Robert M. Davison and Carol X.J. Ou
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how selected employees in China deliberately subvert organizational information systems (IS) policy by developing feral working…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how selected employees in China deliberately subvert organizational information systems (IS) policy by developing feral working practices in order to gain access to the applications that they believe essential to work.
Design/methodology/approach
Interpretive case study.
Findings
Employees cannot accept the limited IT policy/environment imposed by corporate management and develop their own workarounds that subvert the organizational IT policy so as to ensure that they can get work done.
Research limitations/implications
The authors draw on elements of punctuated equilibrium theory to conceptualize the findings into four theoretical propositions. The authors encourage researchers to probe these organizational practices and solutions in depth.
Practical implications
Organizations cannot expect their digital native employees to leave their social media culture at home when they come to work. Social media penetrates all aspects of their lives and in all locations. Therefore, organizations must find a way to permit its use at work.
Originality/value
Subversion is a topic rarely studied in IS research, or in business/management more generally. The focus on the subversive behavior of organizational employees is original and important. The authors suggest that subversive behavior may be more common than the limited literature suggests.
Details
Keywords
Pengzhen Yin, Carol X.J. Ou, Robert M. Davison and Jie Wu
The overload effects associated with the use of mobile information and communication technologies (MICTs) in the workplace have become increasingly prevalent. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The overload effects associated with the use of mobile information and communication technologies (MICTs) in the workplace have become increasingly prevalent. The purpose of this paper is to examine the overload effects of using MICTs at work on employees’ job satisfaction, and explore the corresponding coping strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is grounded on the cognitive load theory and the coping model of user adaptation. The overload antecedents and coping strategies are integrated into one model. Theoretical hypotheses are tested with survey data collected from a sample of 178 employees at work in China.
Findings
The results indicate that information overload significantly reduces job satisfaction, while the influence of interruption overload on job satisfaction is not significant. Two coping strategies (information processing timeliness and job control assistant support) can significantly improve job satisfaction. Information processing timeliness significantly moderates the relationships between two types of overload effects and job satisfaction. Job control assistant support also significantly moderates the relationship between interruption overload and job satisfaction.
Practical implications
This study suggests that information overload and interruption overload could constitute an important index to indicate employees’ overload level when using MICTs at work. The two coping strategies provide managers with effective ways to improve employees’ job satisfaction. By taking advantage of the moderation effects of coping strategies, managers could lower employees’ evaluation of overload to an appropriate level.
Originality/value
This study provides a comprehensive model to examine how the overload resulting from using MICTs in the workplace affects employees’ work status, and how to cope with it. Two types of overload are conceptualized and corresponding coping strategies are identified. The measurements of principal constructs are developed and empirically validated. The results provide theoretical and practical insights on human resource management and human–computer interaction.
Details
Keywords
Salina V. Thijssen, Maria J.G. Jacobs, Rachelle R. Swart, Luca Heising, Carol X.J. Ou and Cheryl Roumen
This study aimed to identify the barriers and facilitators related to the implementation of radical innovations in secondary healthcare.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to identify the barriers and facilitators related to the implementation of radical innovations in secondary healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review was conducted and presented in accordance with a PRISMA flowchart. The databases PubMed and Web of Science were searched for original publications in English between the 1st of January 2010 and 6th of November 2020. The level of radicalness was determined based on five characteristics of radical innovations. The level of evidence was classified according to the level of evidence scale of the University of Oxford. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research was used as a framework to classify the barriers and facilitators.
Findings
Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, nine publications were included, concerning six technological, two organizational and one treatment innovation. The main barriers for radical innovation implementation in secondary healthcare were lack of human, material and financial resources, and lack of integration and organizational readiness. The main facilitators included a supportive culture, sufficient training, education and knowledge, and recognition of the expected added value.
