A Conceptual Model for IT Work Autonomy

Autonomy is considered an important predecessor of job-related outcomes such as job satisfaction, job motivation, and work-life-balance. Although widely used in information systems (IS) research, most studies ignore its multi-dimensional nature and technology-related facets related to autonomy. This study contributes to existing literature by proposing IT work autonomy as a rich conceptualization that includes three existing dimensions of autonomy (work method autonomy, work scheduling autonomy, and work criteria autonomy) and a new technology-related dimension (i.e., work instrument autonomy). A conceptual model is proposed and discussed. For IS theory, conceptualizing IT work autonomy promises to enlighten future research that seeks to explore work-related phenomena. Moreover, this new conceptualization has the potential to guide organizations in designing future jobs

IT Consumerization – A Theory and Practice Review

Consumerization of IT refers to privately-owned ÌT resources such as devices or software that are used for business purposes. The effects of consumerization are considered to be a major driver that redefines the relationship between employees (in terms of consumers of enterprise IT) and the IT organization. While there has been extensive debate on these matters in practice, IS research has not developed a clear theoretical understanding of the phenomenon. We present a theory and practice review, where the existing literature on consumerization is reviewed and a clear definition of the concept is developed. This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of IT consumerization in relation to fundamental aspects of IS. Our analysis shows, first, which distinct aspects of IS are affected by consumerization. Secondly, we provide an overview over major advantages and disadvantages for employees and organizations by conducting a systematic analysis of current literature available on the topic

What Influences Technological Individualization? – An Analysis of Antecedents to IT Consumerization Behavior

IT consumerization refers to the adoption of consumer IT in the workplace and is regarded as one of the major future IT trends. However, little is yet understood with respects to the antecedents of the trend on an individual level, i.e. the IT consumerization behavior of individuals. We attempt to close this research gap by means of a quantitative analysis. First, we conceptualize IT consumerization and draw clear boundaries to existing concepts in the context of individual information systems. We then set out to derive possible antecedents from literature and quantitatively test their impact on IT consumerization intention. We are able to show that expected performance improvement as well as consumerization behavior of coworkers have a high significant impact, while personal innovativeness in IT does not significantly influence the intention to user technologies other than the ones provided by the enterprise

How IT Consumerization Affects the Stress Level at Work: A Public Sector Case Study

IT consumerization refers to the adoption of consumer technologies in an enterprise context and is becoming increasingly important in both research and practice. While there are often positive effects attributed with the trend, e.g. with respect to increased performance or motivation, not much attention has yet been given to the effects it has on stress of employees. In order to close this research gap, we conduct a qualitative single case study in the public sector. We derive four major stressors that are related to IT consumerization, i.e. 1) increased reachability, 2) lack of competence, 3) workflow changes, and 4) system redundancies. These stressors are discussed with respect to related theory concepts in IS. Moreover, they are used to derive recommendations for practitioners with respect to policy development and communication. Our paper contributes to the recent discussion on theoretical implications of IT consumerization effects

Security Issues with Mobile IT: A Narrative Review of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

The use of employee-owned mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc., to access business enterprise content or networks otherwise referred to as of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) has further made the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of organizations’ data become insecure, and prone to breaches and fraudulent activities. In this study, the authors explored a narrative review that focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of vast works of literature that revealed significant information on the conceptual framework, existing systems that adopt BYOD security, analysis, and synthesis of prior research. Using some keywords “BYOD system security”, “BYOD security threats”, “cyber-attacks and security”, etc., an electronic database search extracted peer-reviewed articles from the last five years. The thematic analysis of fifty-one articles retrieved revealed that breaches and fraudulent activities exist with the use of BYOD that may be perpetrated against organization’s data, intentionally or maliciously. Good policies and guidelines on the use of BYOD coupled with good formulation and communication of same, should be adhered to avert some forms of security breaches. There is the need to preserve user’s privacy, organizations’ data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, and secure same in the devices of employees using their own devices to process corporate and personal data, by using acceptable and effective BYOD Policy and Mobile Device Management Solution (MDMS). This may increase mutual trust and BYOD adoption rate, new innovations and influence that can positively impact the organizations and their employees. Keyword: BYOD, security threats, password, cyber-attacks and security, Information security. DOI: 10.7176/JIEA/8-1-0

The Effect of Private IT Use on Work Performance - Towards an IT Consumerization Theory

IT consumerization – defined as the use of privately-owned IT resources for business purposes – is steadily growing, thus creating new challenges for enterprises. While numerous practitioner studies suggest a positive effect of this trend on employee work performance, IS research still lacks a systematic understanding of the forces underlying this relationship. In order to close this research gap, we derive three major effects of IT consumerization on employees: 1) an increased workload 2) an elevated autonomy and 3) a higher level of competence. Drawing on cognitive stress model and self-determination theory, we develop an innovative theoretical model of the relationships between IT consumerization and work performance. We then conduct an embedded single-case study, in order to evaluate the constructs and relationships of our structural model by means of qualitative research. Subsequently, the implications for theorizing and practicing IT consumerization are discussed and suggestions on further developing this study are presented

Consumer-Centric Information Systems: A Literature Review and Avenues for Further Research

While consumer centricity has been extensively discussed as a concept of organizational transformation in the marketing domain, there is little research on its operationalization as a characteristic of information systems and associated antecedents.We review the marketing literature to understand generic organizational objectives of consumer centricity which are then generalized as characteristics of consumer-centric information systems. In a second step, we draw on socio-technical theory to conceptualize antecedents of consumer centricity as capabilities to align social and technical system components.Our research contributes to the body of knowledge by theoretically deriving an operationalization and antecedents of consumer centricity in IS research. This paper lays the foundation for a structured review of IS literature to theorize on component alignment capabilities as antecedents of consumer centricity. It further is the basis for case study research to construct a nomological network for consumer-centric information systems

Architecture of Belonging – A Social Identity-based Design Theory of Community Identification in Multiplayer Video Games

Recently several studies have worked towards a better understanding of reasons to play multiplayer online games (MOGs). Despite multiple approaches used, understanding of the topic remains incomplete due to its complexity. This study constructs an explanatory design theory of community identification as a predictor of engagement in MOGs. To that end, a structured multimixed-method study was conducted. First, a quantitative survey (N=236) was used to illustrate the explanatory power of community identification in the specific context of our study. Second, a workshop (N=10) was held identifying similarity and mutual influence as the most meaningful design elements of community identification. On this basis, and building off the design science paradigm, and assumptions from the contrast model and interactive richness, an explanatory design theory to foster community identification in MOGs is derived. The model features the elements of the design factors similarity (high vs. low) and interactive richness (rich vs. poor) that can be tested in future (experimental) research

THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL PRESENCE ON USER-TO-USER SUPPORT PROCEDURES

More and more companies allow users to bring their own IT devices to the workplace. As a result, an increased heterogeneity of hard- and software makes it challenging to deliver central IT support. Therefore, employees might increasingly rely on the help of their colleagus. In such a user-to-user support scenario, traditional communication media such as text chat and telephone are used. In this context, we set out to investigate the effects of social presence, i.e. the feeling of human warmth, in a laboratory experiment. While this feeling of human contact is assumed to be important in an increasingly digitized world, our findings could not confirm this hypothesis. In contrast to the media richness theory, our study shows that audio compared to text chat has no impact on social presence and no subsequnt effect on trust. However, we could confirm the relationship of social presence on enjoyment and show that trust leads facilitates information gathering. Our findings may be limited du to the use of an answer script of the human support playing a colleagu as counterpart for the participants. We relate our shortcomings to theory and provide potential avenus for future experimental studies on user-to-user support