The consequences of a mismatch between employee needs and job attributes in the information systems field : an empirical survey

Includes bibliography.The high turnover of IS staff in South Africa continues to be a source of concern to organisations relying on Information Technology. Such turnover is costly, and leads to delays in project completion; loss of valuable experience; and reductions in IS department productivity. One of the suggestions for reducing turnover that is frequently encountered in the literature is for organisations to implement a dual-career path for their IT staff. This advice is based on the assumption that IT personnel hold either a Managerial or Technical Career Orientation, and that the dual-career path will, therefore, meet the needs of all IT personnel. This study shows that such an assumption is invalid. As a group, IT professionals in South Africa are shown to have a wide diversity of career orientations. In addition, professionals with different career orientations are shown to be very different types of employee, having different needs and values, and exhibiting different levels of performance in the job. As expected, professionals also tend to occupy jobs that are most likely to fulfil their career orientations. Furthermore, IT professionals whose jobs are congruent with their orientations show significantly greater job and career satisfaction, higher organisational commitment, and less intention to leave their organisations, than their counterparts who experience a mismatch. In contrast, the matched group as a whole did not show superior perceived performance in the mismatched group, although certain orientations did exhibit such differences. It is critical that organisations take cognisance of the diversity of IT personnel in their employ, and adopt career planning and motivational strategies flexible enough to accommodate each orientation. This study has shown that the implementation of a dual-career path will satisfy a scant 10.2% of the individuals surveyed. Thus, greater focus by organisations on understanding the individual, and less on seeking to manage the IT profession as a group, will result in personnel experiencing greater satisfaction, as well as more commitment to, and less likelihood of leaving, their employing organisations. It is recommended that research is continued into the career orientations of IS personnel. Specifically, it would be valuable to improve and refine the instrument assembled in this study, the aim of producing a measure that researchers and, moreover, employers can utilise to assess how various jobs match the different career orientations known to exist. Also, it would be beneficial to examine further the performance levels of individuals in positions incompatible with their orientations, and to examine why different levels of performance between matched and mismatched individuals were exhibited by only certain of the orientations. Finally, research should be performed into the different career paths, positions and assignments most suited to the individual orientations, in order to enable organisations to achieve a better fit between the needs of the organisation, and the needs of the IT employee. It is recommended that research is continued into the career of IS personnel. Specifically, it would be valuable to improve and refine the instrument assembled in this study, with aim of producing a measure that researchers and, moreover, employers can utilise to assess how various jobs match the different career orientations known to it would be beneficial to examine further the performance levels of individuals positions incompatible with orientations, and to examine different levels of between matched and mismatched individuals were by only certain of the orientations. Finally, research should performed into the different career paths, positions and assignments most suited to the individual in order to enable organisations to achieve a between the needs of the and the needs of the employee

Revolution or Evolution: The Transformation of Japanese Personnel Practices

[Excerpt] Ever since Japan reemerged as an economic power from the ruins of the World War II, it is striking how the pace and magnitude of economic and social changes facing the country continue to increase. The rapid growth of the late 1960s, the successive of oil shocks, the revaluation of the yen, the changes in global competitive position in many industries, the spread of information technology, the aging of the society, the enlargement of the middle class and consequent increase in discretionary consumption, all these factors have had a major impact on the organizational culture and climate in Japanese firms

Work Alienation among IT Workers: A Cross-Cultural Gender Comparison

Information Technology (IT) has experienced a worrisome decline in female participation over two decades, much of which can be attributed to fewer women choosing IT careers. However, women IT professionals also demonstrate mid-career turnover for reasons such as work-life balance, work exhaustion, role ambiguity, role conflict, and growth needs. This study explores alienation among women IT professionals and examines factors that lead to work alienation and abandonment of IT careers. Such alienation appears to be less prevalent in Asian countries where women perceive IT careers to be more conducive to female participation. A comparison among women from American and Asian cultures is proposed