Originality/value
To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review examining the barriers and facilitators of radical innovation implementation in secondary healthcare. To ease radical innovation implementation, alternative performance systems may be helpful, including the following prerequisites: (1) Money, (2) Added value, (3) Timely knowledge and integration, (4) Culture, and (5) Human resources (MATCH). This study highlights the need for more high-level evidence studies in this area.
Details
Keywords
Carol X.J. Ou, Robert M. Davison, Xuepan Zhong and Yi Liang
This paper aims to develop a research model that explains how instant messaging (IM) technologies enable employees to be empowered.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a research model that explains how instant messaging (IM) technologies enable employees to be empowered.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses survey of 253 Chinese work professionals with respect to their use of IM tools at work.
Findings
IM does empower work teams via shaping the social networks and facilitating knowledge sharing in the workplace, resulting in heightened team performance.
Research limitations/implications
The survey was conducted in China so generalization to other national contexts is tentative. It focuses on the bright side of IM, but neglects the dark side, e.g. security concerns and work interruptions.
Practical implications
IM is not only a social tool, it also has the potential to contribute to work teams. However, IM cannot achieve better work performance alone. Its contribution to strengthen the social networks at work is also critical. These social networks at work can enable employees to overcome psychological barriers to knowledge sharing.
Originality/value
Studies of IM in the workplace have not previously considered social network perspectives, nor the value of such IM‐facilitated social networks for work performance. This large scale survey of work professionals across four locations in China provides evidence for the considerable positive impacts of IM on work.
Details
Keywords
Reyes Gonzalez, Jose Gasco and Juan Llopis
ICTs play a key role in the tourism sector, influencing the labor context among other things. Hence, the purpose of this study: a review of the literature in which the topics of…
Abstract
Purpose
ICTs play a key role in the tourism sector, influencing the labor context among other things. Hence, the purpose of this study: a review of the literature in which the topics of tourism, ICTs and human resources converge through an analysis of the articles published in the relevant journals, which are included in the Web of Science.
Design/methodology/approach
The 60 articles analyzed – published over a period of 31 years – were studied according to several criteria such as research methodology, statistical techniques used, topics dealt with, technologies addressed, authors and countries.
Findings
The topics under study were divided into four broad areas – technology and employees, technology and HR processes, technology and results and technology and organizational structure – the first, which focuses on how employees behave in relation to technology, received the most attention.
Research limitations/implications
The literature review was confined to articles on the topics of tourism, ICTs and human resources published in 73 academic journals, leaving aside other research sources, e.g. books and papers presented at conferences. This study can be useful both in the academic field and for tourism firm managers – especially those in ICT and human resources.
Originality/value
Although there are several previous reviews of the literature on human resource management and ICTs in the tourism sector, none of them has jointly examined these three topics.
Details
Keywords
Xiongfei Cao, Ahsan Ali, Abdul Hameed Pitafi, Ali Nawaz Khan and Muhammad Waqas
The purpose of this study is to extend the existing literature on knowledge management, which generally focuses on knowledge sharing. The model of this article explains how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to extend the existing literature on knowledge management, which generally focuses on knowledge sharing. The model of this article explains how knowledge creation and team performance can be increased through the integration of social and technological factors
Design/methodology/approach
To empirically test the model, multi-wave and multi-source data were collected from 80 teams whose members use social media as a tool for communication and interaction.
Findings
The analysis results provide insights into some interesting findings. The results show transactive memory system (TMS) as an important factor that can significantly contribute to knowledge creation in teams. Especially, the TMS strengthens the significant positive effect of enterprise social media (ESM) and insignificant positive effect of knowledge complementarity on knowledge creation. Furthermore, knowledge creation is found to be a significant predictor of team performance
Originality/value
Much of the knowledge management literature focuses on the ways to increase the quantity of accessible knowledge to organization members. Such knowledge management studies are more relevant to knowledge exchange among individual employees, teams and organizations. However, this study takes a nuanced approach to explore how knowledge creation can be increased in teams by implementing a knowledge integration mechanism. A general model of knowledge creation is proposed, but the strength of this model lies in the moderating effect of TMS which strengthens the effect of knowledge complementarity and ESM on knowledge creation in teams which eventually increases team performance.
