Developing an instrument to assess information technology staff motivation

Motivation is a key factor that influences individual effort, which, in turn, affects individual and organizational performance. Nevertheless, motivation at work depends on the organizational rewards and incentives, according to individual goals. This paper reports on the development of an instrument designed to measure the motivation of Information Technology people at their workplace. Psychology theories and work addressing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have been studied. Some motivation instruments were reviewed and analyzed. Specificities and special characteristics regarding IT workers were evidenced and combined with other more general motivation factors. The instrument has been developed according to the five dimensions of the Worldatwork framework, resulting in a set of 30 scale items addressing 23 variables. Besides measuring the IT motivation levels, the tool may also help any organization to understand the weaknesses and strengths regarding incentive policies, and therefore, assist on the definition of new ones

Future work selves : how salient hoped-for identities motivate proactive career behaviors

The term future work self refers to an individual's representation of himself or herself in the future that reflects his or her hopes and aspirations in relation to work. The clearer and more accessible this representation, the more salient the future work self. An initial study with 2 samples (N = 397; N = 103) showed that future work self salience was distinct from established career concepts and positively related to individuals' proactive career behavior. A follow-up longitudinal analysis, Study 2 (N = 53), demonstrated that future work self salience had a lagged effect on proactive career behavior. In Study 3 (N = 233), we considered the role of elaboration, a further attribute of a future work self, and showed that elaboration motivated proactive career behavior only when future work self salience was also high. Together the studies suggest the power of future work selves as a motivational resource for proactive career behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Workforce Incentives at IT companies : the Google’s Case

Organizations may have much to gain in attracting and retaining IT professionals than can help to reduce costs and improve the productivity of the business. That is even more crucial for IT companies that rely upon talented IT professionals to add value in their core business processes and not just to support them. Thus we need to better understand what motivates and keeps satisfied an IT workforce. As a successful IT company, Google may be a good example to look at adequate incentive policies for IT professionals. Using a netnographic approach, this study examined a blog discussion with the participation of past and present Google employees. The collected data was analyzed under a total rewards model, a framework from WorldatWork to encompass a diversity of topics in building a reward strategy. One of those topics, work-life, was significantly discussed showing that Google´s incentive policies take into consideration work-life sub-topics such as health and wellness, cultural environment, community involvement and work flexibility to attract and retain IT professionals. Adding to the sub-topics already proposed in the framework, some new ones popped out still under the work-life topic: equipment and technology, administrative efficiency and workplace stability. Although compensation and benefits are certainly incentives to not be disregarded, it seems there may be something else also important as work-life incentives to attract and retain an IT motivated workforce, specially, at an IT company

Employee incentives in IT companies : what can we learn from Google?

PreprintAttracting and retaining IT professionals have emerged as top management concerns in the last years. This is particular relevant for companies with core business processes in IT that have much to gain from talented IT professionals. Google is one of those companies. Showing a considerable growth in recent years and pointed out as one of the best companies in US to work for, Google presents itself as an interesting case for studying employee incentives policies in IT companies. Using a netnographic approach to look into a work life blog discussion with the participation of present and past Google employees, a total reward strategy framework is used to analyze the data and generate new insights. Work life topics suggested upfront such as community involvement, health and wellness, work flexibility and cultural environment are particularly important. Administrative efficiency, workplace stability and equipment and technology are some new topics that may be worth to consider in a framework to guide incentive policies for a total reward strategy in IT companies.(undefined

Estudio metaanalítico de un efecto supresor en la relación entre el bienestar subjetivo y el desempeño en el trabajo

