“Digesting the abundance of idol matter” key factors in personal information management experiences of selected social science faculty

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the personal information management (PIM) behaviours of social science faculty in Africa. The study examined the experiences and encounters of selected social scientists in Africa in organising and finding and re-finding of the information they previously created or stored. More specifically, the study sought to examine how faculty keep and refind information, the files and folders in which they store the information. Also, the study examined the nature and characteristics of faculty information spaces with particular respect to electronic documents including emails and paper documents. Design/methodology/approach Sample survey research design and a mixed methods approach consisting of qualitative and quantitative were used. Data was collected using a discursive technique, an interview schedule and a questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using factorial analysis of mixed data design, guided by a combination of category and codes identification using NVivo and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 17. Principal component analysis (PCA) of factor analysis was executed to identify key components. Findings Eleven issues, namely, time, infrastructure, importance of the information, folder/file management, document characteristics and organisational context played significant roles in the PIM behaviours of the respondents. Others were importance of the information, document overload, memory, workload and computer literacy. PCA extracted four major components, namely, document overload, time, computer literacy and importance of the information. Research limitations/implications An expansion in the number of faculty involved in this study would probably yield a more reliable outcome. Extending the study to cover Africa would also yield a more applicable result. Practical implications The key PIM issues identified in this study, namely, document overload, time, computer literacy and importance of the information should constitute the focus of continuous information literacy education aimed at improving PIM social scientists’ faculty in Africa. Social implications Improved PIM of social science faculty will result to improved research productivity and good health. Originality/value PIM of social scientists has not been examined in the literature, and yet it is crucial for further understanding their learning and information behaviours, and improving their productivity. The design and administration of a questionnaire constructed based on codes extracted from qualitative and discursive sessions to the same respondents from whom the qualitative data was collected makes the findings very strong. A further deployment of factorial analysis of mixed data design to handle qualitative data makes the contribution of the study very significant.

A Case Study: Policy Communication at Postgraduate Program Academic Service of Public Service

This research aims at describing the factors influence the policy communication at Postgraduate Program Academic Service of Public Service unit of Politic and Social Science Faculty of Riau University. The method of this research is qualitative with purposive sampling technique used. The sample of the research is the persons who know and involved in the academic service of Politic and Social Science Faculty of Riau University. The data were collected by documentation, interview, and observation. The data were analysed by using descriptive qualitative technique which focus on the particular object intensively. The finding of the research shows that policy communication implementation in Academic Service Unit was poor. It caused by the unbalance ratio of lecturer and students, lack of facilities maintenance, and there is no Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) in administration implementation, and the lack of monitoring and evaluation quality applied by the Faculty management. The factors influenced this policy communication were facilities and infrastructures, qualified human resources availability, Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) availability, students’ capacity management, students’ study road map service availability, course service and course monitoring implementation availability

A Case Study: Policy Communication at Postgraduate Program Academic Service of Public Service

This research aims at describing the factors influence the policy communication at Postgraduate Program Academic Service of Public Service unit of Politic and Social Science Faculty of Riau University. The method of this research is qualitative with purposive sampling technique used. The sample of the research is the persons who know and involved in the academic service of Politic and Social Science Faculty of Riau University. The data were collected by documentation, interview, and observation. The data were analysed by using descriptive qualitative technique which focus on the particular object intensively. The finding of the research shows that policy communication implementation in Academic Service Unit was poor. It caused by the unbalance ratio of lecturer and students, lack of facilities maintenance, and there is no Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) in administration implementation, and the lack of monitoring and evaluation quality applied by the Faculty management. The factors influenced this policy communication were facilities and infrastructures, qualified human resources availability, Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) availability, students’ capacity management, students’ study road map service availability, course service and course monitoring implementation availability.