The impact of technology on older adults’ social isolation

Research indicates that social isolation and loneliness have a negative effect on health and wellbeing among older people. Various technology-based interventions have been offered to reduce social isolation; however, research demonstrating the role of various types of technologies and their effectiveness in dealing with social isolation among seniors is scarce. This study undertakes a systematic literature review of empirical studies on various types of technologies and their effectiveness in alleviating social isolation among seniors. Relevant electronic databases were searched and through 6886 initial set of studies published from 2000 to 2015 we have found eight different technologies that have been applied to alleviate social isolation, namely, general ICT, video game, robotics, personal reminder information and social management system, asynchronous peer support chat room, social network sites, Telecare and 3D virtual environment. We further evaluated the effectiveness of the technologies with social isolation among seniors. Findings show that technologies can be used to reduce social isolation among seniors. However, more studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of new technologies.     

The impact of shiftwork on work – home conflict,job attitudes and health

The present study was designed to test the impact of rotation and timing of shifts on work?–?home conflict, job attitudes, health and absenteeism among the military police. A total of 3122 employees participated in the study. Discriminant analysis was used to examine the relationships between rotation and timing of shifts on the one hand, and the outcome measures on the other. Whether employees had fixed dayshifts, fixed non-day shifts including weekends, or rotating shifts with or without weekends, could be predicted on the basis of the experienced work?–?home conflict, job attitudes, health and absenteeism. Each of the two parameters of shiftwork differentially affected the experience of the outcome measures. Rotation was most clearly related to unfavourable job attitudes (namely job satisfaction, cynicism, turnover intentions and professional efficacy), whereas timing was most clearly related to increased work?–?home conflict. The results suggest that fixed non-day shifts including weekends (i.e., during highly valuable times) should be avoided in order to minimize the conflict between work and home and that rotation rosters should be designed with a high degree of individualization and flexibility. These seem to be the most promising ways to reduce the negative consequences of shiftwork for employees, their families and organizations.     

The role of work system-related factors on skilled workers’ turnover intentions – A study in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Southern Germany

Demographic change is leading to a substantial decline of the workforce and thus an increase in job vacancies in the labor market. This development favors employee turnover, which in particular is a challenge for manufacturing companies, for which it is already impossible to meet the demand for skilled workers. It is essential to identify specific predictors related to manufacturing that can lead to turnover, to define suitable countermeasures for retaining skilled employees in small and medium-sized (SME) manufacturing companies.This paper presents the results of a study conducted in manufacturing SMEs in Southern Germany. 11 companies and more than 240 skilled workers were surveyed. With regard to limitations, it cannot be completely excluded that there is a bias in participating companies. It is possible that the majority of the SMEs participated are concerned about the welfare of their employees anyway and companies with dissatisfied employees chose to decline participation. In addition, the sample size was limited due to the restrained participation rate, even if it was sufficient for the statistical tests.     

The impact of the nature of globally distributed work arrangement on work–life conflict and valence: the Indian GSD professionals’ perspective

While there is a rich literature exploring the various facets of Globally Distributed Systems Development (GSD), there is scant attention given to the human resource issues such as work–life conflict (WLC) faced by GSD professionals and their valence toward globally distributed work. In this study, we attempt to identify factors that influence offshore GSD workers’ WLC and their valence toward globally distributed work. Specifically, we focus on factors related to the nature of the distributed work arrangements as experienced by offshore Indian workers involved in GSD. On the basis of survey data, we find support for the impact of a number of distribution-related variables on WLC and valence.     

Manufacturing assembly serial and cells layouts impact on rest breaks and workers’ health

Rest breaks are necessary for workers to avoid and/or recover from overall fatigue and to preserve their health. The type of assembly layout, either in lines or in cells, is a determining factor for organizing work at manufacturing companies, and it could also influence workers' work break and microbreak times. This study aimed at evaluating rest breaks in serial and cell assembly layout configurations as well as the layout's influence on workers' health. One hundred and twenty workers from a large automobile industry, divided into two groups (series and cells), were measured for their cycle-times and break times through biomechanical exposure analysis and questionnaires to evaluate the behaviors, physical, cognitive, and mental health. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to verify the distribution of the data with a significance level of p < 0.05. The cell assembly-line layouts had the greatest cycle-time and break time, and the workers had a higher level of physical activity (p < 0.05). The serial assembly-line layouts did not generate major occupational risk, need for rest, reduced capacity for work, or higher levels of stress for the workers. The production layouts differed in relation to the cycle-times for just-in-time manufacturing, but there was no difference in relation to the production demands and to the workers' health.Relevance to industryWhen taken at appropriate times, rest breaks in the workplace can improve workers’ overall health and productive performance, which reduces healthcare costs and improves industrial productivity.     

The impact of disfluency,pacing, and students’ need for cognition on learning with multimedia

In the current study, it was examined how learning with multimedia is affected by disfluency, pacing, and students’ need for cognition. Contrasting hypotheses were derived regarding how reducing the audio quality of spoken text by integrating hissing (disfluent) would affect learning outcomes. According to cognitive load theory, a disfluent audio quality should hamper learning, while according to disfluency theory, a disfluent audio quality should foster learning, especially when learning is self-paced. Moreover, self-paced learning should be particularly beneficial for learners with a high need for cognition (NFC). The hypotheses were tested in a 2 × 2-design, with quality of spoken text (regular vs. disfluent) and pacing (system-paced vs. self-paced) as independent variables and NFC as continuous variable. Supporting cognitive load theory, disfluent text decreased performance in a transfer and pictorial test. There was no significant interaction between spoken text quality and pacing. However, in line with previous research, self-pacing led to longer learning times and increased performance in a retention and in a transfer test. Moreover, results revealed that self-pacing had beneficial effects on understanding particularly for learners with a high NFC. This suggests that whether self-pacing of a multimedia instruction fosters understanding depends on learners’ specific cognitive prerequisites.     

The effects of air temperature on office workers’ well-being,workload and productivity-evaluated with subjective ratings

Productivity bears a close relationship to the indoor environmental quality (IEQ), but how to evaluate office worker’s productivity remains to be a challenge for ergonomists. In this study, the effect of indoor air temperature (17 °C, 21 °C, and 28 °C) on productivity was investigated with 21 volunteered participants in the laboratory experiment. Participants performed computerized neurobehavioral tests during exposure in the lab; their physiological parameters including heart rate variation (HRV) and electroencephalograph (EEG) were also measured. Several subjective rating scales were used to tap participant’s emotion, well-being, motivation and the workload imposed by tasks. It was found that the warm discomfort negatively affected participants’ well-being and increased the ratio of low frequency (LF) to high frequency (HF) of HRV. In the moderately uncomfortable environment, the workload imposed by tasks increased and participants had to exert more effort to maintain their performance and they also had lower motivation to do work. The results indicate that thermal discomfort caused by high or low air temperature had negative influence on office workers’ productivity and the subjective rating scales were useful supplements of neurobehavioral performance measures when evaluating the effects of IEQ on productivity.     

The moderating role of enterprise social media functionalities on employees’ social-related use during work time

Enterprise social media (ESM) has blurred employees’ work–life distinction; however, limited research has investigated the impact of social-related ESM use during work time and the management measures. We propose such use consumes employees’ work resources. Our survey of a research and development company in China confirms that such use decreases individuals’ collaboration and increases information overload, harming work performance. To mitigate the negative influence, we focus on ESM functionalities, conceptualize the action possibilities permitted by functionalities as attention regulation affordance, and investigate the moderating role of the affordance actualization. The results revealed that affordance actualization reduces negative ESM use effects.     

The effects of privacy concerns and personal innovativeness on potential and experienced customers’ adoption of location-based services

Location-Based Services (LBS) use positioning technology to provide individual users the capability of being constantly reachable and accessing network services while ‘on the move’. However, privacy concerns associated with the use of LBS may ultimately prevent consumers from gaining the convenience of ‘anytime anywhere’ personalized services. We examine the adoption of this emerging technology through a privacy lens. Drawing on the privacy literature and theories of technology adoption, we use a survey approach to develop and test a conceptual model to explore the effects of privacy concerns and personal innovativeness on customers’ adoption of LBS. In addition, as a number of IS researchers have shown that customers differ in their decision making for continued adoption as compared to initial decision making, we test the research model separately for potential and experienced customers. The results indicate that privacy concerns significantly influence continued adoption as compared to initial adoption. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

The impact of mobility,risk, and cost on the users’ intention to adopt mobile payments

Information Systems and e-Business Management - With the development of mobile communication technology and the wide application of intelligent devices, mobile payments with great commercial...     

The impact of ICT on work–life experiences among university Teaching Assistants

Email is now commonplace in the university environment, but little research has addressed the impact of this technology on the work–life experiences of Teaching Assistants (TAs). These workers are of interest as they are typically responsible for most day-to-day, routine interaction with undergraduates, for ensuring students understand lectures and other course materials, and for assessing student work. In the summer of 2006, we undertook a web-based survey of Teaching Assistants at a major Canadian university. We wanted to examine the impact of and experience with information and communication technologies (ICTs) – in this case, the ubiquitous email. We found that these academic workers made extensive use of email, and that their experiences and attitudes were mixed. While relatively few expressed a desire to completely eliminate email use in their practice, problems such as feeling ‘overburdened’ by student email were common. Respondents who had set in-person office hours were twice as likely to assert that email increased their workload, that they felt overburdened by student email, and that they preferred not to communicate with students over email. There were also unexpected differences among TAs in the arts/social sciences compared to those in the math/science disciplines. Our data calls into question the largely optimistic orientation common in research reporting at the nexus point of education and ICTs, and suggests that an approach that is both critical and constructive is warranted when thinking about technology and academic work–life.     

