This document summarizes a study that investigated the personal information management (PIM) tool usage among executives at two Malaysian government-linked companies. The study interviewed two executives to understand which PIM tools like smartphones, laptops, software/apps they use for finding, keeping, organizing, maintaining and managing the flow of information. The results found that the executives used many similar tools like smartphones, laptops, WhatsApp and Facebook. However, there were some minor differences in specific tools used between the two executives. The study aims to help inform future research on PIM tool usage patterns among executives.

1. The Use of Personal Information Management (PIM) Tools among the
Executives at Government Link Companies (DLC): An Initial Investigation
Safawi Abdul Rahman, Muhammad Aliff Azhar, Ahmad Nazri Mansor,
Zulkifli Mohd Yusoff, Khairul Mizan Taib
Faculty of Information Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA,Campus Selangor,Puncak Perdana,
Selangor, Malaysia
safawi@salam.uitm.edu.my, aliffazhar87@gmail.com, anazri@salam.uitm.edu.my,
myzulkefli@salam.uitm.edu.my, khairul@salam.uitm.edu.my
ABSTRACT - This paper investigates the PIMS tools preferred by executives and managers in
selected Government Link Companies (GLC) as to explore the pattern of PIM tools usage. Following
qualitative approach, the interview has been the data collection method on seeking respondents’
acknowledgement on the PIM tools following Jones (2007) model. The finding indicates that the
pattern of usage of PIM tools is at ordinary level.
Keywords: Personal Information Management, Personal Information Usage, Personal Information
Technology, Software, Application, Government Link Company
INTRODUCTION
Personal Information Management (PIM) is a subject that concerns about the organization and
maintenance of personal information collections that includes paper documents, electronic documents,
email messages, web references, handwritten notes and etcetera, are stored for later use and repeated
re-use (Jones et. al. 2008). In this way, PIM is an application that is used by all levels of people
including publics, students and employers in all designated setting due to that all people in this
information age make use of so called “paper documents, electronic documents, email messages, web
references, handwritten notes and etcetera” in their daily life for multiple purpose.
The concern of PIM implies that it application can have a significant impact on organizations as PIM
inevitably used by executives and managers in managing organizational activities. The software based
tools such as Phlat, Stuff I’ve seen MyLifeBits, Haystack, Forget-me-not (Schäppi, 1994) and email
messages and web references (Jones et. al. 2008); physical tool such as computers, PDAs and smart
phones (Jones & Harry 2005) and paper-based tools such as appointments and scheduling, to-do lists,
phone numbers, and addresses (Lansdale, 1988) are being used for both at personal and workplace
levels. Many other tools such as social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter) can
be considered as PIM tool based on the nature and examples described in Jones (2008) and Jones &
Harry (2005). In the context of organizational management, the use of PIM is presumably very critical
as executives and managers manage daily operations with the assistance of PIM tools and use the
information captured in the PIM to make timely decision and get things properly done.
Jones (2007) states the functions of personal information management to include six critical activities
namely 1) finding; 2) keeping; 3) organizing; 4) maintaining; 5) managing flow; 6) measuring and
evaluating; and 7) making sense of personal information. This paper investigates the Jones (2007)
models into the use of PIM and escapes from Lush (2014) three functionalities namely organization,
finding and keeping, and from any other models found in the literature. The goal of this initial
investigation is to explore the pattern of PIM usage within the information management area of study
and the result is expected to devise future research plan and direction.
METHODOLOGY
In this qualitative investigation, two participants from Government Link Company (GLC)
(CyberSecurity Malaysia & Angkasa) were identified and interviewed. The participant’s verbal
responses, phrases or explanation are coded into predetermined themes following Jones (2007) model

