The Meaning of Work in the Digital Era: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

To examine the association of changes in pediatricians' work characteristics with their satisfaction using longitudinal data. Data from a cohort study, the American Academy of Pediatrics Pediatrician Life and Career Experience Study (PLACES), were used to examine self-reported work satisfaction from 2012 to 2020 among 2002-2004 and 2009-2011 residency graduates (N = 1794). Drawing from the Physician Worklife Study, work satisfaction was measured as a 4-item scale score and averaged [range, 1 (low)-5 (high)]. Mixed effects linear regression for longitudinal analysis examined work satisfaction with year as the lone explanatory variable and then with 11 variables that might change over time (time variant) to assess how changes in work might be linked to increased or decreased satisfaction. In total, 85.9% of pediatricians in 2020 (September-December) thought their work was personally rewarding. Overall mean work satisfaction scale score displayed a small but significant (P < .001) decrease over time (3.80 in 2012 to 3.69 in 2020). Mixed effects modeling identified several changes associated with increasing work satisfaction over time: increased flexibility in work hours (B = 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.20 to 0.25) and personal support from physician colleagues (B = 0.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.15 to 0.21) had the largest associations. Pediatricians reporting increased stress balancing work and personal responsibilities and increased work hours had decreased satisfaction scores. Early- to midcareer pediatricians expressed high levels of work satisfaction, though, satisfaction scale scores decreased slightly over time for the sample overall, including during 2020 (year 1 of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic). Pediatricians reporting increases in flexibility with work hours and colleague support showed the strongest increase in work satisfaction.

The COVID-19 pandemic extensively changed the work life of many employees. Teachers seemed particularly challenged, confronted with sudden remote teaching due to school closures. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we investigated (a) changes in seven work characteristics (job demands: emotional demands, interpersonal conflict, workload; job resources: autonomy, social support, feedback, task variety) and three job-related well-being indicators (fatigue, psychosomatic complaints, job satisfaction), (b) how changes in work characteristics correlated with well-being, and (c) the impact of two individual difference factors (caretaking responsibilities, career stage). Data were collected in two waves (just prior to and a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic) across Germany from 207 teachers with an average work experience of 6 years (range: 1-36 years). Using latent change score (LCS) modeling, we found significant, small-to-medium-sized decreases over time for both job demands and resources as well as fatigue, with variability in the magnitude of changes. Decreases in job demands correlated with decreases in fatigue and psychosomatic complaints, whereas decreases in job resources correlated with decreases in job satisfaction. Teachers with caretaking responsibilities and more experienced teachers were more vulnerable to the crisis as they experienced a smaller or no decrease in job demands in concert with diminished job resources. These findings reveal the double-edged consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for teachers' work life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

OBJECTIVESTo study the association between organisational downsizing and subsequent musculoskeletal problems in employees and to determine the association with changes in psychosocial and behavioural risk factors.METHODSParticipants were 764 municipal employees...

To assess changes in work characteristics, socioeconomic status inequalities in changes in work characteristics, and whether US workplaces are becoming more stressful. We analyzed data from 5361 employed participants from the 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014 NIOSH Quality of Work Life Surveys, based on representative samples of US workers. We used regression analyses to assess changes in job characteristics, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, work hours, and unemployment rate. For the regression analyses with continuous job characteristics, we created standardized variables allowing for the magnitude of changes to be directly compared between job characteristics. Over the period 2002-2014, we observed statistically significant increases in job strain (+0.09 standard deviations (SD), P = 0.02), low job control (+0.10 SD, P = 0.03), and work-family conflict (+0.15 SD, P = 0.001). No significant changes were observed for high job demand, low social support, and low reward. The largest increase in low job control was seen among service workers. The increase in two cardiovascular disease risk factors, job strain, and low job control, might partially explain the slowing of the decline in US heart disease and stroke mortality rates.

The authors used the frameworks of reciprocal determinism and occupational socialization to study the effects of work characteristics (consisting of control and complexity of work) on personal initiative (PI)--mediated by control orientation (a 2nd-order factor consisting of control aspiration, perceived opportunity for control, and self-efficacy) and the reciprocal effects of PI on changes in work characteristics. They applied structural equation modeling to a longitudinal study with 4 measurement waves (N = 268) in a transitional economy: East Germany. Results confirm the model plus 1 additional, nonhypothesized effect. Work characteristics had a synchronous effect on PI via control orientation (full mediation). There were also effects of control orientation and of PI on later changes in work characteristics: As predicted, PI functioned as partial mediator, changing work characteristics in the long term (reciprocal effect); unexpectedly, there was a 2nd reciprocal effect of an additional lagged partial mediation of control orientation on later work characteristics.

