Wright Company employs a computer based data processing system for maintaining all company records. The current system was developed in stages over the past five years and has been fully operational for the last 24 months. When the system was being designed, all department heads were asked to specify the types of information and reports they would need for planning and controlling operations. The systems department attempted to meet the specifications of each department heads. During the five years of systems development and operation there have been several changes in the department head positions due to attrition and promotions. The new department heads often made requests for additional reports according to their specifications. The systems department complied with all of these requests. Reports were discontinued only on request by a department head, and then only if it was not a standard report required by top management. As a result, few reports were discontinued. Consequently the information processing subsystem was generating a large quantity of reports each reporting period. Company management became concerned about the quantity of reports information that was being produced by the system. The internal audit department was asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the reports generated by the system. The audit staff determined early in the study that more information was being generated by the information processing subsystem than could be used effectively. They noted the following reactions to this information overload: