Uncertainty, Information, and (Re)Organization

Our tendency is to generate ever-increasing amounts of information to deal with the uncertainties we face in today's turbulent environment. However, if we look at the problem more fundamentally, we see that uncertainty, the variable responsible for information demand, itself can be reduced. Thus, we should not get fixated on information generation (the supply-side approach) but should also consider ways of reducing needs for information flows (the demand-side approach). This article provides an overview of a Dutch sociotechnical approach that focuses on reduction of complexity so as to reduce uncertainty and thereby organizational information flows.