Digital film technology has constantly transformed and enhanced the fundamental aesthetic elements in the traditional aesthetic categories of film aesthetics during its gradual penetration into the film art system, enabling these fundamental aesthetic elements to take on new forms and appearances that enrich the artistic communication of film and mark This is a sign of artistic advancement. The fusion of old and new technologies in synergy with the original film system has also accelerated the development of digital film technology as an aesthetic model, and in adapting to the original film art system, digital film aesthetics has produced aesthetic implications that transcend the original system, in terms of virtual images, spatial and temporal concepts, narrative modes, sound and picture relationships, and movement characters. They all exhibit new aesthetic characteristics that are distinct from traditional film aesthetics in terms of virtual images, spatial and temporal concepts, narrative modes, sound and image relationships, movement characteristics, and interactive methods. When one examines existing discussions on digital cinema in China and globally, it is easy to see that they primarily focus on expanding the audiovisual expression of images and on the study of the expressive power and image effects of digital special effects, while research on expanding film concepts and expanding film aesthetics is superficial, or even nonexistent. From a film aesthetics standpoint from the standpoint of film aesthetics, as digital technology has gradually displaced traditional modes of film production and concepts, audience viewing styles, and human aesthetic concepts, the aesthetics of digital film under the new digital technology can be a new construction in terms of time and space, reality, narrative techniques, virtual reality, and aesthetic acceptance. Based on established film theories and aesthetic notions, this study will seek to develop film aesthetics in the digital era, highlighting the study's uniqueness and systemic character in light of shifting aesthetic categories and the incorporation of new aspects in digital cinema.

Objectives: To study the influence of change in self perceived psychosocial work characteristics on subsequent rates of sickness absence. Methods: Prospective cohort study of British civil service employees. Job control,...

This article reveals the essence of financial statements with the identification of its main problems in the era of rapid development, globalization and digitalization of the economic system. This, in turn, is accompanied by the process of using various digital technologies that are aimed at facilitating the processes of providing financial statements. Undoubtedly, the topic of our research is quite relevant even in the era of development of the 21st century, since with the advent of digital technologies in the economy, a number of problems arise in parallel related to the formation of financial statements using digital technologies for the purpose of analyzing and evaluating business activities. Accordingly, the fundamental task of each company is the most accurate provision of information in financial statements using various digital technologies that will help to obtain objective information about the financial position of the organization with the further search for ways to timely solve the problems that have arisen and eliminate risk situations. After all, it is no coincidence that the analysis of the main indicators of financial statements acts as a prerogative when making competent management decisions in order to carry out assessment activities on the general state of the enterprise and the transition of accounting data to a new era of digitalization. In addition, in the process of writing this scientific article, we proposed the main activities aimed at facilitating the processes of introducing digital technologies into accounting reporting, in particular, starting from the development and formation of new, more updated software tools, and ending with the creation of a certain legislative framework for the purpose of storing the necessary accounting information.

Work characteristics and health: how to analyze change.

Today's supply chains are becoming more competitive, complex, costly, risky and unpredictable. Usage of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), digital technology, and big data analysis develops traditional supply chains into smarter supply chains and enable effective management of future challenges in digital era. These technologies of digital era are found to achieve the basic objectives of supply chain such as, faster, cheaper and better product availability and customer reach. The digital era consists of Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and Analytics, Interconnectivity of digital devises and it requires advanced technologies to capture, collect, store, analyze and interpret huge information. The IoT is a network of hardware, software, devices, databases, objects, sensors, and systems, all working at the service of humanity. With IoT smart devices, supply chain firms would be able to reduce the information acquisition costs. The current evolution of big data in the digital era and an appropriate analysis of this data would provide a huge benefit in terms of positive outcomes in supply chain for companies which utilize and implement them during the next decade. The data driven revolution is going to sweep the way the future business is done and the way supply chain is managed. Big data analytics (BDA), known as `supply chain analytics' in supply chain management can help firms gain competitive advantage and achieve the status of `Smart Supply Chain'. Supply chain management in Digital Era is influenced through the analysis of wide range of data available in supply chain through various sources such as i) Product Design, ii) Supply Chain Design, iii) Sourcing, iv) Production, v) Warehousing, vi) Transportation, vii) Point-of-Sale to viii) Consumer. Supply chains will be operated in a more networked manner than they are today in the digital era. Organizations need to develop new collaborative models and scalable approaches for managing their supply chains more effectively in the digital era. Digital marketplaces and data cleanroom will enable the data transparency and smooth coordination with strategic supply chain partners. Organizations need to achieve new competitive capabilities like visibility, real-time response and digitization in the digital era in supply chain management. Though some leading companies have already commenced to modify their customer value propositions, and attempting to transform their supply chain operations using digital technologies, consensus has not yet evolved among researchers on what strategies to be adopted by the organizations to achieve supply chain related competitive advantage in the digital era. Therefore, there is a need to study the future strategies of supply chain to be adopted by business organizations to achieve positive outcomes in the digital era. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the body of knowledge by developing a framework of supply chain strategies and their enablers in digital era. It would aid organizations in redesigning their supply chain strategies to achieve supply chain related competitive advantage.

