Virtual Hoarding

Background

The study of virtual or digital hoarding is just emerging, and new case studies, survey results, and other forms of research are being undertaken and disseminated (Oravec, 2015; van Bennekom, Blom, Vulink, & Denys, 2015). Although this article focuses on the hoarding of virtual goods, some discussion of the hoarding of physical objects may provide background and insights. In a variety of social settings, hoarding behavior involving physical items is expanding in its impact; hoarding has been construed as a mental health issue in some organizations (Bratiotis, Schmalisch, & Steketee, 2011) and has been labeled as a disorder in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Capacities for managing the locations of and access to physical as well as virtual entities are often considered central to competent societal functioning. Lepselter (2011) relates dozens of negative characterizations of hoarding in newspapers, television, and social media. The hoarding of “virtual goods” is also generating concern and has the potential to be even more costly for organizations than its physical correlate. Files that are not properly identified and stored might be seen as appropriately “saved” if placed in the “cloud.” However, if metadata about the files are not available, the files may be essentially worthless, wasting precious organizational resources. Gormley and Gormley (2012) describe the condition of “information clutter” as running parallel with hoarding behavior, a situation that is generally not conducive to conducting efficient workplace operations.