin Brännback and Shahrokh Nikou 9 Conclusion: Workplace Information Literacy as the Literacy of the Digital Workplace Isto Huvila, Gunilla Widén, Farhan Ahmad and José Texeira
This book examines the role of Information literacy in the digital workplace context. It discusses a set of information handling skills and competencies that employees and managers must need to excel at a workplace undergoing digital transformation.
Digitalisation has had an overwhelming impact on the workplace in recent years, making it more associable, editable, interactive, programmable, traceable, communicable and distributable. But this change comes with substantial changes to ways of working. New technologies almost always translate into new work processes, work arrangements, collaborative engagements and thus disrupt the information environment and consolidate equilibria at work. This book aims to bring forward the role of workplace information literacy as a key condition for successful digitalisation or digital transformation in today’s workplace. Featuring contributions from leading scholars, it examines the multifaceted role of workplace information literacy in organisational operations and its role in the digitalisation process, taking into account the role and perspectives of employer and employee. The book includes lessons learned from investigating workplace information literacy across very different empirical domains (e.g. a nuclear power plant, an open-source software community, and a university among others). It outlines methodological and conceptual developments for anyone investigating information literacy across the modern workplace undergoing digitalisation, extending the debate on the impact of digitalisation on individuals and organisations. The book will guide researchers interested in the digital workplace by aggregating conceptual, methodological and processual knowledge on the impacts of digitalisation on the contemporary workplace from an information-centered perspective.
Gunilla Widén is Professor of Information Studies and Vice Rector for Education at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland, and holds the title of Docent in Information Management at University of Tampere, Finland. Her research interests have focused on the role of information as a resource in organisations as well as in everyday life. She has led several large projects financed by the Academy of Finland, such as the impact of information literacy in the digital workplace (2016–20). She is currently leading research on trust in information, part of the project Diversity, Trust and Two-Way Integration (Mobile Futures) funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC), Academy of Finland (2021–26), and on cultural policy decision-making, the case of Helsinki Central Libary Oodi, in the PolyCul project funded by the Norweigan Research Council (2021–24). José Teixeira defended his doctoral dissertation entitled ‘Coopetition in an Open Source Way’ in 2018. With an educational background in both computer science and management, he worked in the industry developing and deploying information systems at Wipro, Tesco, Airbus and Nokia. His research interests cover open-source software, coopetition, social network analysis, information practices and information literacy. José communicates his research results both to the Information Systems and the Library and Information Science research communities.
