Are Individual Differences Germane to the Acceptance of New Information Technologies?

Persuading users to adopt new information technologies persists as an important problem confronting those responsible for implementing new information systems. In order to better understand and manage the process of new technology adoption, several theoretical models have been proposed, of which the technology acceptance model (TAM) has gained considerable support. Beliefs and attitudes represent significant constructs in TAM. A parallel research stream suggests that individual difference factors are important in information technology acceptance but does not explicate the process by which acceptance is influenced. The objective of this paper is to clarify this process by proposing a theoretical model wherein the relationship between individual differences and IT acceptance is hypothesized to be mediated by the constructs of the technology acceptance model. In essence then, these factors are viewed as influencing an individual's beliefs about an information technology innovation; this relationship is further supported by drawing upon extensive research in learning. The theoretical model was tested in an empirical study of 230 users of an information technology innovation. Results confirm the basic structure of the model, including the mediating role of beliefs. Results also identify several individual difference variables that have significant effects on TAM's beliefs. Theoretical contributions and practical implications that follow are discussed.     

Acceptance of automation manufacturing technology in China: an examination of perceived norm and organizational efficacy

Abstract

With a shift to more automation technology, social acceptance of technology plays an important role in the manufacturing sector. To what extent this occurs, and affects the adoption of technology, has been less researched, but is important in deciding how such technology is introduced, and the nature of the shift from labour-intensive manufacturing to automation. This research applies the revised technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine the impact of social and individual antecedents on the acceptance of automation manufacturing technology. Survey data are collected from 258 Chinese manufacturers. Results suggest that perceived norms significantly affect organizational intention to use automation manufacturing technology both directly and via perceived usefulness; organizational efficacy explains the intention to use via mediating effect of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. This research is one of the first extending and applying TAM from individuals to organizations.     

A Model of the Antecedents of Perceived Ease of Use: Development and Test*

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been widely used to predict user acceptance and use based on perceived ease of use and usefulness. However, in order to design effective training interventions to improve user acceptance, it is necessary to better understand the antecedents and determinants of key acceptance constructs. In this research, we focus on understanding the determinants of perceived ease of use. Data from three experiments spanning 108 subjects and six different systems supported our hypothesis that an individual's perception of a particular system's ease of use is anchored to her or his general computer self-efficacy at all times, and objective usability has an impact on ease of use perceptions about a specific system only after direct experience with the system. In addition to being an important research issue in user acceptance research, understanding antecedents of perceived ease of use is also important from a practical standpoint since several systems in which millions of dollars are invested are rejected because of poor user interfaces. Moreover, the actual underlying problem might be low computer self-efficacy of the target user group. In such cases, training interventions aimed at improving computer self-efficacy of users may be more effective than improved interface design for increasing user acceptance.     

Human resource development competencies as predictors of agricultural extension agents' performance in Yemen

Human resource development (HRD) issue is recognized as a significant factor for survival of organizations and professionals, including those in the sector of agricultural extension. Few empirical studies have examined the influence of HRD competency variables on agricultural extension agents' performance. The authors argue that HRD competency variables such as leadership development, communication, programme planning, programme implementation and programme evaluation could predict agricultural extension agents' performance. Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 290 extension agents in Yemen to discover if HRD competencies affect the performance of extension agents. Regression analysis shows that three variables – competencies in programme implementation, programme evaluation and programme planning – contributed significantly to the performance of extension agents. These predictors explain 42.2% of the variance in the job performance model.     

Norms in Mixed Sex and Mixed Race Work Groups

Abstract

Norms determine regular patterns of behavior and influence members' identification with a group. They are also a proximate way to predict and understand behavior in diverse work groups but, surprisingly, have not been extensively examined in this context. After reviewing research on group norms and the psychology of prejudice, I suggest that reaping the benefits of the increased range of available task relevant resources in demographically diverse work groups may depend on the strength and content of the norms it adopts, but that diverse groups face distinct obstacles in developing strong norms that create satisfying interpersonal interaction and effective work performance. I consider the difficulties diverse work groups have in forming strong norms and then focus on how anti‐bias norms, which are directed toward preventing behaviors associated with prejudice and discrimination and address members' security concerns, and openness norms, which promote people's ability to individuate those whom they might otherwise stereotype as well as address nurturance concerns, may increase a work group's ability to optimize social interaction and performance amidst diversity. I suggest that reorienting psychological and organizational research on prejudice to focus on group norm strength and content may be a way of both understanding and solving the greater challenges of discrimination.     

