Information Technology Employees Research Articles

Work-related Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Information Technology Employees

Work-related Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Information Technology Employees

Efficacy beliefs and employee voice: the role of perceived influence and manager openness

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore how and when an employee's belief in their voice self-efficacy leads to promotive and prohibitive voice behavior. By banking on social cognitive theory, this study examines perceived influence at work as a mediator and managerial openness as a moderator in the link between voice self-efficacy and the two forms of voice.Design/methodology/approachThis study's data come from 285 Indian information technology (IT) employees by adopting a cross-sectional survey design. The effect of moderator and mediator is examined by employing structural equation modeling in AMOS 22.FindingsThe results reveal that perceived influence at work partially mediates the positive link between voice self-efficacy and the two forms of voice behaviors. The test of moderation also exposes that prohibitive voice is more contingent on managerial openness as compared to promotive voice.Originality/valueThis is one of the initial studies to explore perceived influence at work as a mediator in the association between voice self-efficacy and employee voice behavior. The treatment of voice as a bidimensional construct in this study discloses the difference between the two forms, contributing to the voice literature and inviting further research.

Job Stress of IT Employees in Tamilnadu – An Empirical Study

Stress is a part of our work. Beyond the threshold level, stress causes adverse effect on the physical and mental wellbeing of the workers, whatever may be the work done, proves the research studies. Information Technology (IT) industry employees’ jobs, though financially is attractive when compared with other industries, the experienced level of stress is significant greater. In the context of changing policies, globalization, liberalization, competition, downsizing, and arrival of brand-new innovation and technologies work becomes stressful naturally. The present study aims at addressing the problems of IT employees related to job stress. The present study attempted to throw light on the various problems of job stress among IT employees in Chennai city at Tamilnadu State. The tool “Job Stress Scale” was used to measure the stress in terms of ten categories of stressors: Role overload, Role ambiguity, Role conflict, Unreasonable group and political pressure, Responsibility for persons, Under participation, Powerlessness, Poor peer relations, Low status, and Strenuous working conditions. The 103 employees were drawn as a sample from five leading IT companies, occupying various positions. The data were obtained and analysed using correlational, Chi-Square, ‘t’ test, ANOVA and Factor Analysis. The results revealed that role conflict arose because of poor peer-relations. There was significant relationship between marital status of employees and job stress. There was association between role overload and responsibility for persons. Significant difference was found between married and unmarried employees with regard to job stress. No difference was found between different categories of employees. This study throws light on the problems related to job stress among IT employees that would be helpful in managing stress, evolving new policies and act as source for further research.

Role of Leadership Skills for Developing Digital Acumen in Information Technology Employees

With the plethora of changes happening in organizations adopting new digital technologies, managing human resources in information technology organizations had never been more challenging. Keeping in mind, a very few literature available on the role of HR in the new digital era, an attempt has been made in this study to explore the role of leadership skills for developing digital acumen in people working in information technology organizations. The study used sequential mixed methodology to explore the insights of subject matter experts, technology leaders and HR professionals to develop an instrument that explored necessary leadership skills for acquiring digital acumen in employees working in information technology companies. The first part of the study was based on exploring narratives of five subject matter experts. The inputs from these experts came out with broad themes and sub-themes that were used for developing the constructs, namely, acquiring digital acumen, adaptability, ambiguity tolerance, teamwork and collaboration and championing leadership. The part two of the study involved the use of the instrument for recording the opinion of 210 respondents working in software development positions in reputed information technology companies in the NCR of Delhi. The results showed that respondent perception on acquiring digital acumen was mediated by the factor championing leadership. Other intervening leadership variables such as adaptability, ambiguity tolerance and teamwork and collaboration exerted their influence on acquiring digital acumen by exercising ‘championing leadership’ abilities in the organization.

Work e-mail after hours and off-job duration and their association with psychological detachment, actigraphic sleep, and saliva cortisol: A 1-month observational study for information technology employees.