How does personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology promote knowledge workers’ innovative work behavior?

Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and innovation diffusion theory (IDT), this study aims to reveal the mechanism of how personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology (PIIT) affects innovative work behavior through analyzing the mediating role of usage intention toward the online learning system and the moderating role of alignment with organizational values (AOVs). Our findings from a survey of 418 knowledge workers demonstrate that the effects of PIIT on innovative work behavior are stronger with higher AOV. Furthermore, we found that by impacting usage intention, the interaction of PIIT and AOV indirectly affects innovative work behavior.     

Prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal injuries in health care workers: the implications for work disability management

To compare the prevalence of musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal injuries in a cohort of workers in Manitoba health care sector, who made injury claims between 2002 and 2012. A retrospective study, using secondary data from WCB Manitoba. Logistic regression was used to determine odds ratios for nature of work-related injuries among different groups of workers. Idiopathic work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) constituted 74.6% of all the injury claims. Injury risks varied between worker groups, and a significant difference was found within the female group, χ² = 13.4, p = 0.0094, but not among the males. Compared to the married, single workers were more likely to experience traumatic than idiopathic injuries (OR = 1.72, CI, 1.28, 2.29), and much higher risk of traumatic injuries than non-WMSD (OR = 1.93, CI, 1.31, 2.84). Work-related injury risks vary significantly across occupations and worker groups, with idiopathic injuries being higher in high physical tasks.

Practitioner Summary: To compare musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal injuries among workers in health care sector, and explore the implications for work disability management. Retrospective study, using workers’ compensation claims data. The risk of idiopathic work-related musculoskeletal disorders continue to be high compared to traumatic and non-musculoskeletal disorders, particularly in tasks that involved high physical activities.     

The effects of a player’s network centrality on resource accessibility,game enjoyment,and continuance intention: A study on online gaming communities

This study applies social capital theory to investigate how a player’s network centrality in an online gaming community (i.e., a guild) affects his/her attitude and continuance intention toward a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). Analysis of 347 usable responses shows that players’ network centrality has a negative impact on their ties to players who belong to other guilds (i.e., non-guild interaction), but a positive effect on players’ access to resources. However, players’ network centrality fails to increase their perceived game enjoyment directly. Players’ resource accessibility and perceived game enjoyment play mediating roles in the relationship between network centrality and attitude toward playing an MMOG, which in turn influences game continuance intention. The results also show that although players’ non-guild interaction is negatively related to their resource accessibility from the networks, it is positively associated with perceived game enjoyment. The article concludes with implications and limitations of the study.     

The effect of Facebook use on office workers’ job performance and the moderating effects of task equivocality and interdependence

As office workers’ use of social networking sites (SNSs) has increased, so has research interest in the effect of SNS use on job performance. The present study employs data collected from South Korean office workers to examine how the use of the SNS Facebook affects job performance and to investigate the moderating effects of task characteristics (task equivocality and task interdependence). The results show that Facebook use for work has a positive effect on job performance, although the time spent on Facebook use does not have a significant effect on job performance. Moreover, task interdependence is associated with a decrease in the effect of Facebook use for work on job performance. In other words, task interdependence has a negative moderating effect on the impact of Facebook use for work on job performance. The reason is that Facebook is particularly advantageous for enhancing performance in tasks where the level of interdependence is low because it is a medium with relatively low synchrony and is unsuitable for one-to-one relationship building. This study has implications for companies that are concerned about formulating policies related to employees’ use of SNSs.     

Associations of office workers’ objectively assessed occupational sitting,standing and stepping time with musculoskeletal symptoms

We examined the association of musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) with workplace sitting, standing and stepping time, as well as sitting and standing time accumulation (i.e. usual bout duration of these activities), measured objectively with the activPAL3 monitor. Using baseline data from the Stand Up Victoria trial (216 office workers, 14 workplaces), cross-sectional associations of occupational activities with self-reported MSS (low-back, upper and lower extremity symptoms in the last three months) were examined using probit regression, correcting for clustering and adjusting for confounders. Sitting bout duration was significantly (p < 0.05) associated, non-linearly, with MSS, such that those in the middle tertile displayed the highest prevalence of upper extremity symptoms. Other associations were non-significant but sometimes involved large differences in symptom prevalence (e.g. 38%) by activity. Though causation is unclear, these non-linear associations suggest that sitting and its alternatives (i.e. standing and stepping) interact with MSS and this should be considered when designing safe work systems.

