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Improving Technical Information Use: What Can Be Learnt from a Manager’s Perspective?
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Improving Technical Information Use: What Can Be Learnt from a Manager’s Perspective?

Christine L Jacobson, A Lisle, R W (Bill) Carter and M Hockings
Environmental Management, Vol.52(1), pp.221-233
2013
url
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0084-yView
Published Version

Abstract

information use access expectation literacy science practice
Conservation practice reportedly suffers from low use of technical information. Understanding of factors that affect the influence of technical information on management decision-making is limited. We sought to identify leverage points for improved technical information dissemination in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors affecting the influence of different information types on management decisions. Results indicate that managers have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given they operate in an information poor environment. The most influential types of information were those that enabled interaction between information provider and recipient (e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the concordance in individuals' responses for different information types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational expectation of use was aligned with influence on decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or increasing access to particular types of information is therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on management decision-making. Rather than focussing on matching accessibility and expected use of particular information types, our results indicate that technical information uptake is best supported through existing peer networks tailored to specific work areas.

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Environmental Sciences

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