ObjectiveA sufficient duration of time off after work is necessary to ensure workers’ health. Better quality of off‐job time can also facilitate recovery from fatigue, but its quantitative influence is largely unknown. We aimed to examine how off‐job time quality (as measured by the frequency of emailing after work), and off‐job duration is associated with psychological detachment, actigraphic sleep, and saliva cortisol using a 1‐month observational study.MethodsThe participants were 58 daytime employees working at an information technology company. Sleep actigraphy and saliva cortisol as well as self‐reported outcomes were repeatedly measured for 1 month. Two‐way (work e‐mail frequency × off‐job time) multilevel mixed‐effects linear regression analyses were performed in both continuous and categorical variables.ResultsThe frequency of work e‐mailing after hours was significantly associated with self‐reported outcomes and actigraphic sleep quality, while a significant association was not found in cortisol awakening responses and actigraphic sleep duration. A significantly larger cortisol response after awakening was found in shorter, rather than longer, durations of off‐job time. Self‐reported detachment, rumination and carry‐over fatigue showed significant interactions between work e‐mail and off‐job time, suggesting that worse outcomes were found in a higher frequency of work e‐mail even when employees had longer amounts of off‐job time.ConclusionOur findings suggest that ensuring the quality and duration of off‐job time is beneficial for recovery from work with sufficient sleep. Specifically, the frequency of e‐mailing after work should be minimized to make recovery complete.

A Study on Psychosocial Health of Work from Home Information Technology (IT) Employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Background: In order to control the risk of COVID-19 many employees have been asked to work from home & generally away from their workplace. Working from home may cause negative impact on employees’ mental health as it increases social isolation which is associated with high risk of psychological distress and depression.
 Aim: The study was done with the aim to assess the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on psychosocial health and well-being of Information Technology (IT) employees who is working from home.
 Methodology: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study, conducted at Chennai district of Tamilnadu. Around 210 samples were collected based on convenient sampling method. A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect data and the data analyzed using SPSS 22 software.
 Results: Out of the participants, 74% of the employees felt that their work time has been increased due to work from home. On multiple regression analysis, variables like gender, marital status, average working hours per day were found to have statistically significant.
 Conclusion: Chennai is a metro city with high population of IT professionals. Individual workload has increased within a short deadline, which has led to increased stress, sleep deprivation that resulted in many psychosocial problems.

Significant household factors that influence an IT employees’ job effectiveness while on work from home

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to find out the significant factor/s relating to an information technology (IT) employee’s household that determines the job effectiveness of an employee.Design/methodology/approachThe approach involves surveying IT employees from across levels of work-experience, companies and cities on household factors that affect their job effectiveness while they work from home and uses discriminant analysis to find out important factor/s that determines if an employee’s job effectiveness remains constant or is better at the workplace that at home.FindingsThe number of elderly staying in the house, age of the eldest member of the household, observable power cuts at home and number of cars owned by individuals were found to be significant factors affecting an IT employees’ job effectiveness.Originality/valueThe study targets a very niche area of the impact of household factors on an IT employee. The findings of this research enable IT organizations from India with insights and enable them to come up with innovative interventions to manage employees on a personalized basis to improve an employees’ job effectiveness and drive organizational effectiveness on a whole, during and post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Engaging the Head, Heart and Hand of the Millennial Workforce

The purpose of the study was to discover the strategies employed by Information Technology (IT) companies in India to engage the millennial workforce, and assess the effectiveness of these strategies. A concurrent mixed method approach was used. In the quantitative phase of the research, a questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 306 IT employees from the millennial generation to discover which strategies or employee benefit schemes had been effective in positively influencing employee engagement. Data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. In the qualitative phase of the study, 18 millennial generation managers belonging to the IT sector were interviewed. Purposive sampling was used. The qualitative study offered a deeper understanding of the phenomenon Employee Engagement and insights into lived experiences of employees. Both studies confirmed that activities related to corporate social responsibility, outdoor and cultural activities, and opportunities for informal communication determined engagement of the millennial workforce in the IT sector. Work life balance and opportunities for physical activities were desirable hygiene factors, but not determining factors for engagement. In the qualitative study, it was found that gamification of learning was not considered a proactive engagement strategy; however, the quantitative study showed that it was most effective in engaging the millennials.

