An Exploratory Study on Information Behavior of Human Resources Managers

This is an exploratory study on information behavior of human resources (HR) managers in Turkey which investigates what kind of information sources they consult and review and whom they prefer to communicate with for information sharing. This user study is based on empirical data collected via a questionnaire survey 140 HR managers who are from the members of People Management Association of Turkey (PERYON) and semi-structured interview from 15 HR managers participated in the survey. The results show that HR mangers in Turkey usually consult to applicant documents, job descriptions, people, and e-mails but they rarely review social media, e-mails and internal memos when making HR related decisions. Moreover, they prefer to share information with their supervisors more often than with their colleagues and subordinates. This study also concluded that age and industry type are the two factors that make a difference on information behavior of HR managers in terms of information source, use and share.