Theorizing the Multilevel Effects of Interruptions and the Role of Communication Technology

Our understanding of how interrupting the work of an individual affects group outcomes and the role of communication technologies (CT) in shaping these effects is limited. Drawing upon coordination theory and the literatures on computer-mediated communication and interruptions, this paper develops a multilevel theory of work interruptions. It suggests that interruptions that target individuals can also affect other group members through various ripple effects and a cross-level direct effect. We also discuss how the usage of five CT capabilities during interruption episodes can moderate the impact of interruptions at the individual and group levels. Our theoretical model draws attention to the importance of examining the individual-to-group processes to better understand the impact of interruptions in group environments. Additionally, by accounting for the role of the use of CT capabilities during interruption episodes, our work contributes to both the interruptions literature, which dedicates scant attention to the interrupting media, and to IS research on media use and media effects

The Role of Digital Technologies Regarding Employee Intrapreneurial and Innovative Behavior

Drawing on a resource perspective, this thesis scrutinizes the role of digital technologies regarding employee intrapreneurial and innovative behavior. This is done by conducting four independent empirical studies which examine how digital technologies foster and inhibit employee intrapreneurial and innovative behavior. The first study investigates employee-perceived information technology support for innovation, work overload, and invasion of privacy as mediators of the relationship between digital affordances and employee corporate entrepreneurship participation likelihood. The second study examines the relationship between digital technology support and employee intrapreneurial behavior and how this relationship is moderated by management support for innovation and intrapreneurial self-efficacy. Analyzing employee techno-work engagement and employee-perceived techno-strain as mediators, the third study investigates the relationships of employee-perceived digital technology usefulness and complexity with employee innovative performance. Finally, the fourth study examines the indirect effects of perceived daily techno-support and techno-stressors on daily employee innovative behavior through daily high-activated moods. Findings revealed digital affordances to foster employee corporate entrepreneurship participation likelihood through employee-perceived information technology support for innovation and reduced work overload perceptions. Support by different digital technologies was also found to promote employee intrapreneurial behavior, but its relative impact varied with different levels of management support for innovation and intrapreneurial self-efficacy. Moreover, employee-perceived digital technology usefulness fostered employee innovative performance through employee techno-work engagement, while employee-perceived digital technology complexity had negative sequential indirect effects through employee-perceived digital technology usefulness and employee-perceived techno-strain on the one hand and employee techno-work engagement on the other hand. Perceived daily techno-support had a beneficial effect through daily high-activated positive mood. Perceived daily techno-stressors fostered daily employee innovative behavior through daily high-activated negative mood but inhibited that behavior through daily high-activated positive mood. Thus, findings indicate that by offering potentials for both resource gains and losses, digital technologies might be a double-edged sword for employee intrapreneurial and innovative behavior. Hence, with this, the thesis advances the research on employee intrapreneurial and innovative behavior as well as the digital entrepreneurship and innovation literature

Team Learning: A Theoretical Integration and Review

With the increasing emphasis on work teams as the primary architecture of organizational structure, scholars have begun to focus attention on team learning, the processes that support it, and the important outcomes that depend on it. Although the literature addressing learning in teams is broad, it is also messy and fraught with conceptual confusion. This chapter presents a theoretical integration and review. The goal is to organize theory and research on team learning, identify actionable frameworks and findings, and emphasize promising targets for future research. We emphasize three theoretical foci in our examination of team learning, treating it as multilevel (individual and team, not individual or team), dynamic (iterative and progressive; a process not an outcome), and emergent (outcomes of team learning can manifest in different ways over time). The integrative theoretical heuristic distinguishes team learning process theories, supporting emergent states, team knowledge representations, and respective influences on team performance and effectiveness. Promising directions for theory development and research are discussed

Thrive in a Digital Age: Understanding ICT-enabled Work Experiences through the Lens of Work Design

As information communication technology (ICT) becomes ever more embedded in today’s organizations, the nature of employees’ jobs and work experiences are being strongly affected by ICT usage at work. Based on the work design perspective, I conducted three studies to understand the intertwined relationships among technology, human beings, and work. This thesis helps to deepen our understanding on ICT-enabled work experiences, to stimulate the development of work design theories in the digital era, and guide contemporary managerial practices

IT-Related Time Poverty: Identifying Antecedents and Consequences of a Lack of Time Related to IT Use

Time poverty is the subjective perception of inadequate freely disposable time, which results in negative consequences for individuals. Although information systems (IS) research knows that information technology (IT) use change time perception, research is incomplete in explaining IT-related antecedents and consequences of time poverty. Because time is a scarce resource, individuals, organizations, and society have a responsibility to manage time to protect individuals from adverse consequences. We conduct a structured literature review to identify indications of how IT use influences time poverty and its adverse consequences. We identified 16 papers, which we analyzed with respect to different components of IT use and possible consequences of time poverty. Based on the data, we develop an overview of the antecedents and consequences of IT-related time poverty and a research agenda. We contribute to the research by introducing IT-related time poverty as a new IS construct and providing an in-depth research agenda

Employees\u27 cognitive load and performance during multitasking use of Information Technology

Multitasking-based use of Information Technology, a term that we label MUIT, to accomplish work-related tasks has become a common behavior for employees in organizations. Despite this reality, most research to date has focused on studying either the use of one IT at a time or multi-tasking behaviors in experimental laboratory settings. As a result, this study aims to fill these gaps. Building upon cognitive load theory and multiple resource theory, this paper theorizes that MUIT positively influences cognitive load, which in turn, has a curvilinear (concave, in-verted U) relation with performance. In order to test our hypotheses, we employed the Experi-ence Sampling Method (ESM), a special form of diary study, to gather data on employees at multiple occasions for two weeks. The collected data are hierarchical (multiple observations within individuals), and thus, we employed multi-level regression to test the hypotheses. Results show, as hypothesized, a positive relation between MUIT and cognitive load, and an inverted U relation between cognitive load and performance. Therefore, this study demonstrates that in work settings although MUIT increases cognitive load, cognitive load is not always detrimental: some cognitive load has positive effects on performance until it reaches a tipping point where performance starts to suffer