Examining the mediating role of work engagement on the relationship between workplace mindfulness and organizational justice and its association with well-being

PurposeEmployee well-being is increasingly relevant and crucial for organizational success. As work engagement and employee well-being affect employee performance, this area is the focus of increasing attention both from scholars and industry professionals. The main objective of the present research study is to investigate the mediating role of work engagement on the relationship between mindfulness at work, organizational justice and employee well-being.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted on information technology (IT) employees in India, and 331 complete responses were collected for the data analysis. The cross-sectional data were collected through purposive sampling. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to evaluate the proposed research hypotheses.FindingsThe findings support the convergent and discriminant validities of mindfulness, organizational justice, work engagement and employee well-being. The results indicate that mindfulness and organizational justice have an indirect relationship with employee well-being. In addition, the study demonstrates that work engagement significantly mediates the relationship between mindfulness and employee well-being as well as between organizational justice and employee well-being.Practical implicationsThe findings will help organizations and human resources (HR) departments to understand the importance of work engagement and employee well-being in the workplace.Originality/valueThe mediating effect of work engagement between the workplace mindfulness–organizational justice relationship on employee well-being is addressed by drawing on conservation of resources (COR) and job demand–resource (JD–R) theories. Prior research has exclusively studied the relationship of employee well-being with either mindfulness or organizational justice. This research provides empirical insights regarding the fact that both mindfulness and organizational justice simultaneously have a relationship with employee well-being.

A Perspective on Work-Life Balance and Its Determinants

With a changing demography and social structure, the work life balance (WLB) is a major concern felt by employees of most organizations. This study has attempted to have relook at the constructs of work-life balance from the perspectives of banking and information technology employees with various household structures. The present study develops a multidimensional work-life balance scale to measure existing levels of work-life balance. The scale considers work-life balance as a multidimensional second order construct comprising workplace inclusion, family support, employee benefit, time management, coworker relationship, and supervisor-subordinate relationship. The study reveals not only indicators of organizational family work culture, but also personal characteristics such as time management and familial support determine work-life balance. However, no significant difference was perceived in the work life balance was found between employees with different family structures and between the two sectors considered under the study. Also, there was no significant difference in perception of work life- balance between knowledge workers from IT and banking sectors.

The Effect of Green Transformational Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Egypt

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of Green Transformational Leadership (GTL) on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) of Information Technology (IT) employees in Egypt. Significant research has been conducted to understand the influence of transformational leadership on various, yet outdated, OCB constructs. Since Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is closely related to OCB, this research looks at the effect of transformational leadership style, from an environmental perceptive on OCB. A simple random sample consisting of 378 IT employees working for Egyptian owned organizations was studied. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis were used to test the research hypotheses. The research results show that all GTL dimensions had a significant effect on all OCB dimensions. This paper makes substantial contributions in highlighting the relationships between GTL and OCB. It also adds to the critical and theoretical understandings, essential in developing green leadership styles and OCB.

Leadership Effectiveness and Psychological Well-being: The Role of Workplace Spirituality

The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship of leadership effectiveness and psychological well-being with the work outcomes of intention to quit, job involvement and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and whether workplace spirituality plays a role in mediating the associations of leadership effectiveness and psychological well-being with work outcomes. The study is cross-sectional and non-experimental. Data were obtained from 630 information technology (IT) employees from South India, adopting ‘power calculations’. The analysis was performed using SPSS version 20 for Windows and LISREL version 8.72. Results reveal that leadership effectiveness and psychological well-being have a significant positive association with workplace spirituality, and this, in turn, has an impact on the work outcomes of intention to quit, job involvement and OBSE. Workplace spirituality can limit any negative associations of leadership effectiveness and psychological well-being with work outcomes. This research adds to the existing body of knowledge in the spirituality literature by drawing attention to the positive aspects of the interplay between spirituality, leadership transformation and well-being at work. The article concludes that building core values anchoring spirituality would lead to greater connectedness and healthier employee outcomes.

