A tentative exploration into the amount and equivocality of information processing in organizational work units

A model is proposed that relates the amount and equivocality of information processing to the variety and analyzability of work-unit activities. New questionnaire scales were developed for the information and task variables, and an exploratory test of the model was conducted on 24 work units. The reported amount of information processing increased with both task variety and analyzability; the reported use of equivocal information decreased with task analyzability. The findings suggest a modification of the previously reported positive relationship between task uncertainty and amount of information processing.