As digitalization is progressively permeating all aspects of society, how can be it employed to sustain the public health goals of quality, accessibility, efficiency and equity in health care and prevention now and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic? In this session jointly presented by WHO and EUPHA, we examine the extent to which technology is contributing positively or negatively to strengthening the resilience of health systems and empowering individuals and communities. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the WHO Regional Office for Europe had already identified the empowerment of people and transformation of health services through digital technologies as one of its four flagship areas in the European Programme of Work 2020-2025. Digital technologies can enable progress towards universal health coverage by improving access to quality person-centred services and complementing the efforts of the health workforce. Resilience of individuals and communities to prepare and respond to emergencies can be enhanced through the effective use of data and digital technologies. Empowerment of people to lead healthier lives and prevent disease through the appropriate use of digital technologies can transform our approach to health. In 2019 EUPHA published its manifesto for Public health digitalization in Europe, premised on the ability for digital technologies to support a transition from curative care to prevention, to support the empowerment of people and patients in taking ownership for their health and to render health care delivery more efficient, safer and cheaper. Prior to the global COVID-19 outbreak WHO Euro and EUPHA had already joined efforts towards shaping the debate around the ‘Beautiful Marriage’ where the digital health and public health communities work to co-create a healthy and fair future COVID-19 has brought a new impetus for the use of digital technologies, both for disease control as well as to support access to care in times of emergency. This presents an opportunity for critical reflections as we transition into a post-pandemic crisis future. The session which will be organised as a round table discussion will open by taking a candid look at how digital technologies have been harnessed to support the public-health response to COVID-19. Panellists will critically discuss how applications have been used in population surveillance, testing, tracking and tracing, in rolling out vaccinations as well as the controversial uses of smart vaccination certificates. They will be asked to reflect on infodemics and how these have hindered an optimal global pandemic response. In a second round, following a brief overview showing how the use of digital technologies has accelerated to support continuity of essential health services in a safe way at the peak of the pandemic, panellists will be asked to discuss and debate what this means for the sustained transformation of health services delivery and health systems in the future. They will be asked to discuss barriers to digital health implementation, including legal, ethical and privacy barriers, as well as organizational and workforce barriers Finally, panellists will be requested to respond to the criticism that the global health community is still using analogue tools in a fragmented manner to combat health threats in a digital era by proposing one key action that needs to be undertaken at supra-national level to ensure pan-European interoperability of health data that provides timely information on health and disease distribution within populations in Europe. Speakers: Iveta Nagyova EUPHA Naomi Lee The Lancet Ran Balicer Clalit Health Services, Israel

The Effects of Work Characteristics and Self-esteem on Work Burnout for Supervisory-levels Employees in Hotels Dr. Hany Hosny Sayed Abdelhamied Abstract The hotel industry is a labor-intensive industry, depending on large number of employees with different job positions to perform the services. These employees especially supervisory-level and front line employees face much pressure from the management to meet the hotel standards. Work characteristics and employees' self-esteem assumed to contribute to employees' burnout. High level of employees' burnout may affect hotels' performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of work characteristics' dimensions and self-esteem on levels of burnout among supervisory-level employees in Egyptian hotels. Methodology/ Approach - A quantitative approach was employed to the measure the associations between the study variables, data were collected on modified versions of Maslach Burnout Inventory scale, work characteristics and self-esteem scales. Statistical tests include descriptive statistics, internal consistency, reliability, validity, simple and multiple regressions tests were conducted to determine the associations among the study variables and to validate the study. Findings- the emerged results indicated that work characteristics are crucial predictors of burnout dimensions. Certain work characteristics such as work variety, work identity, work significance and work feedback increase the emotional exhaustion of supervisory-level employees while, work autonomy did not contribute to supervisor staff emotional exhaustion. Similarly, work characteristics influence personal accomplishment; on the other hand, depersonalization did not affected by the changes in work characteristics of supervisory employees in hotels. The results also show that, self-esteem negatively and strongly affects all burnout dimensions. Originality- this study comes up with new insight for hotels' operators, hence it illustrates the importance of work characteristics for burnout phenomena in hotels, and it sheds the light on the self-esteem as a predictor, strongly affect burnout in hotels. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jthm.v6n1a2