Knowledge and Awareness on Vitamin D Deficiency among IT Employees

Vitamin D is well known for its essential role in maintaining healthy bones. Deficiency of this causes the bones to become soft and weak, a disease known as rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D is produced via skin under the action of sunlight, with smaller amounts from dietary sources. A self-administered questionnaire was prepared consisting of 10 questions. The questionnaire consisted of open ended and close ended type of questions. The survey was conducted among the IT (Information Technology) employees of a particular region. The survey was conducted via online platform. The results were collected, analysed and interpreted. The results conveyed that a majority (83%) of the IT employees were aware that the vitamin D deficiency mainly causes obesity. 50% of the IT employees were aware that vitamin D deficiency causes mainly skin cancer. 52.1% of the IT employees were aware that vitamin D levels support lung function and cardiovascular health. The present study concluded that the IT employees were well aware about the vitamin D deficiency and its risk factors. They had a good knowledge on the fact that vitamin D deficiency causes obesity and many other health issues.

Increasing Innovative Working Behaviour of Information Technology Employees in Vietnam by Knowledge Management Approach

Today, Knowledge Management (KM) is becoming a popular approach for improving organizational innovation, but whether encouraging knowledge sharing will lead to a better innovative working behaviour of employees is still a question. This study aims to identify the factors of KM affecting the innovative working behaviour of Information Technology (IT) employees in Vietnam. The research model involves three elements: attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control affecting knowledge sharing, and then, on innovative working behaviour. The research method is the quantitative method. The survey was conducted with 202 samples via the five-scale questionnaire. The analysis results show that knowledge sharing has a positive impact on the innovative working behaviour of IT employees in Vietnam. Besides, attitude and perceived behavioural control are confirmed to have a strong positive effect on knowledge sharing, but the subjective norm has no significant impact on knowledge sharing. Based on this result, recommendations to promote knowledge sharing and the innovative work behaviour of IT employees in Vietnam are made.

The Effect of Organizational Culture and Career Development on Job Satisfaction and Performance of IT (Information Technology)Employees of PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia in Rumbai, Pekanbaru

This study aims to see and find out the direct and indirect effects of organizational culture and career development on job satisfaction and employee performance. In this study, the population was 147 of all employees of the IT (Information Technology) section of PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia. The analytical tool used was Path Analysis using the SEM-PLS program for windows. In this study, the sampling method used was census method or saturated sample. It showed that the entire population was sampled. The results of this study indicates that organizational culture and career development effect on job satisfaction. Organizational culture, career development and job satisfaction effect on employee performance. Organizational culture and career development effect on employee performance through job satisfaction.

Behavior‒Output Control Theory, Trust and Social Loafing in Virtual Teams

Social loafing, the act of withholding effort in teams, has been identified as an important problem in virtual teams. A lack of social control and the inability to observe or trust that others are fulfilling their commitments are often cited as major causes of social loafing in virtual teams where there is geographic dispersion and a reliance on electronic communications. Yet, more research is needed to better understand such claims. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of control and trust on social loafing in virtual teams. To accomplish this, we proposed and empirically tested a multi-level research model that explains the relationships among team controls, trust, social loafing, and team performance. We tested the model with 272 information technology employees in 39 virtual teams. Results indicate that control and trust reduce social loafing separately and also jointly.

Cloud computing technology adoption: an evaluation of key factors in local governments

PurposeThe significance of cloud services in information technology (IT) is increasing as a means of achieving enhanced productivity, efficiency and cost reduction. Through cloud-based service, the reliability and scalability of an organization’s systems can be enhanced since organizations such as local governments are able to concentrate on their main business strategies. This research seeks to identify critical factors that may have an impact on the acceptance of cloud-based services, where the organizational context is based on local governments in Australia.Design/methodology/approachTo formulate a more comprehensive IT innovation adoption model for cloud technology, factors from the technology-organizational-environment framework, desires framework and diffusion of innovation model were integrated. Data was obtained from 480 IT staff working in 47 local government organizations.FindingsThe research results show that the factors which had a statistically significant and positive impact on the adoption of cloud-based services in local governments were compatibility, complexity, cost, security concerns, expected benefits and organization size. It is likely that the outcomes from this research will provide insights to any organization seeking to make investment decisions on the adoption of cloud-based services.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations include generalizability of the findings since the data is restricted to local government areas in Queensland, Australia. Further, the sample mostly included individuals with managerial positions and may not completely capture the cloud adoption factors relevant for front line IT employees. Another limitation is the possible omission of factors that may be relevant but not considered due to the selected theories. Lastly, this research did not differentiate between different types of cloud adoption such as private, public, community and hybrid models that are possible in this context.Originality/valueThe paper provides a combination framework of cloud-based service adoption based on a literature review on cloud adoption from an IS perspective. It adapts integrated model to establish a more comprehensive innovation adoption framework for cloud technology.

What drives job satisfaction in IT companies?

PurposeStrategic goal achievement in every sector of a company relies fundamentally on the firm's employees. This study aims to disclose the factors that spur employees of major Information Technology (IT) companies in the United States (US).Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, 15,000 reviews from the top 15 United States IT companies were collected from the social media platform Glassdoor to uncover the factors that satisfy IT employees. To learn the most meaningful features that influence the scores, positive and negative remarks, as well as advice to the management team, were analyzed through a support vector machine.FindingsResults highlight a positive attitude of coworkers, contributing to a positive environment and job satisfaction. However, unsatisfied IT employees reveal that work exhaustion is the main reason for their job dissatisfaction.Practical implicationsIT human resource departments can use these valuable insights to align their strategies in accordance with their employees' desires and expectations in order to thrive.Originality/valueThe study highlights the relevance of IT companies to understand the reasons behind their employees' satisfaction. Up until now, little is known concerning the variants of job satisfaction among IT employees, enriching the understanding in this particular professional area.

Voice behavior of Indian IT employees: a moderated mediation model

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore how promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors of Indian information technology (IT) employees vary in their relationship with other factors. This study investigates a moderated mediation model involving different factors like managerial openness, voice self-efficacy, turnover intentions and promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a cross-sectional design to collect data from 254 executives working in the IT companies located in India. This study uses IBM SPSS 22 along with the Hayes’ PROCESS module to investigate the moderation and mediation effects.FindingsThe results reveal that both promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors fully mediate the negative relationship between managerial openness and employee turnover intentions. The results also support that voice self-efficacy strengthens the relationship between managerial openness and promotive voice behavior but not prohibitive voice behavior.Originality/valueThis is one of the very few studies to explore voice behavior from the Indian context and thus heeds to the call made by researchers to explore voice in a non-Western context. The treatment of voice as a combination of promotive and prohibitive voice rather than as a unitary concept enhances the voice literature and invites further research.

Turnover intentions of employees of information technology outsourcing suppliers in Vietnam

Voluntary employee turnover creates considerable direct and indirect cost for a company. It can also harm customers. In the case of information technology (IT) outsourcing, the turnover often decreases the quality of delivered services because the newly assigned employees need to adjust to the new tasks and customer. Reports indicate that turnover of IT employees in offshore locations is very high. The research on this phenomenon is still limited and inconclusive, but there are indications that the standard model of employee turnover developed for Western industrialised countries does not apply equally for emerging economies, which are prime destinations for IT outsourcing. We analyse which factors determine employee turnover at IT outsourcing suppliers in Vietnam, a growing IT outsourcing destination. The results show that compensation and job alternatives play an important role, as in Western countries. However, relationships with superiors and peers also significantly affect employee turnover intention, which reflects cultural differences.