Global supplier development considering risk factors using fuzzy extended AHP-based approach

Global supplier development is a multi-criterion decision problem which includes both qualitative and quantitative factors. The global supplier selection problem is more complex than domestic one and it needs more critical analysis. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss some of the important and critical decision criteria including risk factors for the development of an efficient system for global supplier selection. Fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process (FEAHP) based methodology will be discussed to tackle the different decision criteria like cost, quality, service performance and supplier's profile including the risk factors involved in the selection of global supplier in the current business scenario. FEAHP is an efficient tool to handle the fuzziness of the data involved in deciding the preferences of different decision variables. The linguistic level of comparisons produced by the customers and experts for each comparison are tapped in the form triangular fuzzy numbers to construct fuzzy pair-wise comparison matrices. The implementation of the system is demonstrated by a problem having four stages of hierarchy which contains different criteria and attributes at wider perspective. The proposed model can provide not only a framework for the organization to select the global supplier but also has the capability to deploy the organization's strategy to its supplier.     

The Paradox of Authentic Selves and Chameleons: Self‐monitoring,Perceived Job Autonomy and Contextual Performance

We investigate how self‐monitoring combines with the degree of perceived job autonomy to affect contextual performance. We explore both a mediation model, built on theories on individual differences in the perception of job characteristics, and a moderation model, built on theories of the interaction between personality and perceived job situation. Empirical evidence suggests that self‐monitoring and perceived job autonomy significantly predict contextual performance. In addition, an interesting paradox emerges: high self‐monitors are likely to perceive higher job autonomy than low self‐monitors but appear to benefit less from perceiving high job autonomy than low self‐monitors. This paper provides a richer understanding of the controversial nature of the self‐monitoring construct and offers a new specification of the combination between perceived situational and personality variables in the prediction of behavioural outcomes.     

Recruitment on the Net: How Do Organizational Web Site Characteristics Influence Applicant Attraction?

The use of organizational web sites for recruitment has become increasingly common. Despite their widespread growth, however, little is known about how these web sites influence recruitment outcomes. In the current paper, we present a model that explicates how job seekers interact with and respond to web site characteristics to predict various job seeker attitudes and behaviors. We suggest that job seekers are initially affected by the facade of a web site, comprised of the web site’s aesthetic and playfulness features. Coupled with system features of the web site, these initial affective reactions then influence perceptions of the usability of the web site. Perceptions of usability and affective reactions work through two key mediating constructs, job seeker search behavior and web site attitude, to ultimately predict applicant attraction. Throughout the paper we present a series of testable propositions that should serve to guide future research.     

The Role of Innovation Characteristics and Perceived Voluntariness in the Acceptance of Information Technologies

The often paradoxical relationship between investment in information technology and gains in productivity has recently been attributed to a lack of user acceptance of information technology innovations. Diverse streams of research have attempted to explain and predict user acceptance of new information technologies. A common theme underlying these various research streams is the inclusion of the perceived characteristics of an innovation as key independent variables. Furthermore, prior research has utilized different outcomes to represent user acceptance behavior. In this paper we focus on individual's perceptions about the characteristics of the target technology as explanatory and predictive variables for acceptance behavior, and present an empirical study examining the effects of these perceptions on two frequently used outcomes in the context of the innovation represented by the World Wide Web. The two outcomes examined are initial use of an innovation and intentions to continue such use in the future, that is, to routinize technology use. Two research questions motivated and guided the study. First, are the perceptions that predict initial use the same as those that predict future use intentions? Our results confirm, as hypothesized by prior research, that innovation characteristics do explain acceptance behavior. The results further reveal that the specific characteristics that are relevant for each acceptance outcome are different. The second research question asks if perceived voluntariness plays a role in technology acceptance. Results show that external pressure has an impact on adopters' acceptance behavior. Theoretical and practical implications that follow are presented.     

The effects of self-efficacy on computer usage

This paper examines the effect of self-efficacy, belief in one's capabilities of using a computer in the accomplishment of specific tasks, on computer usage. It introduces an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) that explicitly incorporates self-efficacy and its determinants (experience and organizational support) as factors affecting computer anxiety, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and the use of computer technology. A survey of 450 microcomputer users in Finland found strong support for the conceptual model. In accordance with TAM, perceived usefulness had a strong direct effect on usage, while perceived ease of use had indirect effect on usage through perceived usefulness. Self-efficacy had both direct and indirect effects on usage, demonstrating its importance in the decision to use computer technology. It also had a strong direct effect on perceived ease of use, but only an indirect effect on perceived usefulness through perceived ease of use. Computer experience was found to have a strong positive direct effect on self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and usage. Organizational support and computer anxiety had only indirect effects on usage, mainly through perceived usefulness. Implications of these findings are discussed for researchers and practitioners.     