The unprecedented dissemination of digital technology has changed people's psychology including their shopping behaviour in the last two decades. Smartphone led digital applications and advancements have disrupted consumers' shopping processes, purchase decisions, and priorities as well as increased their exposure, aspirations and expectations inevitably. Therefore, it is imperative to examine the relevance of various elements of shopping motives holistically. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a new theoretical framework based on significant elements of shopping motives for physical products in the digital technology era. For this purpose, an exploratory study, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used. EFA generated five latent factors by grouping 18 independent variables. CFA validated latent factor construct and measured model fit. SEM visualized the path analysis and portrayed the pattern of relations between latent factors into a single factor structural model (consumer shopping motives framework). Results show that consumers' shopping priorities are changing as 3 conventional variables (‘role‐playing’, ‘status and authority’, and ‘pleasure of bargaining’) became obsolete and 3 new (‘anywhere and any‐time shopping’, ‘safe and secure digital transaction’, and ‘unbiased reviews and ratings”) came into existence prominently. The format and perspective of ‘fun, entertainment and recreation’ ‘social interaction and communication’, and ‘exposure to new and latest trends' have been changing. Consumers are becoming more technology‐dependent in their shopping processes and purchase decisions. The validation of the framework on channel preference behaviour revealed that consumers largely prefer offline channels for the fulfilment of risk‐free and social sub‐motives, and online channels for convenience sub‐motive. Therefore, broad structural change and clarity, specification of priorities, a shift in the format and perspective of few elements of shopping motives, intrinsic passion for the use of digital technology and web service in the shopping journey, and simplification of antecedents for growing popularity of multi‐channel shopping paradigm are the key novelty of this study.

Digital technology is being integrated in various scenes and processes of our industry and society. Meanwhile, there is a growing concern about the rapidly progressing digitalization. Social responsibility in digitalization is becoming a global agenda in the research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics. While various principles and guidelines have been proposed by the international authorities, NGOs and national governments, these principles are still too abstract to provide significant impact to actual technology development and integration processes. Service researchers, especially in the service science and engineering communities, have been interested in development and integration of digital technologies in service systems. Various concepts of technology-embedded or -assisted service system as well as methods for designing and developing them have been proposed. However, research on managing social impacts, including negative effects by using digital technologies, for service system design is still very limited. This study aims at developing a socially-conscious design method for digital technology assisted service system. In this paper, we first introduce the theoretical background of this study. Because digital technologies tend to bring a broad range of impacts to our society, it is important to take diverse values of various stakeholders into consideration. In addition, long-term evolution of service systems induced by digital technologies and the corresponding impacts on stakeholders should be examined. Therefore, we adopt scenario design and value sensitive design (VSD) to better understand the system of interest. Based on these theoretical foundations, we illustrate the research framework for designing digital technology assisted service systems, consisting of three main topics; system modelling, design process and assessment method.

Technology is changing the way organizations and their employees need to accomplish their work. Empirical evidence on this topic is scarce. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the effects of technological developments on work characteristics and to derive the implications for work demands and continuous vocational education and training (CVET). The following research questions are answered: What are the effects of new technologies on work characteristics? What are the implications thereof for continuous vocational education and training? Technologies, defined as digital, electrical or mechanical tools that affect the accomplishment of work tasks, are considered in various disciplines, such as sociology or psychology. A theoretical framework based on theories from these disciplines (e.g., upskilling, task-based approach) was developed and statements on the relationships between technology and work characteristics, such as complexity, autonomy, or meaningfulness, were derived. A systematic literature review was conducted by searching databases from the fields of psychology, sociology, economics and educational science. Twenty-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Empirical evidence was extracted and its implications for work demands and CVET were derived by using a model that illustrates the components of learning environments. Evidence indicates an increase in complexity and mental work, especially while working with automated systems and robots. Manual work is reported to decrease on many occasions. Workload and workflow interruptions increase simultaneously with autonomy, especially with regard to digital communication devices. Role expectations and opportunities for development depend on how the profession and the technology relate to each other, especially when working with automated systems. The implications for the work demands necessary to deal with changes in work characteristics include knowledge about technology, openness toward change and technology, skills for self- and time management and for further professional and career development. Implications for the design of formal learning environments (i.e., the content, method, assessment, and guidance) include that the work demands mentioned must be part of the content of the trainings, the teachers/trainers must be equipped to promote those work demands, and that instruction models used for the learning environments must be flexible in their application.