Protect Your Sleep When Work is Calling:How Work-Related Smartphone Use During Non-Work Time and Sleep Quality Impact Next-Day Self-Control Processes at Work

In view of the rapid development of information and communication technologies, the present study sheds light on how work-related smartphone use during non-work time affects employees' subsequent working day. Specifically, we examine work-related smartphone use and sleep quality as moderators of next-day self-control processes at work. Theorizing that work-related smartphone use and self-control demands deplete a common limited regulatory resource, we suggest a strengthening two-way interaction between work-related smartphone use during non-work time and next-day self-control demands at work in predicting employees' ego depletion at work. Moreover, in a three-way interaction, we analyze whether this interaction depends on employees' sleep quality, assuming that when intensive work-related smartphone use is followed by high-quality sleep, the taxed regulatory resource can replenish overnight. Results from our diary study covering 10 working days (n = 63) indicate that after evenings with high work-related smartphone use, employees experience disproportionate levels of ego depletion when dealing with self-control demands at work. Sleep quality, however, attenuates this interaction. In cases of high sleep quality, next-day self-control processes at work are no longer affected by work-related smartphone use. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for employees and employers regarding work-related smartphone use and the relevance of sleep in replenishing drained resources

Let\u27s get this meeting started: Meeting lateness and actual meeting outcomes

Meeting lateness is pervasive and potentially highly consequential for individuals, groups, and organizations. In Study 1, we first examined base rates of lateness to meetings in an employee sample and found that meeting lateness is negatively related to both meeting satisfaction and effectiveness. We then conducted two lab studies to better understand the nature of this negative relationship between meeting lateness and meeting outcomes. In Study 2, we manipulated meeting lateness using a confederate and showed that participants\u27 anticipated meeting satisfaction and effectiveness was significantly lower when meetings started late. In Study 3, participants holding actual group meetings were randomly and blindly assigned to either a ten minutes late, five minutes late, or a control condition (n = 16 groups in each condition). We found significant differences concerning participants\u27 perceived meeting satisfaction and meeting effectiveness, as well as objective group performance outcomes (number, quality, and feasibility of ideas produced in the meeting). We also identified differences in negative socioemotional group interaction behaviors depending on meeting lateness. In concert, our findings establish meeting lateness as an important organizational phenomenon and provide important conceptual and empirical implications for meeting research and practice

The organizational implications of medical imaging in the context of Malaysian hospitals

This research investigated the implementation and use of medical imaging in the context of Malaysian hospitals. In this report medical imaging refers to PACS, RIS/HIS and imaging modalities which are linked through a computer network. The study examined how the internal context of a hospital and its external context together influenced the implementation of medical imaging, and how this in turn shaped organizational roles and relationships within the hospital itself. It further investigated how the implementation of the technology in one hospital affected its implementation in another hospital. The research used systems theory as the theoretical framework for the study. Methodologically, the study used a case-based approach and multiple methods to obtain data. The case studies included two hospital-based radiology departments in Malaysia. The outcomes of the research suggest that the implementation of medical imaging in community hospitals is shaped by the external context particularly the role played by the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, influences from both the internal and external contexts have a substantial impact on the process of implementing medical imaging and the extent of the benefits that the organization can gain. In the context of roles and social relationships, the findings revealed that the routine use of medical imaging has substantially affected radiographers’ roles, and the social relationships between non clinical personnel and clinicians. This study found no change in the relationship between radiographers and radiologists. Finally, the approaches to implementation taken in the hospitals studied were found to influence those taken by other hospitals. Overall, this study makes three important contributions. Firstly, it extends Barley’s (1986, 1990) research by explicitly demonstrating that the organization’s internal and external contexts together shape the implementation and use of technology, that the processes of implementing and using technology impact upon roles, relationships and networks and that a role-based approach alone is inadequate to examine the outcomes of deploying an advanced technology. Secondly, this study contends that scalability of technology in the context of developing countries is not necessarily linear. Finally, this study offers practical contributions that can benefit healthcare organizations in Malaysia

Exploring the relationship between multiple team membership and team performance: the role of social networks and collaborative technology

Firms devoted to research and development and innovative activities intensively use teams to carry out knowledge intensive work and increasingly ask their employees to be engaged in multiple teams (e.g. R&D project teams) simultaneously. The literature has extensively investigated the antecedents of single teams performance, but has largely overlooked the effects of multiple team membership (MTM), i.e., the participation of a focal team\u2019s members in multiple teams simultaneously, on the focal team outcomes. In this paper we examine the relationships between team performance, MTM, the use of collaborative technologies (instant messaging), and work-place social networks (external advice receiving). The data collected in the R&D unit of an Italian company support the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between MTM and team performance such that teams whose members are engaged simultaneously in few or many teams experience lower performance. We found that receiving advice from external sources moderated this relationship. When MTM is low or high, external advice receiving has a positive effect, while at intermediate levels of MTM it has a negative effect. Finally, the average use of instant messaging in the team also moderated the relationship such that at low levels of MTM, R&D teams whose members use instant messaging intensively attain higher performance while at high levels of MTM an intense use of instant messaging is associated with lower team performance. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications for innovative firms engaged in multitasking work scenarios