Practitioner summary: We studied associations of objectively assessed occupational activities with musculoskeletal symptoms in office workers. Workers who accumulated longer sitting bouts reported fewer upper extremity symptoms. Total activity duration was not significantly associated with musculoskeletal symptoms. We underline the importance of considering total volumes and patterns of activity time in musculoskeletal research.     

The impact of personality traits and professional experience on police officers’ shooting performance under pressure

We explored the impact of professional experience and personality on police officers’ shooting performance under pressure. We recruited: (1) regular officers, (2) officers wanting to join a specialised arrest unit (AU) (expected to possess more stress-resistant traits; pre-AU) and (3) officers from this unit (expected to also possess more professional experience; AU) (all male). In Phase 1, we determined personality traits and experience. In Phase 2, state anxiety, shot accuracy, decision-making (shoot/don’t shoot), movement speed and gaze behaviour were measured while officers performed a shooting test under low and high pressure. Results indicate minimal differences in personality among groups and superior performance of AU officers. Regression analyses showed that state anxiety and shooting performance under high pressure were first predicted by AU experience and second by certain personality traits. Results suggest that although personality traits attenuate the impact of high pressure, it is relevant experience that secures effective performance under pressure.

Practitioner Summary: To obtain information for police selection and training purposes, we let officers who differed in personality and experience execute a shooting test under low and high pressure. Outcomes indicate that experience affected anxiety and performance most strongly, while personality traits of thrill- and adventure-seeking and self-control also had an effect.     

The effects of 3D interface metaphor on older adults’ mobile navigation performance and subjective evaluation

Navigating vast information spaces through mobile interfaces has become a common activity in older adults' everyday lives. Studies suggested that interface metaphors could be used to facilitate users' metal model development and information processing when using mobile technologies. However, we know little about how metaphors affect older adults' mobile navigation behavior, and which user characteristics matter during this perceptual and cognitive process. To investigate this, a card interface with a 3D metaphor and a list interface without 3D metaphors were compared among twenty-two participants when performing four navigation tasks. User characteristics including demographic factors, technology experience, and user capabilities were examined. The participants' navigation performance and subjective evaluations were measured as the dependent variables. From the results, we recommend the list interface without 3D metaphors as a beneficial choice for older adults. It performed better in navigation performance, although the differences are not statistically significant. Moreover, navigation performance using the card interface with a 3D metaphor was significantly associated with participants' perceptual speed, thus this interface may be more sensitive to capability declines. Valuable insights into the older adults’ mobile navigation performance and preferences are discussed and important implications for the design of mobile navigation user interfaces are proposed based on the results.Relevance to industryThe experimental results propose a more beneficial way to present contents on a mobile user interface for older adults and provide valuable insights for the designers and industry to help them understand the older adults’ usage and perceptions towards the application of 3D metaphors when navigating with mobile interfaces.     

Internal consistency,test–retest reliability and concurrent validity of a questionnaire on work-related exposure related to arm,shoulder and neck symptoms in computer workers

The aim of this study was to determine the internal consistency, test–retest reliability and concurrent validity of the RSI QuickScan, a newly developed questionnaire that aims to identify the presumed risk factors for neck, shoulder and arm symptoms in a population of computer workers. The internal consistency was calculated using item analysis. The test–retest reliability and concurrent validity were analysed by calculating the percentage of agreement, Cohen's Kappa and the Ppositive and Pnegative. The concurrent validity was also tested by comparing the results from the new questionnaire with those from the original questionnaires that the current questionnaire was based on, on-site expert observations and direct measurements. The results indicate that the RSI QuickScan is a measurement tool with acceptable internal consistency, reliability and concurrent validity. The questionnaire can be used as a means to rapidly collect data on a large population of office workers and at low cost.     

Task variation during simulated,repetitive, low-intensity work – influence on manifestation of shoulder muscle fatigue,perceived discomfort and upper-body postures

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are increasing due to industrialisation of work processes. Task variation has been suggested as potential intervention. The objectives of this study were to investigate, first, the influence of task variation on electromyographic (EMG) manifestations of shoulder muscle fatigue and discomfort; second, noticeable postural shoulder changes over time; third, if the association between task variation and EMG might be biased by postural changes. Outcome parameters were recorded using multichannel EMG, Optotrak and the Borg scale. Fourteen participants performed a one-hour repetitive Pegboard task in one continuous and two interrupted conditions with rest and a pick-and-place task, respectively. Manifestations of shoulder muscle fatigue and discomfort feelings were observed throughout the conditions but these were not significantly influenced by task variation. After correction for joint angles, the relation between task variation and EMG was significantly biased but significant effects of task variation remained absent.

Practitioner Summary: Comparing a one-hour continuous, repetitive Pegboard task with two interrupted conditions revealed no significant influences of task variation. We did observe that the relation between task variation and EMG was biased by posture and therefore advise taking account for posture when investigating manifestations of muscle fatigue in assembly tasks.