Information searching behavior of users corporate portals

Introduction: Corporate portals are important in competitive organizations to transcend the search, retrieval and dissemination of information among stakeholders, contributing to the culture of interaction and knowledge sharing. Objective: The article presents the results of a master's degree research which analyzed the information searching behavior of users of corporate portals in Eletronorte. Methodology: Wilson's (1981) model of information-seeking behavior, focused on cognitive needs of information users, correlated to the proposal of Dias (2001b) are used to characterize the corporate portal. The research uses quantitative and qualitative approaches in the analysis of collected data. Results: The main factors that stimulate the search for information in the portal are the centralized access to information and documents, with proper disclosure, as well as promoting information sharing among audiences of the organization. Conclusions: The Knowledge Portal represents a source of qualified information for decision making and spreading of organizational knowledge. The lack of a policy for information literacy and the culture of information sharing between users constitute themselves potential barriers to searching in corporate information portals