This paper presents a meta-analytic study of the relationship between overall subjective well-being (SWB), cognitive SWB, affective SWB, and job performance ratings. The study examined the moderator effect of the source of job performance measure (self-report vs. supervisory ratings). The database consists of 34 independent samples (n = 5,352) using supervisory performance ratings and 38 independent samples (n = 12,086) using self-reported of job performance. These samples were located through electronic and manual searches. The results indicated that, on average, the correlation for SWB- supervisory ratings (ρ = .35) was slightly larger than for SWB-self-reported performance (ρ = .33). The correlation of affective SWB was much higher with supervisory ratings (ρ = .49) than with self-reported performance (ρ = .30). A suppressor effect of cognitive SWB was found for the prediction of supervisory ratings. Finally, we discuss the implications for the theory and the practice of SWB at work and suggest new research avenuesEste artículo presenta un estudio metaanalítico de la relación entre el bienestar subjetivo general (SWB), el SWB cognitivo, el SWB afectivo y las valoraciones de desempeño en el trabajo. El estudio examinó el efecto moderador de la fuente de valoración del desempeño en el trabajo (autoinforme frente a calificaciones de los supervisores). La base de datos consta de 34 muestras independientes (n = 5,352) en las que utilizaron evaluaciones del desempeño realizadas por los supervisores y 38 muestras independientes (n = 12,086) en las que utilizaron autoinformes de desempeño en el trabajo. Las muestras se localizaron mediante búsquedas electrónicas y manuales. Los resultados indicaron que, de promedio, la correlación entre SWB general y las valoraciones de los supervisores (ρ = .35) fue ligeramente mayor que la correlación entre el SWB y los autoinformes de desempeño (ρ = .33). La correlación del SWB afectivo fue mucho mayor con las evaluaciones de los supervisores (ρ = .49) que con los autoinforme de desempeño (ρ = .30). También se encontró un efecto supresor del SWB cognitivo para la predicción de las evaluaciones del desempeño realizadas por los supervisores. Por último, se presentan las implicaciones de los resultados para la teoría y la práctica del SWB en el trabajo y se sugieren nuevas vías de investigaciónFunding: This research was partially supported by grant PSI2017-87603-P from the Spanish Ministry of Education to Silvia Moscoso and Jesús F. SalgadoS

FACTORS THAT PREDICT HISPANIC/LATINO ENTREPRENEURS\u27 INTENTIONS TO USE THIRTEEN ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIORS

The purpose of this study was to determine what attitudinal, normative, and control beliefs most significantly predicted Hispanic business owners\u27 intentions to engage in 13 entrepreneurial behaviors. In 2011, Hispanic business owners from five cities in Greenville Country, South Carolina were invited to participate. Only owners of for-profit business that had been in operation for a year or more participated. Seventy four Hispanic business owners were interviewed or completed an online survey. Aizen\u27s Theory of Planned Behavior (1980, 1991, 2002a, 2002b, 2006) was used as the framework for constructing a survey to examine stated intentions, and concomitant attitudes, norms, and control beliefs related to the use of 13 entrepreneurial behaviors. The central hypothesis of the study was that the more favorable the attitudes and subjective norms, and the greater the perceived control, the stronger will be a person\u27s intention to perform each of the 13 entrepreneurial behaviors examined. Each of 13 entrepreneurial behavioral intentions had a different pattern of attitudinal and behavioral control antecedents that were significant in explaining the variance in intention scores. The normative belief measure proved to not be significant in explaining the variance in any of the 13 entrepreneurial behavioral intention scores. The antecedents that were significant in explaining the variance in two or more of the 13 behavioral intentions were Attitudes antecedents (expected outcome and degree of importance in doing the specified behavior) and Behavioral control antecedents (degree of confidence and degree of agreement that is within their control). Several of the modifiers were significant in explaining the variance in antecedent beliefs. Among those most often significant with two or more antecedents linked with two or more behavioral intentions were life satisfaction scores, the self-reported presence of entrepreneurial characteristics, their ratings of how successful their business currently is, and whether their business made a profit last fiscal year

Leadership style and communication style of airline pilots: Perceived associations with crew members’ satisfaction and effort