Search and Rest Unemployment

This paper develops a tractable version of the Lucas and Prescott (1974) search model. Each of a continuum of industries produces a heterogeneous good using a production technology that is continually hit by idiosyncratic shocks. In response to adverse shocks, some workers search for new industries while others are rest unemployed, waiting for their industry's condition to improve. We obtain closed‐form expressions for key aggregate variables and use them to evaluate the model's quantitative predictions for unemployment and wages. Both search and rest unemployment are important for understanding the behavior of wages at the industry level.     

Continued usage of technology versus situational factors: An empirical analysis

Mainstream technology management literature suggests that research on continued usage of technology is largely based on two perspectives, namely (i) a forward-looking perspective that underpins the technology acceptance model (TAM), and (ii) a retrospective perspective that is based on the expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT). We propose an extended framework to re-examine continued usage of technology by combining these two perspectives and incorporating individual, social and environmental factors as additional variables. Our study, in the context of users’ continued usage of e-learning tools, reveals that in addition to user satisfaction and perceived usefulness, self-efficacy, system service support and social pressure are significant factors that affect continued usage of technology. Our findings enrich the theoretical framework of continued usage of technology, and provide e-learning developers with managerial insights on how to entice learners to continue using their e-learning tools.     

3 Staffing Twenty‐first‐century Organizations

Abstract

We highlight important differences between twenty‐first‐century organizations as compared with those of the previous century, and offer a critical review of the basic principles, typical applications, general effectiveness, and limitations of the current staffing model. That model focuses on identifying and measuring job‐related individual characteristics to predict individual‐level job performance. We conclude that the current staffing model has reached a ceiling or plateau in terms of its ability to make accurate predictions about future performance. Evidence accumulated over more than 80 years of staffing research suggests that general mental abilities and other traditional staffing tools do a modest job of predicting performance across settings and jobs considering that, even when combined and corrected for methodological and statistical artifacts, they rarely predict more than 50% of the variance in performance. Accordingly, we argue for a change in direction in staffing research and propose an expanded view of the staffing process, including the introduction of a new construct, in situ performance, and an expanded view of staffing tools to be used to predict future in situ performance that take into account time and context. Our critical review offers a novel perspective and research agenda with the goal of guiding future research that will result in more useful, applicable, relevant, and effective knowledge for practitioners to use in organizational settings.     

Flexible Work Arrangements and Intentions of Unemployed Women in Cyprus: A Planned Behaviour Model

Drawing from the theory of planned behaviour, we use 18 focus groups with 113 unemployed women and 150 mail questionnaires to explore whether and how unemployed Cypriot women's subjective norms, attitudes, perceived behavioural control and job versus career aspirations influence their intentions to adopt employee‐ and employer‐driven flexible work arrangements. To analyse the information gathered, we used a combination of content analysis, an external panel of practitioners and academics, principal components analysis, and regressions. Results show that women's positive attitudes towards child‐caring and self‐enhancement and their subjective norms of organizational inflexibility were positively related mainly with intentions to adopt employee‐driven flexible work arrangements. Further, women who found childcare support and employer requirements limiting were more interested in telework; the latter were also more interested in temporary work. Finally, women's career aspirations were related with weekend work and telework, whilst their job aspirations were associated with temporary work. Results raise issues for employers and policy‐makers in Cyprus, and possibly other southern European countries facing similar challenges, in supporting women to become fully integrated in the labour market.     

Unemployment Duration of Spouses: Evidence From France

This paper analyses the conditional probability of leaving unemployment of French married individuals from 1991 to 2002. We find that the effect of spousal labor income on unemployment duration is asymmetric for men and women. In particular, the probability of men to find a job is increasing in wife's labor income, while it is decreasing in husband's earnings for women. To adjust for endogenous selection into marriage, we use the quarter of birth as an instrumental variable for the spousal wage. Finally, we show that introducing a breadwinner stigma in a joint job search model generates the positive correlation observed for men in the data.     

Sources of occupational stress: An examination of British prison officers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the major sources of occupational stress experienced by British prison officers and to examine their effects on overall job stress and job satisfaction. Eighty-one officers from HM Prison, Maidstone, took part in a questionnaire study, and three main findings emerged. First, lack of stiff and resources were ranked as the most likely sources of stress, and areas of the prison where confrontations with inmates were most likely to occur were ranked as the most stressful locations. Second, officers who reported the highest levels of job stress overall had the lowest job satisfaction and the greatest wish for more emphasis on control and security of inmates. Third, when the sources of stress were factor-analysed and used to predict overall job stress and job satisfaction, using multiple regression, the sìngle most important predictor of job stress was found to be the factor labelled 'confrontations with inmates' and, for dissatisfaction with the job, it was 'poor morale and resentments'. The paper discusses the theoretical implications of the findings.     