PEREHDYTTÄMINEN OSANA UUDEN TYÖNTEKIJÄN KEHITTYMISTÄ : CASE LA BAMBA

Tämän opinnäytetyön aiheena oli laatia perehdytysopas ravintola La Bambaan uusien työntekijöiden ja perehdyttäjien käyttöön. Tavoitteena oli tehdä kohdeyritykseemme toimiva perehdyttämisopas, jonka tarkoitus on jatkossa toimia osana uuden työntekijän kehittymistä. Tarkoituksena on tutkia mitä asioita perehdyttäminen pitää sisällään, ja miten se tulisi toteuttaa yksilöidysti kaikille sopivaksi. Tavoitteena on myös tutkia perehdytystä osana uuden työntekijän kehittymistä uudesta tulokkaasta tulosta tekeväksi työntekijäksi. Henkilöstön kehittämisellä tarkoitetaan tiedon, ammattitaidon ja työtaitojen ylläpitoa ja kasvattamista, joilla turvataan henkilöstön selviytyminen nykyisistä ja tulevista työtehtävistä. Henkilöstön kehittäminen on kokonaisuus, johon osana kuuluvat henkilöstön valintaan liittyvät asiat ja henkilöstön perehdyttäminen. Perehdyttäminen on osa osaamisen kehittämistä. Se voidaan nähdä investointina, jolla lisätään henkilöstön osaamista, parannetaan laatua, tuetaan työssä jaksamista ja vähennetään työtapaturmia ja poissaoloja. Perehdyttämisprosessissa työntekijä perehdytetään muun muassa yrityksen organisaatioon ja toimintatapoihin, liikeideaan, henkilöstöstrategiaan ja organisaatioympäristöön. Opinnäytetyön empiriaosuudessa selvitettiin kohdeyrityksen työntekijöiden näkemyksiä yrityksen perehdyttämisen nykytilasta sekä mahdollisia ideoita perehdyttämisen kehittämiseen ja heidän kehittymismahdollisuuksiaan yrityksessä. Tulosten perusteella pohdittiin, kuinka perehdyttämistä voitaisiin parantaa kohdeyrityksessä. Kyselyn tuloksia käytettiin osittain apuna myös perehdyttämisoppaan laadinnassa. Teoreettista tietoa ja kyselyn tuloksia verrattaessa kohdeyrityksen perehdyttämisessä havaittiin puutteita. Jotkut työntekijät olivat tyytymättömiä tämän hetkiseen perehdyttämisprosessiin sekä perehdyttämisen vastuujakoon. Pyrkimällä luomaan kirjallisen perehdyttämisoppaan suullisen perehdyttämiskäytännön rinnalle pyritään perehdyttämistä parantamaan kohdeyrityksessä.The subject of this thesis was to create an orientation guide for the use of restaurant La Bamba’s new employees and superiors. The objective of this thesis was to create a functional orientation guide which is supposed to be used as a part of a new employee’s development. The meaning of this thesis is to research what the orientation process contains and how the process should be fulfilled for everyone individually. The objective of the thesis is also to study the orientation as a part of a new employee’s development from newcomer to a result-oriented worker. Human resource development means to maintain and increase knowledge, professional ability and workmanship. By these it is assured that the personnel manages the current and future, often more challenging work assignments. Human resource development is an entity which constitutes the issue of selecting personnel and their orientation. Orientation is a part of developing the know-how. Orientation may be seen as an investment which increases the knowledge of the human resource, improves the quality, supports managing in work and decreases the occupational accidents and absence. In the orientation process the employee is familiarized to company's organization, operation modes, business idea, personnel strategy and policy and the surroundings of the organization. In the empirical part this thesis' intent was to clarify case company's employees' views on the current state of company's orientation and some ideas for developing orientation and their possibilities to make progress in their career or work. On the basis of the results, ideas on improving the orientation were considered. The results were also partly used when the new orientation guide was created. When theoretical data and results of the survey were compared, some shortages in the case company's orientation were acknowledged. Some employees were dissatisfied on the current orientation process and responsibility sharing of the orientation. By creating a written orientation guide beside of the oral orientation convention, orientation could be improved in the case company

Campus Update: September 1991 v. 3, no. 8

Monthly newsletter of the BU Medical Campu

E-HRM: Innovation or irritation. An explorative empirical study in five large companies on web-based HRM

Technological optimistic voices assume that, from a technical perspective, the IT possibilities for HRM are endless: in principal all HR processes can be supported by IT. E-HRM is the relatively new term for this IT supported HRM, especially through the use of web technology. This paper aims at demystifying e-HRM by answering the following questions: what actually is e-HRM?, what are the goals of starting with e-HRM?, what types can be distinguished? and what are the outcomes of e-HRM? Based upon the literature, an e-HRM research model is developed and, guided by this model, five organizations have been studied that have already been on the "e-HR road" for a number of years. We conclude that the goals of e-HRM are mainly to improve HR's administrative efficiency/to achieve cost reduction. Next to this goals, international companies seem to use the introduction of e-HRM to standardize/harmonize HR policies and processes. Further, there is a 'gap' between e-HRM in a technical sense and e-HRM in a practical sense in the five companies involved in our study. Finally, e-HRM hardly helped to improve employee competences, but resulted in cost reduction and a reduction of the administrative burden

Managing academic personnel flow at universities.

Universities experience increasing difficulty in staffing their academic positions. Attracting and retaining highly qualified employees in a general problem that has received much attention in recent HRM literature. But several authors have claimed that the academic career has lost much of its attractiveness. This paper presents seven levers that universities may use to enhance their recruitment and retention power on a difficult job market. Suggestions are based on experience from innovative organizations, both universities and business organizations. Special attention is given to the creation of multiple and flexible career paths within academia. We contend that a successful application of these suggestions will require major cultural and institutional change at universities.Retention; Market;

Linking HRM and innovation: formulating the research agenda

The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which innovation and HRM are interdependent; how effective human resource management can enhance innovation capabilities within the organisation and how innovation culture may drive a need to reshape HRM systems. Its key aim is to investigate the depth and breadth of extant research which analyses the relationships between systems of human resource management and capacity for innovation. With few exceptions, HRM and innovation have emerged as quite separate fields of research and our aim is to draw these closer together. This paper builds a number of research questions from the growing literature and relatively few research findings in this area, to form the basis of future research