Leadership and communication have been identified as paramount factors for flight safety and efficiency but research on the effects of these factors is scarce. This study analyzes which leadership styles and which communication styles are perceived by airline pilots to be associated with their teams’ satisfaction and extra effort. A survey was conducted with a total of 105 airline pilots, and a research model was tested with structural equation modeling. Results indicated that participative leadership is the only leadership style retained by the model explaining satisfaction and extra effort of crew members. Participative leadership is positively related to assertive communication and negatively related to passive communication. Assertive communication mediates between participative leadership and satisfaction, and passive communication mediates between participative leadership and extra effor

Virtualness of the Cost Estimating Community

Many researchers have sought to identify the sources for cost and schedule growth, most researchers failed to analyze the resource utilization of the cost community. This research explores how the cost community allocates its time. Furthermore, by examining how resources are spent, this research will juxtapose the desires of recent Congressional and Department of Defense policies against the current demands of the cost community. A thorough understanding of resource allocation requires research into the inherent virtualness of the community. Early virtualness predicated the notion of extremes, either virtual or not. However, recent literature expands virtualness into gradients and explains that all teams display some measure of virtualness. Unfortunately, scholars currently debate the basic definition of virtualness either being comprised of three or four individual dimensions. This research uses an internet-based questionnaire to ascertain a measure of virtualness. The findings of this research support a four dimension measure of virtualness. This research uses structural equation modeling to validate and test for good reliability of the created 13 item measure for virtualness. This research finds that resources are largely allocated to the creation and modification of cost estimates, while few resources are spent on the implementation or follow-up of estimates

Strategies to improve effectiveness of hospital leadership in Addis Ababa

In hospitals of Addis Ababa, there is a high turnover of leaders while patient and health workers’ satisfaction is low, and safety and quality are in dire situations. The purpose of this study was to explore and propose strategies to improve effectiveness of hospital leadership in order to enhance the quality of health care provided in hospitals through improving health workers’ empowerment, job satisfaction and patient safety culture. Thus, a sequential explanatory mixed method research design was used. The research had three phases, in which the first phase used five structured questionnaires explored leadership styles, the health workers’ satisfaction and empowerment, patient safety culture, and the patient experience of quality of health care; while the second involved a qualitative study (content analysis); and third phase focused on the preparation of a strategy document. Data in the form of interview responses was gathered from 75 leaders, 542 health workers, 532 patients and 11 key informants. The analysis shows that, overall, hospital leaders considered themselves more transformational (M=2.98, SD=0.41) than transactional (M=2.85, SD=0.46). Job satisfaction of private and public hospital health workers were 70.8 % and 57.1 % respectively (P-value<0.001). In addition, private hospital workers had a higher score in structural and psychological empowerment than their pubic hospital counterparts; the difference was statistically significant in all dimensions (P-value <=0.03). The analysis reveals that public and private hospitals’ mean total patient safety scores were 3.58 and 3.77 respectively (P-value=0.02). Finally, the “overall rating of hospital” was better for private hospitals: 84.8% and 88.4 % respectively (P-value=0.03). The study makes a number of observations. It notes that, firstly, transformational leadership has direct and strong correlation with structural and psychological empowerment (r=0.70, P-value=0.04 and r=0.83, P-value=0.01 respectively). Secondly, structural empowerment has a direct and significant effect on psychological empowerment (β=0.28, P-value=<0.01); and minimal indirect effect on patient safety culture through psychological empowerment (β=0.05, P-value=<0.05). Thirdly, health worker job satisfaction also has had a direct effect on patient safety culture (β=0.44, Pvalue=< 0.01. The fourth and final observation is that psychological empowerment has had a direct and statistically significant effect on patient safety culture (β=0.19, Pvalue=< 0.01). These observations indicate that, although private hospitals are better in every dimension of this study, the current hospitals situation in Addis Ababa needs urgent attention. Hence, the identification and recommendation for the preparation of eight strategic priority areas along with key interventions seeking to improve the hospital leaders’ effectiveness.Health StudiesD. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies