Does information and communication technology improve job satisfaction? The moderating role of sales technology orientation

Empirical research concerning the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in shaping business-to-business salesforce job satisfaction remains relatively scarce. The authors propose and empirically test a causal model that theoretically represents structural relationships among factors comprising ICT and eventual salesperson job satisfaction. Study results indicate that ICT indirectly influences job satisfaction through salesforce administrative performance. While ICT infrastructure, training, and support positively relate to administrative performance, none of them influence outcome performance significantly. In addition, salesperson technology orientation moderates the effect of both ICT infrastructure and support on job satisfaction. Managerial insights and implications from the research are discussed.     

Market orientation,job satisfaction,product quality,and firm performance: evidence from China

This article examines the processes by which market orientation (MO) affects performance using a cross‐level approach. The results of a survey of 2,754 employees from 180 firms in China show that organization‐level MO culture leads to unit‐level MO behavior, which improves employee‐level job satisfaction and then product quality, which in turn fosters organizational performance. In particular, MO behavior fully mediates the effects of MO culture on employee satisfaction, product quality, and organizational performance. Leadership quality strengthens the effect of MO culture on unit‐level MO behavior. Moreover, MO behavior enhances firm performance indirectly through employee job satisfaction and product quality. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who leaves,where to,and why worry? employee mobility,entrepreneurship and effects on source firm performance

We theorize that the value provided by the firm's complementary assets has important implications for the exit decisions of employees and their subsequent effects on the firm's performance. Using linked employee‐employer data from the U.S. Census Bureau on legal services, we find that employees with higher earnings are less likely to leave relative to employees with lower earnings, but if they do, are more likely to create a new venture than join another firm. Employee entrepreneurship has a larger adverse impact on source firm performance than moves to established firms, even controlling for observable employee quality. Our findings suggest that in knowledge intensive settings, managers should focus on tailoring compensation packages to help minimize the adverse impact of employee entrepreneurship, particularly among high performing individuals. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Partnership,high performance work systems and quality of working life

The paper measures the effects of workplace partnership and selected high performance work practices on four different dimensions of employee experience. Whilst the partnership– high performance work systems nexus seems to have little impact on employees’ job satisfaction or sense of attachment, it does, however, have a negative impact on both workplace stress and employee evaluations of union performance. The analysis thus questions common assumptions about the inevitability of ‘mutual gain’ and the necessity of employer/union partnership.     

Do you really need help? A study of employee supplication and job performance in China

This study examines a relatively unexplored impression management tactic—supplication. Compared to other more popular impression management tactics such as ingratiation and self-promotion, we know relatively little regarding how employee supplication affects job performance. Using social role theory, we argued that when the images of Chinese employees were consistent with their social roles of receiving help, supplication would be viewed as acceptable. We tested our hypotheses among 158 supervisor–subordinate dyads in China and found that female and junior employees did not receive negative job performance ratings due to supplication. Age, on the other hand, did not moderate the supplication–performance relationship. We believe our findings are consistent with the social norms in the five cardinal relations of Confucianism regarding the modest role of certain social classes in enhancing social harmony. We discuss how our research contributes to the literature of impression management and impacts management practices in China.     

Do Innovative Work Practices and Use of Information and Communication Technologies Motivate Employees?

I investigate the impact of innovative work practices and information and communication technologies (ICT) use on employees’ motivations. The paper provides new and interesting results on how firms can build a motivational environment. Within an original instrumenting framework, I modify what previous analyses reveal about quality circle and training participation. The results confirm the positive role of work practices such as teamwork, quality norms, formal appraisals, management recognition, and family‐friendly policies. The ICT that most contributed to the development of a motivational environment are those that facilitate access to information and knowledge such as workflow, Internet, and e‐mail.     

Employee share ownership and job attitudes: The effects of share sale

Although the association between employee share ownership and job attitudes has been documented in the literature, little attention has been paid to the association with share sale. This study uses discriminant analysis, based on selected job attitudes, to generate a function to distinguish between employees who were or were not shareholders in a large financial institution. The discriminant function was then used to classify those employees who had been shareholders but who had subsequently sold their shares. The evidence indicated that those who had sold their shares had similar job attitudes to existing shareholders and dramatically different job attitudes from those who had never purchased shares. Conjectural insights are offered into the original effect of share purchase on job attitudes.     

高绩效工作系统、工作倦怠对员工离职倾向的影响研究

本文基于员工感知的视角，以工作倦怠作为中介变量，探索员工感知的高绩效工作系统对离职倾向的影响机制。通过来自企业256 个有效样本的实证研究发现，员工感知的高绩效工作系统与离职倾向显著负相关；工作倦怠及其子维度情感耗竭、玩世不恭与离职倾向显著正相关，而子维度成就感低落与离职倾向相关性不显著；工作倦怠在员工感知的高绩效工作系统与离职倾向之间起部分中介作用；员工感知的高绩效工作系统可通过影响员工的情感耗竭、玩世不恭情绪，间接对离职倾向产生影响，而成就感低落的中介效应不显著。     

Monitoring what and how: psychological implications of electronic performance monitoring

Implementing electronic performance monitoring in the workplace might improve the efficiency and quality of employee data that are collected. These intended benefits might be discounted or even eliminated if employees have a negative reaction to the monitoring process. The goal of this exploratory study was therefore to investigate which electronic performance monitoring techniques and monitoring characteristics are associated with negative employee reactions using survey responses from 190 student workers. Results showed that close performance monitoring (via cameras, data entry, chat and phone recording) had significant negative effects on job attitudes such as job satisfaction and affective commitment. Similar effects were observed for employee self‐efficacy and perceived control. Attitudes were furthermore negatively impacted when the monitoring was focused on individuals and unpredictable, which also reduced organisational citizenship behaviour while continuous monitoring reduced self‐efficacy. These findings suggest that the benefits of close monitoring may be overshadowed by negative employee reactions.     

Disability and Perceptions of Work and Management

Matched employee–employer data from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey are used to examine differences in work‐related perceptions between disabled and non‐disabled employees. Even after accounting for differences in personal, job and workplace characteristics, disabled employees are found to hold more negative views on the treatment of workers by managers and, consistent with this, they express less job satisfaction and commitment towards their organization. The influence of disability is also examined across workplaces defined by sector, the presence of disability‐related policies and practices, and employee views of management to explore the role of corporate culture.     

High-Involvement Management and Pay in Britain

High‐involvement management practices have well‐established benefits for employers, but what do they do for employees? Using a nationally‐representative survey of British private‐sector workplaces, high‐involvement management is shown to be associated with higher pay. The wage premium is little affected by the choice of employee involvement practices (e.g., teams versus quality circles), but it appears only where employee involvement practices are supported by job security guarantees. Powerful trade unions increase the premium.     

Union Co‐operation in a Context of Job Insecurity: Negotiated Outcomes from Teamworking

This paper explores the ‘mutual gains’ argument that employees benefit when teamworking is introduced alongside employee involvement in problem‐solving and within a co‐operative industrial relations climate. It reports worker outcomes from negotiations to introduce teamworking across two steelworks. Moderate union branches and employees at one of the works (Scunthorpe) co‐operated with managers in joint problem‐solving teams to redesign work. However, contrary to mutual gains expectations, greater job insecurity at this works coerced union branches to accept teamworking agreements containing extensive demanning and a pay increase for fewer employees. Employees perceived greater job security at the other works (Teesside) and by rejecting joint problem‐solving with managers, militant union branches protected more jobs and extracted higher payment for teamworking. The findings indicate that job insecurity can lead co‐operative unions down a slippery slope of coerced co‐operation restricting employee benefits from teamworking.     

Outsourcing,Occupational Restructuring,and Employee Well‐Being: Is There a Silver Lining?

This study examines the relationship between outsourcing and various aspects of employee well‐being by devoting special attention to the role of occupational restructuring as a conveying mechanism. Using linked employer–employee data, we find that offshoring involves job destruction, especially when the destination is a low‐wage country. In such circumstances, staying employees’ job satisfaction is reduced. However, the relationship between outsourcing and employee well‐being is not entirely negative. Our evidence also shows that offshoring to high‐wage countries stimulates the vertical mobility of employees in affected firms in a manner that improves perceived well‐being, particularly in terms of better prospects for promotion.     

Unions and Work Attitudes in the United States and Japan

Examining whether Japanese enterprise unions have a negative effect on employee job attitudes or whether they forge a stronger bond between the worker and the firm, our results indicate that union membership has no effect on Japanese employees' job satisfaction, but that there is some negative impact on company commitment. Much of the union effect on U.S. workers' job attitudes stems from lower job complexity, work autonomy, perceived promotion chances, and quality circle membership.     

Is Disability Disabling in All Workplaces? Workplace Disparities and Corporate Culture

Using nearly 30,000 employee surveys from fourteen companies, we find disability is linked to lower average pay, job security, training, and participation in decisions, and to more negative attitudes toward the job and company. Disability gaps in attitudes vary substantially, however, across companies and worksites, with no attitude gaps in worksites rated highly by all employees for fairness and responsiveness. The results indicate that corporate cultures that are responsive to the needs of all employees are especially beneficial for employees with disabilities.     

Longitudinal effects of job insecurity on employee outcomes: The moderating role of emotional intelligence and the leader-member exchange

The longitudinal study reported herein examines the buffering effects of individual and social resources (emotional intelligence and the leader-member exchange relationship) on the relationships between job insecurity and employee reactions (somatic complaints and organizational commitment) and the relationships between employee reactions over time. The results of this study, which was based on data drawn from 157 nurses employed by three hospitals in China, indicate that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between job insecurity and somatic complaints at both Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) and that the leader-member exchange relationship (LMX) buffers the effects of somatic complaints at T1 on organizational commitment at T2. Overall, the findings reveal that the ability of employees to deal with their emotions and their relationships with their supervisors is an important resource that serves to protect employee outcomes when job security is uncertain.     

Does ICT create a new driving force for manufacturing?—Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

The Internet has changed the global economic landscape. In particular, the fast-changing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has directly led to a far-reaching impact on the production and operation of firms. Many previous studies have discussed the relationship of ICT and the total factor productivity (TFP) of firms, but failed to reach a consistent conclusion. This paper, based on the data of Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2019, explores the impact of ICT on manufacturing firms' TFP and its mechanism, and concludes that ICT have positive correlation with the TFP of manufacturing firms. According to the estimated results of this paper, TFP will increase by about 1.8 % for every 1 % of additional ICT investment. Through channel analysis, this paper finds that the positive effect can be achieved through the following four channels: cutting information search costs, enhancing information processing capabilities, reducing internal capital misallocation, and promoting R&D efficiency. This paper is a supplement to research on firm TFP, provides new micro-evidence for exploring the relationship between ICT and TFP of manufacturing firms, and brings important implications for understanding the role of ICT in firm production activities.     

组织支持感与组织承诺——基于职业成长与组织公平的研究

本文以25个省份400名员工为样本,从员工感知角度评价组织支持对组织承诺的影响,并引入职业成长和组织公平作为中介变量和调节变量构建研究模型。实证结果表明：组织支持感直接对组织承诺产生显著正向影响;职业成长在组织支持感与组织承诺之间起到部分中介作用。深入研究显示,组织公平在组织支持感与职业成长及组织支持感与组织承诺之间均发挥调节效应,且在组织支持感与职业成长之间的调节效应更显著。研究结论对提高组织支持有效性、促进员工职业成长、维持员工内心公平有重要意义。     

Does the digital economy generate a gender dividend for female employment? Evidence from China

Using data from the China General Social Survey, the China Family Panel Studies, and a unique dataset of enterprises' online recruitment, this research examines the effect of the digital economy on female employment. The empirical results suggest that the digital economy significantly promotes female employment. Consistent with our theoretical analysis, the estimates indicate that this relationship holds because the digital economy promotes the formation of egalitarian gender perspectives, promotes the use of digital technology, and increases labor demand emphasizing the necessity for female-preference occupations. The dividend of the digital economy is tilted toward vulnerable groups in the labor market, including the low-skilled, older, and rural workforce, and only exerts an employment promotion effect on women without parenting burden. Further examination reveals evidence that digitalization has not led to a holistic improvement in the quality of female employment. Digitalization lengthens the working hours of severely underemployed female workers, and improves women's occupational status and job satisfaction; however, it has a minimal impact on protecting employees' rights and interests or reducing overtime workers' work intensity. Nonself-employed, full-time, and part-time workers all benefit from the development of the digital economy, while self-employed workers do not. In addition, a weakening effect of digitalization on the gender employment gap is not evident, which relates to the digital economy generating a female dividend in terms of promoting gender equality and increasing labor demand but resulting in a digital gender divide in the use of digital technology.     

Managing service quality in high customer contact B2B services across domestic and international markets

This research aims to examine the nature of the moderating influence of empowerment on the effect of service training and internal marketing on service quality in a high customer contact B2B setting, and to investigate the differential effects of internal marketing, service training, and empowerment on service quality across domestic and international operations. Data from 880 customer-contact employees show several direct and interaction effects. Our analysis shows that the three focal variables, internal marketing, service training and empowerment positively relate to service quality. Our results support a positive moderating influence of empowerment on the relationship between internal marketing and service quality, and between service training and service quality. Finally, our hypotheses for the moderating influence of type of service operations (domestic/international) on the effect of internal marketing and service training on service quality were also supported. Our results suggest that offering service employees the skills, ability and power to do their job is essential in both domestic and international operations, and also helps maximize the effects of a firm's internal marketing efforts and service training. Overall, the findings inform managers as to how their employee focused strategies for service quality can be managed effectively across domestic and international markets.