The Effects of User Characteristics on Query Performance in the Presence of Information Request Ambiguity

Abstract

5This paper investigates the effects of personality characteristics on individuals' abilities to 6 compose queries from information requests containing various types of ambiguity. In particular, 7 this research examines the effects of user personality characteristics on query performance in the 8 presence of information requests that contained no, extraneous, syntactic, or both extraneous and 9 syntactic ambiguities. The results indicate that personality characteristics significantly affect 10 users' abilities to compose accurate queries. Neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to 11 experience, and conscientiousness significantly affected the number of errors made in the query 12 formulations. Conscientiousness affected the length of time taken to compose the queries and 13 neuroticism affected the confidence users had in the accuracy of their queries. Although several 14 personality dimensions affected query performance, no significant interactions between 15 personality dimensions and ambiguity were detected. Furthermore, both query complexity and 16 information request ambiguity exhibited greater impacts on query performance than personality 17 characteristics. Hence, organizations should attempt to train users to deal with query complexity 18 and information request ambiguity before modifying their training programs for personality 19 characteristics. 20 In today's highly competitive business environments (Goldstein and Storey, 1994; Cascia and 23 Sanseverino, 1997), organizations are encouraging managers and other end users to query 24 information repositories themselves (Delligatta and Umbaugh, 1993;Owei, 2003). Frequently, 25 the queries these users compose are to satisfy information requests they receive from other 26 stakeholders, e.g., managers, trading partners, and regulatory officials. These information 27 requests are often posed in natural language and typically contain ambiguities such as imprecise 28 adjectives and excessive scope (Whitten et al., 2001). To successfully retrieve the desired 29 information, users require an appropriate skill set (Lerouge et al., 2005). This skill set includes 30 the ability to recognise and ultimately resolve the imprecision contained in an information 31 request. Indeed, good communication skills generally distinguish effective managers from poor 32 managers (Stephens, 1982). 33Within a business environment, a substantial portion of managerial communication consists of 34 written or verbal requests for information from associates who must transform the request into 35 queries in order to extract data stored in electronic form (Tubre and Collins, 2000). Being in 36 natural language, these information requests often contain ambiguities. Hence, the focus of this 37 research is on the communication ambiguities that may arise between two persons, 1 i.e., the 38 originator of the information (hereafter referred to as the information request provider) and the 39 query developer. 40Ambiguities in communication, unless resolved, can affect performance (e.g., Co...

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