ITWorldCanada has reported on an Accenture study, which reveals that managers spend inordinate amounts of time searching for the information they need to do their jobs — and they often come up with the wrong information.

In this day and age of information technology, searches, and online collaboration, how can this still be such a problem?

Here are some interesting statistics from the study [emphasis mine]:

Managers often face additional challenges because they don’t save important data in a collaborative place.

The majority of the managers surveyed said they store their most valuable information on their computers or individual e-mail accounts, where others can’t access it, Accenture said. Only 16 per cent of managers said they store valuable data in a collaborative workplace, like an intranet portal.

Just less than half (42 per cent) of those surveyed said that they accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week.

Of all the managers surveyed, IT workers are the least likely to say the information they find is valuable and they spend the most time trying to find it. They dedicate nearly 30 per cent of their time trying to find information.

The entire article on the ITWorldCanada site is here: http://www.itworldcanada.com/V.aspx?i=2d15749973db4f2daf12 (Access is free at the time of this writing, but may be limited in the future.)