World-wide work stress multi-case study of the stress-coping process in distributed work

The changing world of work is increasing demands on workers through greater need for flexibility in global collaboration. Many organizations utilize distributed teams in which a group of people with a common purpose carry out interdependent tasks across locations and time, using technology to communicate more than face-to-face meetings. Prior literature on distributed teams shows that distributed work creates several challenges for team members' well-being, but our knowledge about the unique stressors that arise from these new work settings is limited and calls for further investigation. This multiple-case study uses a qualitative research approach to study context-specific job stressors that contribute to employees' psychological strain, and the coping mechanisms employees use to alleviate that strain. Ninety-seven team leaders and members from ten distributed real-life work teams were interviewed. The semi-structured interview data was analyzed qualitatively on team and individual levels. Results reveal the unique stressors and coping mechanisms of distributed work and model their relations to psychological strain. Geographic distance, electronic dependence and cultural diversity hinder the information flow and task coordination in distributed teams, creating stress-evoking ambiguity and uncertainty for team members. Not only these job stressors but also some of the strategies used to cope with them contribute to overload and strain. In particular, certain team-level coping strategies, such as frequent traveling to face-to-face meetings, prolonged work hours due to synchronous computer-mediated communication, and email overload create secondary sources of work overload when people use them continuously to manage uncertainty and ambiguity in distributed collaboration. To cope with the team-level coping strategies, team members rely heavily on individual coping resources, because spatial and temporal distance hinder the mobilization of social resources related to emotional, instrumental and informational social support. This dissertation suggests that the team-level coping strategies that are effective in managing certain job demands may, however, create other stressors and overload for individuals. Experienced workers, who have good self-management skills, may succeed in coping with these secondary sources of strain by prioritizing and setting clear limits for workload. Less experienced workers may feel more overloaded and need more social support from their leaders and teammates. As a practical implication, this dissertation suggests that the self-management skills in coping, employees' efforts in setting clear limits and prioritizing tasks should be better supported by organizations

The Information and Communication Technology User Role: Implications for the Work Role and Inter-Role Spillover

Management and organization research has traditionally focused on employees' work role and the interface between their work and family roles. We suggest that persons assume a third role in modern society that is relevant to work and organizations, namely the Information and Communication Technology User (ICTU) role. Based on role theory and boundary theory, we develop propositions about the characteristics of this role, as well as how ICTU role characteristics are related to boundary spanning activity, inter-role spillover with the work role, and work role performance. To this end, we first conceptualize the ICTU role and its associations with work and family roles. We then apply identity theory and boundary management theory to advance our understanding of how the ICTU role is related to criteria that are important to individuals and to organizations, namely self-selection into certain types of work roles and positive and negative inter-role spillover. The implications of this role for theory, research, and practice in management and organizations are discussed

Mitigation Strategies of Technostress on Supply Chain Management

Logistics managers work to create practices that reduce technostress, which is associated with diminished productivity in supply chain management. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the mitigation strategies that logistics managers at distribution centers used to reduce technostress with their employees in the Los Angeles County, California area. The conceptual framework included in this study was the sociotechnical systems theory. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 6 logistics managers from large distribution centers who implemented mitigation strategies that demonstrably reduced technostress with their employees. Public documents and physical artifacts reviewed in this study included productivity assessment tools, information and communication technology system training materials, technostress mitigation instruments, and information from technological devices. Data were analyzed through a process of pattern matching, cross-case synthesis, and systematic text condensation. The findings included 6 themes: reliance on internal information technology experts; hiring temporary experts; maintaining communication and training; using time management skills and organizing priorities; identification and understanding of employee differences; and implementing well-being, fitness, and health programs. These findings could contribute to positive social change by providing logistics managers with strategies to reduce technostress, which could lead to improved employee well-being, better work conditions, and increased productivity for greater company profitability that could produce a more thriving and prosperous community