Job characteristics as predictors of ill-health and sickness absenteeism in different occupational types--a multigroup structural equation modelling approach

The objective of the present study was to test for multigroup invariance in measurement models and structural models between job characteristics, psychosocial intervening variables, health outcomes and sickness absenteeism. Four types of occupation were represented in the study: blue-collar workers ( n = 241), white-collar workers ( n = 209), elderly-care workers ( n = 338) and child-care workers ( n = 336). A first-order, six-factor multigroup confirmatory factor analysis model (i.e. measurement model) composed of two perceived job characteristics ( job autonomy and skill discretion), appraised workload, job satisfaction, stress-related ill-health and sickness absenteeism provided a good model fit. Invariance tests showed that the six-factor model fits well for all occupations. A partially recursive mediated multigroup structural model showed both similarities and differences across occupations as regards the relationships between independent latent variables ( job autonomy, skill discretion), intervening latent variables (appraised workload, job satisfaction) and dependent latent variables (stressrelated ill-health, sickness absenteeism). By comparing a generic model with occupation-specific models across occupations, this study showed that occupation-specific models were more plausible. The results indicate that it is important to examine different occupational contexts in detail to better understand how certain psychosocial factors at work influence strain in different occupations. Since job characteristics can potentially be amended, the findings have important implications for the differentiation of prevention and intervention in different occupations.     

Using Davis's Perceived Usefulness and Ease-of-use Instruments for Decision Making: A Confirmatory and Multigroup Invariance Analysis

As key components of Davis's technology acceptance model (TAM), the perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use instruments are widely accepted among the MIS research community as tools for evaluating information system applications and predicting usage. Despite this wide acceptance, a series of incremental cross-validation studies have produced conflicting and equivocal results that do not provide guidance for researchers or practitioners who might use the TAM for decision making. Using a sample of 902 “initial exposure” responses, this research conducts: (1) a confirmatory factor analysis to assess the validity and reliability of the original instruments proposed by Davis, and (2) a multigroup invariance analysis to assess the equivalence of these instruments across subgroups based on type of application, experience with computing, and gender. In contrast to the mixed results of prior cross-validation efforts, the results of this confirmatory study provide strong support for the validity and reliability of Davis's sixitem perceived usefulness and six-item ease-of-use instruments. The multigroup invariance analysis suggests the usefulness and ease-of-use instruments have invariant true scores across most, but not all, subgroups. With notable exemptions for word processing applications and users with no prior computing experience, this research provides evidence that the item-factor loadings (true scores) are invariant across spread sheet, database, and graphic applications. The implications of the results for managerial decision making are discussed.     

Testing the Vitamin Model of job stress in Dutch health care workers

Three central hypotheses of Warr's Vitamin Model concerning the relationship between job characteristics and well-being and health outcomes were tested: (1) differential effects of job characteristics on the various well-being and health outcomes; (2) predominance of curvilinear associations; and (3) moderate influence of negative and positive affectivity on these relationships. The study participants were 162 employees from a health care organization (aged 19–54 years, 95% women) who completed questionnaires on job demands and job autonomy, as well as on the outcome variables depression, anxiety, job satisfaction, and health complaints. In addition, data on short-term sickness absence were collected. A higher level of job demands was significantly associated with a lower level of well-being and self-reported health. Job autonomy showed weaker relationships with the outcome variables. The effects of job demands were still large after controlling for negative and positive affectivity, while the effects of job autonomy in most cases became non-significant. The predicted curvilinear relationship between job characteristics and outcome variables did not have an additional value over a linear model in predicting the data. It is concluded that the present data from a homogeneous sample of mostly female nurses support Warr's Vitamin Model to a limited extent.     

Preliminary Validation and Training of Supervisory Interactional Skills

Employee job satisfaction and performance are critical to the effectiveness of an organization. Although satisfaction and performance are not determined in total by a supervisor's interactional skills, it appears that interactional skills can significantly influence employee satisfaction and productivity. This research was conducted to further validate the types of interpersonal skills important in supervisory interactions, and then to evaluate the effectiveness of a supervisory training workshop in improving these aspects of managers' repertoires. In the first study social validation and survey procedures were used to identify supervisory behavior that employees judge to either facilitate or inhibit their job satisfaction and performance. Based on these results, the workshop training program was developed and tested in a second study which revealed a significant improvement in the group of supervisors who underwent training versus a no-training control group. This study provided a preliminary demonstration of the efficacy of using a behavioral training program to improve supervisors' interactional skills judged to be related to an organization's level of satisfaction and performance.