The Relationship between Coworker Incivility,Emotional Exhaustion,and Organizational Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between coworker incivility, emotional exhaustion, and organizational outcomes measured by job satisfaction, job performance, and turnover intention. Working with a sample of 286 retail bank employees in South Korea, structural equation modeling is employed to test four hypotheses drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and affective events theory (AET). According to the analyses, while employee incivility positively affects emotional exhaustion, emotional exhaustion has a negative effect on job satisfaction and job performance. In addition, emotional exhaustion has a positive impact on turnover intention among organizational employees. These results imply that to better understand the relationship between coworker incivility and organizational outcomes, it is necessary to consider emotional exhaustion as an important mediating variable. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed, together with its limitations and future research directions.     

Career anchors and disturbances in job turnover decisions – A case study of IT professionals in Taiwan

Previous models of turnover by IT professionals consider job satisfaction as a key indicator. One common model considers whether an organization matches the internal anchors of IT employees to provisions in the work place. This pattern is often broken by other considerations that disturb the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to seek employment elsewhere. Such disturbances present a problem in planning and are not globally considered in research models. A qualitative study of ten cases yields new insight into the disturbances that break the pattern leading to a more general model of turnover.     

Which reduces IT turnover intention the most: Workplace characteristics or job characteristics?

Studies have shown that positive perceived job characteristics, such as job significance and task autonomy, tend to decrease IT personnel turnover intention. In addition, employee perception of their workplace characteristics may affect turnover. Few studies have examined this. We tested whether workplace characteristics – structural fairness, trust in senior management, employee information sharing, and job security – affected turnover intention as much as did job characteristics. We found that workplace characteristics out-predicted job characteristics. However, this was true only for programmer/analysts. The reverse was true for technical support personnel. Practical implications are discussed.     

Quality of working life and turnover intention in information technology work

High turnover has been a major issue in information technology (IT) organizations. A conceptual model to explain turnover was developed and tested in two national samples of IT and IT manufacturing work. The model postulates that quality of working life mediates the relations between job/organizational characteristics and turnover intention. The American sample consisted of 624 IT employees of five IT organizations. The Austrian sample consisted of 677 employees from an international IT production company (IT manufacturing work). A similar questionnaire was used in both studies. The model was tested with path analysis. A core model with main pathways between job demands and supervisory support to emotional exhaustion, and between emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction to turnover intention was confirmed in the national samples and in subsamples of demographics and job types. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Job burnout of the information technology worker: Work exhaustion,depersonalization, and personal accomplishment

The unique environment of the information technology (IT) worker is prone to create work exhaustion, a conceptual component of job burnout. Prior research on the IT worker focuses primarily on the antecedent conditions to work exhaustion, uniquely identifying the IT work environment including emotional dissonance, perceived workload, role ambiguity and conflict, autonomy, and fairness of rewards. However, though work exhaustion is a critical product of conditions in the IT work environment, two ignored dimensions of job burnout theory, depersonalization and lessened feelings of personal accomplishment, create a more complete picture and extend current models of IT worker burnout. The extended model with established antecedents is empirically tested through survey techniques and found to hold. Management needs to be aware of these additional symptoms of burnout to circumvent undesirable consequences.     

Job satisfaction among information system (IS) personnel

This study examines relationships between achievement motivation and job characteristics on job satisfaction among IS personnel. The analytical results reveal that the dimensions of the achievement motivation of IS personnel are perseverance, competition and difficulty control. Regarding job characteristics, the job characteristics of IS personnel are task identity, professionalism, feedback, autonomy and significance. Moreover, the dimensions of the job satisfaction of IS personnel are social, job-related and self-actualization satisfaction. Job characteristics affect the job satisfaction of IS personnel and job characteristics and job satisfaction are positively related. Regardless of whether IS worker achievement motivation is high or low, IS workers engaged in jobs with high job characteristics have higher job satisfaction. Jobs with the features of feedback, professionalism and autonomy can most easily increase the job satisfaction of IS personnel.     

Workers' intrinsic work motivation when job demands are high: The role of need for autonomy and perceived opportunity for blended working

Work overload or work pressure may undermine workers' intrinsic motivation. In the present research, we tested the conditions under which this may (not) occur, including the perceived opportunity to blend on-site and off-site working through the effective use of computers and modern information and communication technology. Our sample consisted of 657 workers (51% female) representing a variety of industries. As hypothesized, it is not high job demands per se, but high demands in combination with a high need for autonomy and a lack of perceived opportunities for blended working that undermines intrinsic work motivation. When workers high in need for autonomy perceived opportunities for blended working, their intrinsic work motivation was not negatively affected by increasing job demands. This main finding suggests that, particularly for workers high in need for autonomy, the perceived opportunity for blended working is an effective, contemporary resource to cope with the increasing job demands typically observed in today's workplace. Theoretically, these findings contribute to the refinement and extension of influential demands-resource models and Person-Job Fit theory. Practically, our findings may show managers how to effectively keep workers intrinsically motivated and productive in their jobs when job demands are high.     

Job rotation as a factor in reducing physical workload at a refuse collecting department

The effect of job rotation on the physical workload was investigated for male employees working at a refuse collecting department. Before the introduction of job rotation, an employee worked as a street sweeper, as a refuse collector or as a driver. After the introduction of job rotation, every employee was allowed to alternate between two of the three possible jobs during the day, i.e. refuse collecting/street sweeping, refuse collecting/driving or street sweeping/driving. Two non-rotation groups (i.e. refuse collectors and street sweepers) and two rotation groups (i.e. refuse collectors/street sweepers and street sweepers/drivers) were mutually compared. The physical workload was determined by measuring the perceived load, energetic load and postural load during a full working day. Job rotation resulted in a significant decrease of the perceived load and energetic load and a slight decrease of the postural load. The results indicate that the total amount of work performed by means of job rotation resulted in an overall reduced physical workload of the employees of the refuse collecting department.     

Job and organizational determinants of nursing home employee commitment,job satisfaction and intent to turnover

The purpose of this study was to examine whether job characteristics, the work environment, participation in quality improvement activities and facility quality improvement environment predicted employee commitment and job satisfaction in nursing homes, and whether those same predictors and commitment and satisfaction predicted turnover intention. A total of 6584 nursing home employees from 76 nursing homes in a midwestern state participated. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The results supported the hypotheses that job and organizational factors predicted commitment and satisfaction while commitment and satisfaction predicted turnover intentions. The implications for retaining nursing home employees are discussed.     

Impact of Lean Production on Perceived Job Autonomy and Job Satisfaction: An Experimental Study

Previous studies have indicated positive and negative effects of lean production on employees’ perceived work characteristics and job attitudes. The most detrimental consequence of lean production is a decrease in the perceived job autonomy of workshop employees. To reduce these negative consequences, we propose human resource practices for integration with lean production. Drawing on the job characteristics model, we hypothesized that the implementation of lean production combined with human resource practices would enhance perceived job autonomy, job satisfaction, and operational performance. To evaluate our hypotheses, we used an experimental design consisting of a simulation game that mimics a manufacturing company. We implemented lean production combined with human resource practices in this simulated company. The results indicated a significant increase in perceived job autonomy, job satisfaction, and operational performance. Moreover, the results revealed a positive relationship between job satisfaction and operational performance.     

Mind your E-manners: Impact of cyber incivility on employees’ work attitude and behavior

We examined cyber incivility in the workplace of Singapore and also examined its impact on employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, quit intention, and workplace deviance. Data were collected from 192 employees. Results of the survey showed that male supervisors engaged in active forms of cyber incivility while female supervisors engaged in passive cyber incivility. Regression analyses also showed that cyber incivility was negatively related to employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Employees who experienced cyber incivility were also more likely to quit their jobs or engaged in deviant behavior against their organization. Thus, cyber incivility has negative consequences on both individuals and organizations. Consequently, it is important that firms educate employees and have appropriate policies to discourage cyber incivility.     

Dimensions of Employee Satisfaction as Determinants of Organizational Commitment in the Hotel Industry

In today's dynamic environment, the role of employees and their level of organizational commitment are becoming increasingly important for business success, which is especially relevant for the service industry in general and for the tourism sector in particular because of problems associated with employee turnover, loyalty strategies with the customer, and so forth. Employee satisfaction is considered an essential ingredient for developing organizational commitment. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of different facets of employee job satisfaction, that is, job conditions, reward system, relations with superiors and co‐workers, organizational human resources (HR) policies, on employees’ organizational commitment in the hotel industry. The research hypotheses are tested with a sample of 760 hotel employees on Gran Canaria, Spain. The results show the relevance of the working conditions, direct rewards, relationships with managers, and the HR policies in order to develop a high level of organizational commitment.     

JD‐C Model to Explain Burnout in Frontline Workers: The Useful Contribution of Emotional Demands

Using the Job Demands‐Control (JD‐C) model as the theoretical framework, this study investigated the relationships among burnout, job demands, and autonomy. With a sample of 802 employees from a Portuguese bank, we demonstrated the importance of taking into account emotional job demands when studying the burnout of service providers. Thereby, the unique explanatory power of each emotional demand on burnout was tested with regression analysis, after controlling for the original demands and autonomy variables from the JD‐C model along with demographic variables. The results confirmed the relevance of the study model in explaining burnout and indicated that emotional dissonance was associated with employee burnout, beyond quantitative demands and autonomy. As expected, hierarchical regression analysis provided evidence for the main effects of quantitative demands, emotional dissonance, and autonomy on burnout. These findings have several implications for designing jobs involving interactions with clients. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

When carrots and sticks meet: A mixed-methods study on internet taxi drivers’ job engagement in the IT-driven sharing economy

Information technology (IT)-enabled taxi services facilitate people's lives. However, little is known about how Internet taxi employees are motivated and how motivation relates to their job engagement. Using a mixed-methods design, this research explores intrinsic motivators and the effects of external regulations on intrinsic motivation and job engagement. The qualitative study identified three context-specific intrinsic motivators: stress reduction, self-efficacy, and job autonomy. A follow-up quantitative research revealed the significance of external regulations in determining intrinsic motivation and job engagement. The study contributes to knowledge by emphasizing the role of intrinsic motivators and the significance of both monetary incentives and punishment.     

Steady job market for IT professionals

Despite the instability in the world economy, are the ever-changing technology demands placed on businesses enough to maintain IT employment levels in the near term? What jobs are hot, and what technology specialties are waning in demand? Overall, the news is good for IT professionals. Businesses continue to need experienced employees well versed in various disciplines, especially networking and security. On the whole, analysts say, IT jobs remain stable even in flagging economic periods. IT professionals can protect themselves by learning how to think like the business side of the house     

On the Relation of Job Insecurity,Job Autonomy,Innovative Work Behaviour and the Mediating Effect of Work Engagement

European policy is focusing on innovation as a way out of the economic crisis. At the same time, job insecurity is rising as Europe is still in crisis. In this paper, we examine whether job insecurity affects the innovative work behaviour of employees by focusing on the relation between job insecurity, job autonomy, work engagement and innovative work behaviour (IWB). Using employee level survey data, we use structural equation modelling to disentangle the relations between these variables. The partially mediated model shows the best fit with the data. This model shows that job insecurity and autonomy are both directly and indirectly, through work engagement, related with IWB. For autonomy these relations are positive, while they are negative (and smaller) for job insecurity. Moreover, a negative covariance is observed between job insecurity and autonomy.     

Cell phones during nonwork time: A source of job demands and resources

Technology (e.g., cell phones) is increasingly blurring the lines between the work and nonwork domains. Evidence suggests technology users experience both negative and positive outcomes associated with work-related technology use during nonwork hours. We extended the job demands-resources model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) to technology use by conceptualizing work-related cell phone (WRCP) use as a job demand and cell phone attachment –valuing and being physically attached to a cell phone– as a resource. We expected high cell phone attachment will buffer against the negative effects of WRCP use on emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and work-family conflict. Participants from various occupations (N = 313) responded to two online surveys administered one week apart. Cell phone use and attachment were assessed at Time 1; criteria were assessed at Time 2. High cell phone attachment buffered against the negative effects of WRCP use on emotional exhaustion and work-family conflict, and it enhanced the beneficial effects of WRCP use on work engagement. Being more engaged and attached to cell phones may help employees deal with WRCP use during nonwork time more effectively. Practical implications include providing training for more effective cell phone use during nonwork time.     

Social media at work: The roles of job satisfaction,employment status,and Facebook use with co-workers

Limited research has studied workplace satisfaction in a computer-mediated context, particularly with the use of social media. Based on an analysis of an online survey of working adults (N = 512) in various companies and organizations in a metropolitan area in Southern California, we tested the relationships among time spent on Facebook interacting with co-workers, employment status, and job satisfaction. Results show that an employee's satisfaction at work is positively associated with the amount of time they spend on Facebook interacting with co-workers. Contrary to our initial predictions, results to the second and third hypotheses revealed that part time employees reported having spent the highest amount of time on Facebook with their co-workers, and contract employees reported the highest degree of job satisfaction at work. Results have implications for Facebook as a strategic platform for promoting employee satisfaction at work, and Facebook a social network/ing platform for part time employees seeking further social integration and professional connection.     

Single-machine scheduling with sum-of-logarithm-processing-times-based learning considerations

Scheduling with learning effects has attracted growing attention of the scheduling research community. A recent survey classifies the learning models in scheduling into two types, namely position-based learning and sum-of-processing-times-based learning. However, the actual processing time of a given job drops to zero precipitously as the number of jobs increases in the first model and when the normal job processing times are large in the second model. Motivated by this observation, we propose a new learning model where the actual job processing time is a function of the sum of the logarithm of the processing times of the jobs already processed. The use of the logarithm function is to model the phenomenon that learning as a human activity is subject to the law of diminishing return. Under the proposed learning model, we show that the scheduling problems to minimize the makespan and total completion time can be solved in polynomial time. We further show that the problems to minimize the maximum lateness, maximum tardiness, weighted sum of completion times and total tardiness have polynomial-time solutions under some agreeable conditions on the problem parameters.     

Can proactively induced organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) foster positive work attitudes? Theorising the mediating role of ‘meaning of work’ for IT professionals

Given the high employee turnover rates among information technology (IT) professionals, firms are on the lookout for ways to retain them. With this end in view, to keep their professionals committed and satisfied, many IT firms are making proactive efforts to induce a favourable organisational environment by encouraging employees towards extra-role organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). However, there is scant evidence as to whether orchestrating proactively induced OCB results in positive work attitudes. Our study contributes by theorising the mechanisms through which OCB fosters positive work attitudes among IT professionals, which is expected to lower their turnover rates. Grounding our research in self-perception and self-determination theories, we hypothesize the relationships between IT professionals' OCB and their affective attitudes towards their organisation and job, as being mediated by their cognitive evaluations of the ‘meaning of their IT work’. We test the theorised model with data collected through a large-scale two-wave survey design from a multinational IT-services company. The results offer a nuanced understanding of the relationship between OCB and positive work attitudes for IT professionals, which have significant implications for research and practice.