Les médias sociaux d’entreprise pour favoriser la maturité numérique

Abstract: Developing their digital maturity is one of the most important goals of contemporary organizations. However, succeeding in this endeavor requires constant changes in the fabric of organizations and within their value-creation processes. Previous studies provided evidence of the benefits of enterprise social media to support value-creation shifts. Hence, exploring the use of enterprise social media to support digital maturity development seems coherent, although underexplored in the extant literature, especially in the context of small organizations. This doctoral research addresses this gap, by studying the use of enterprise social media, an affordable and intuitive technology, to support the development of digital maturity in the context of a small organization. To accomplish this task, we embraced an action research methodology for context understanding and problem-solving. Several data collection techniques were applied, and a template analysis approach supported data analyses, guiding the development of the action research cycles. Our research proposes a theoretical framework in which enterprise social media is likely to trigger different value-creation shifts within the partner organization, supporting the development of a flexible structure to face the challenges of the turbulent digital business environment. The proposed framework is drawn on emergent insights from the action research interventions applied in the context of a small organization. Results suggest that the different forms of value-creation related to the use of enterprise social media platforms supported the partner organization to develop its digital maturity, contributing to the Sociotechnical Systems perspective and the Contingency Theory. Moreover, while describing that technology implementation alone will not advance an organization’s digital maturity, this paper provides managers with insights into how to use enterprise social media as part of their digital maturity strategies, to assess their organizations’ enterprise social media maturity level, and to understand the potential of enterprise social media to create value in the digital business environment.Développer leur maturité numérique est l'un des objectifs les plus importants des entreprises contemporaines. La réussite de cet objectif nécessite des changements constants dans le tissu des organisations et dans leurs processus de création de valeur. Des études antérieures ont démontré les avantages des médias sociaux d'entreprise pour soutenir le changement dans la création de valeur des organisations. Par conséquent, étudier l'utilisation des médias sociaux d'entreprise pour soutenir le développement de la maturité numérique semble cohérent, bien que sous-exploré dans la littérature existante. Pour élargir les connaissances à ce sujet, la présente recherche doctorale vise à comprendre l'utilisation des médias sociaux d'entreprise, une technologie abordable et intuitive pour soutenir le développement de la maturité numérique, dans le cadre d'une petite organisation. La recherche a été menée en s'appuyant sur une méthodologie de recherche-action, afin de bien comprendre le contexte et de soutenir l’organisation partenaire dans ces objectives. Plusieurs techniques de collecte de données ont été employées, et une approche de template analysis a soutenu les analyses de données, guidant le développement des cycles de recherche-action. Notre recherche propose un modèle théorique qui explore l'influence des médias sociaux d'entreprise sur la création de valeur au sein d'une petite organisation. Le cadre théorique proposé a été appliqué dans le contexte de l'organisation partenaire, ce qui nous a permis de constater que les différentes formes de création de valeur liées à l'utilisation des plateformes de médias sociaux d'entreprise ont aidé l'organisation partenaire à développer sa maturité numérique, en ajoutant des contributions aux théories sociotechniques et des contingences. Des contributions managériales de cette recherche incluent des consignes détaillées sur la façon d'utiliser les médias sociaux d'entreprise dans le cadre de leurs stratégies numériques, d'évaluer le niveau de maturité des médias sociaux d'entreprise de leur organisation et de comprendre le potentiel des médias sociaux d'entreprise pour créer de la valeur dans l'environnement numérique d'affaires

The Role of Leadership in Facilitating the Performance of Dispersed Teamwork

A mature body of research on leadership has investigated the impact of a variety of leadership behaviors and styles on team performance. This corpus of work is built on an assumption that team leaders can motivate, direct, and monitor teams by way of sustained, personal contact with team members. However, this assumption is being challenged by recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Use of ICTs has altered traditional team-based structures, enabling organizations to employ teams composed of members who are dispersed across geographic boundaries, while severing the direct, personal ties leaders have to team members. Recent reviews of the literature on dispersed teamwork point to the unique challenges faced by dispersed teams, including difficulties with communication, knowledge transfer, coordination, and Social exchange. No less than five of these reviews call for research on leadership as a means to alleviate these challenges. This dissertation proposal, organized as three essays, seeks to respond to this call by examining leadership issues with respect to task structure, team development, and team structure. Essay 1 explores the role of empowering leadership in helping dispersed teams, and individuals within these teams, cope with information systems development (ISD) risk factors. Essay 2 investigates how technology capabilities can be leveraged to support coaching behaviors directed at facilitating interpersonal processes. Essay 3 draws on the theory of behavioral complexity in leadership to examine how leaders can help dispersed teams respond to the challenges incurred by differing forms of geographic dispersion. The models are tested with data collected from members and leaders of dispersed teams in a large, multinational organization. Results show that leaders have significant and varied influences on dispersed team functioning and can be both beneficial and detrimental for dispersed teams under different conditions. This dissertation makes importance contributions to both research and practice by deepening our understanding of the impacts of leadership in the dispersed team context and providing insight into leadership interventions designed to support dispersed teams in coping with the challenges they face

Towards a Better Comprehension of Adaptation to Information and Communication Technologies: A Multi-level Approach

Despite the variety of literature on ‘adaptation to technology’, the literature still witnesses a gap concerning the concept of adaptation especially about its multi-level nature. Recognizing the multilevel nature of IS adaptation, we rise the challenge of conducting an alternate template analysis of three cases of adaptation to IS in order to provide complementary explanations about the phenomenon. In order to expand the comprehension of the ‘adaptation’ concept, a multi-study dissertation model is adopted. The objective is to examine the adaptation concept on three different levels: the individual, the group level, and the organizational level. This thesis aims at 1) exploring the shaping of individual adaptive actions that knowledge workers engage towards technostress with a focus on the factors that influence their adaptation process; 2) examining the adaptive performance of a group facing an newlyimplemented technology based on the adaptive structuration theory (DeSanctis and Poole 1994) under which were puzzled the concepts of affordances (Leonardi 2011, Leonardi, Huysman et al. 2013) and the structure of usage (Burton-Jones and Straub Jr 2006, Burton-Jones and Gallivan 2007); 3) examining, through an organizational learning lens (Argyris and Schon 1978), the case of an organizational adaptation to environmental technological changes examined within a managerial cognition conceptual framework (Orlikowski and Gash 1994); (Bijker 1987, Bijker 1995). To answer the different research questions, the three studies adopt a qualitative approach falling within a critical realist perspective

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

12th Annual Focus on Creative Inquiry Poster Forum Program

The 2017 Focus on Creative Inquiry Poster Forum displays a selection of the projects accomplished by Clemson University students in their Creative Inquiry teams. What is Creative Inquiry? It is small-group learning for all students, in all disciplines. It is the imaginative combination of engaged learning and undergraduate research – and it is unique to Clemson University. In Creative Inquiry, small teams of undergraduate students work with faculty mentors to take on problems that spring from their own curiosity, a professor’s challenge, or the pressing needs of the world around them. Students take ownership of their projects. They ask questions, they take risks, and they get answers