Details
Keywords
Luminita Hurbean, Louie H.M. Wong, Carol XJ Ou, Robert M. Davison and Octavian Dospinescu
The authors investigate the relationship between instant messenger (IM) use and work performance, mediated by interruptions and two key indicators of the stress associated with…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigate the relationship between instant messenger (IM) use and work performance, mediated by interruptions and two key indicators of the stress associated with technology use: overload and complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors validate this research model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with data collected through a survey of 416 working professionals.
Findings
The data reveal that while IM use contributes minimally to work interruptions and to a greater extent to technological complexity, these two constructs fully mediate the direct influence of IM use at work on technology overload, and meanwhile significantly and directly contribute to work performance.
Research limitations/implications
This research provides theoretical insights into the deployment of IM and its actual impacts in the workplace. To improve the generalisation of the findings, the authors call for more IM-related research in other countries, with more native theories and various methodologies in this domain.
Practical implications
The level of stress generated through IM use is moderate, considering IM is not a significant contributor to work interruptions. Thus, despite the potential negative effects of IM communication, the positive effects of using IM at work prevail. As a result, the technology can be promoted as long as employees, their managers and the organisation as a whole are well prepared. Employees can transfer skills and behaviour from the personal setting to their work environment and thus may find an intrinsic motivation to make better use of the IM technology at work.
Originality/value
The authors argue that this research model is novel for its perspective on evaluating the actual impacts of IM use at work instead of the reasons of using it. The authors conceptualise the process to explain how IM contributes to interruptions and other technostress indicators in the working context, and the impact on performance. Contrary to some prior research, the authors find that overall IM applications do not have a negative impact on work performance, and instead may enhance it.
Details
Keywords
Lijun (Gillian) Lei, Yutao Li and Yan Luo
The emergence of social media as a corporate disclosure channel has caused significant changes in the production and dissemination of corporate information. This review identifies…
Abstract
The emergence of social media as a corporate disclosure channel has caused significant changes in the production and dissemination of corporate information. This review identifies important themes in recent research on the impact of social media on the corporate information environment and provides suggestions for further explorations of this new but fast-growing area of research. Specifically, we first review the evolution of Internet-based corporate disclosure and related regulations, and then focus on three recent streams of research: 1) companies’ use of social media; 2) information produced by non-corporate users and its impact on capital markets; and 3) the credibility of corporate information on social media platforms.
Details
Keywords
Xiayu Chen, Carol Xiaojuan Ou and Robert M. Davison
This study investigates how employees' work- and social-related use of social media can individually and interactively render different impacts on employees' performance in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how employees' work- and social-related use of social media can individually and interactively render different impacts on employees' performance in the context of internal or external social media.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the research model in these two different contexts, the authors collected data from 392 internal social media users and 302 external social media users in the workplace.
Findings
The data suggest that the respondents' job performance can be enhanced when using internal social media for work-related purposes and using external social media for social-related purposes. Meanwhile, the interaction of work- and social-related use is positive for external social media but negative for internal social media on job performance. These findings highlight the significant distinction of social media use in the workplace.
Originality/value
First, this study contributes to the literature on the business value of IT by providing theoretical arguments on how companies can capitalize efforts to consider work-related use in combination with social-related use to create business value. Second, this research theorizes two distinct yet interacting views of social media use. The authors offer a more granular insight of the paths from work- and social-related use to employee performance instead of encapsulating social media use in a unitary concept and linking it simply and broadly to employee performance. Third, this research considers the interdependent effects of work- and social-related use on employee performance, and thus goes beyond the independent roles of these two types of social media use. Fourth, the authors find that the links from employees' work- and social-related use of social media to job performance vary in different contexts.