2. (finding – keeping – organizing – maintaining - managing flow - measuring and evaluating - making
sense). The thematic qualitative analysis has been using Atlas.ti 6. Each of the theme identified above
are measured against two categories of PIM tools i.e. hardware and software. The hardware category
includes gadgets such Smartphone, Tablet, Laptop, Personal Computer and PDA and software
includes WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WeChat, Email, Alarm, Planner, Notes and
Gallery. The PIM tools are tabulated against the participant’s response simplified into “1 = Use” and
“2 = Not Use” for ease of visualization in 3D Chart.
RESULT
The executives and managers’ acknowledgement about the use of PIM tools in the process of finding,
keeping, organizing, maintaining, managing flow, measuring and evaluating and making sense of the
personal information are tabulated in Figure 1 through 6 below.
Figure 1: The Use of PIM Tools for Finding
Information
Figure 2: The Use of PIM Tools for Keeping
Information
Figure 3: The Use of PIM Tools for Organizing
Information
Figure 4: The Use of PIM Tools for Maintaining
Information
Figure 5: The Use of PIM Tools for Managing Flow of
Information
Figure 6: The Use of PIM Tools for Measuring and
Evaluating, and Making Sense of Information
DISCUSSION
This section discusses the result presented in prior section and is arranged into the thematic six (6)
analysis determined earlier.
A. The Use of PIM Tools for Finding Information
The executives and managers participated in the study acknowledged that they use some selected PIM
tools for finding information. Both the participants use Smartphone, Laptop, PC gadgets and

3. WhatsApp, Facebook, Email, Alarm application in doing so. They only differ in the use of Tablet in
which participant from Angkasa uses Tablet for finding personal information.
B. The Use of PIM Tools for Keeping Information
The result reveals that multiple PIM tools were used for keeping information. In the gadget category,
the participants used Smartphone, Laptop and PC. They used WhatsApp, Facebook, Email, Alarm,
Notes and Gallery as software application in keeping such information.
C. The Use of PIM Tools for Organizing Information
The PIM tools that used for organizing information were slightly differed from participant A and
participant B. They are using same gadgets (Smartphone, Laptop, PC) and Gallery application, but
participant B goes beyond to use Planner and Notes whereas participant A prefer Email and Alarm
systems for organizing information.
D. The Use of PIM Tools for Maintaining Information
The maintenance of information were done mainly using Smartphone, Laptop and PC and involving
application such as WhatsApp and Facebook. However, participant B also does the maintenance using
Tablet. Participant A does maintain the Email and Gallery system.
E. The Use of PIM Tools for Managing Flow of Information
In the function of managing flow of information, both respondents used the three major gadgets i.e.
Smartphone, Laptop and PC. They also manage the flow of information using same software
application i.e. WhatsApp and Facebook. The difference between the two participants is the use of
Email in which participant A uses it for managing information flow.
F. The Use of PIM Tools for Measuring and Evaluating Information
Both respondents limited their response on this function into the gadget category. They acknowledged
the use of three major PIM tools (Smartphone, Laptop and PC) and Tablet for participant B, for
measuring and evaluation of information. This finding is also applied for the final theme being
analyzed.
CONCLUSION
The initial study explores the use of PIM tools being practiced by executives and managers with
regard to management of personal information. By adopting the Jones (2007) model, the exploration
confined into seven personal information management activities namely finding, keeping, organizing,
maintaining, managing flow, measuring and evaluating and making sense of the information. It was
found that executives and managers who participated in this mini study used common PIM tools as
being used by public in managing personal information.
REFERENCES
Jones, E., Bruce, H., Klasnja, P. & Jones, W. (2008). I Give Up! Five Factors that Contribute to the
Abandonment of Information Management Strategies. 68th Annual Meeting of the American
Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST 2008). Columbus, OH.
Jones, W. & Bruce, H. (2005). A Report1 on the NSF-Sponsored Workshop on Personal Information
Management, Seattle, WA, 2005. http://pim.ischool.washington.edu/final%20PIM%20report.pdf
Jones, W. (2007). Personal information management, Annual Review of Information Science and
Technology, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 453-504.
Lansdale, M. W. (1988). The psychology of personal information management, Applied Ergonomics,
Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 55-66.
Lush, A. (2014). Fundamental Personal Information Anagement Activities – Organisation, Finding
And Keeping: A Literature Review. The Australian Library Journal 63(1), p45-51
Schäppi, J. (1994). Personal information management tools. In Proceedings of FRIEND21, the 1994
International Symposium on Next Generation Human Interface. Meguro Gajoen, Japan.
https://diuf.unifr.ch/main/diva/sites/diuf.unifr.ch.main.diva/files/joomla_Rapport_schaeppi.pdf