The impact of information technology on organizations: A study of enterprise resource planning system influences on job design and organizational culture

The primary purpose of this research is to study the linkage between perceived job design characteristics and information system environment characteristics before and after the replacement of a legacy information system with a new type of information system (referred to as an Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP system). A public state University implementing an academic version of an ERP system was selected for the study. Three survey instruments were used to examine the perception of the information system, the job characteristics, and the organizational culture before and after the system implementation. The research participants included two large departments resulting in a sample of 130 workers. Research questions were analyzed using multivariate procedures including factor analysis, path analysis, step-wise regression, and matched pair analysis. ^ Results indicated that the ERP system has introduced new elements into the working environment that has changed the perception of how the job design characteristics and organization culture dimensions are viewed by the workers. The understanding of how the perceived system characteristics align with an individual's perceived job design characteristics is supported by each of the system characteristics significantly correlated in the proposed direction. The stronger support of this relationship becomes visible in the causal flow of the effects seen in the path diagram and in the step-wise regression. The perceived job design characteristics aligning with dimensions of organizational culture are not as strong as the literature suggests. Although there are significant correlations between the job and culture variables, only one relationship can be seen in the causal flow. ^ This research has demonstrated that system characteristics of ERP do contribute to the perception of change in an organization and do support organizational culture behaviors and job characteristics. ^

Work Creativity as a Dimension of Job Performance

To stay competitive, many employers are looking for creative and innovative employees to add value to their organization. However, current models of job performance overlook creative performance as an important criterion to measure in the workplace. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct two separate but related studies on creative performance that aim to provide support that creative performance should be included in models of job performance, and ultimately included in performance evaluations in organizations. Study 1 is a meta-analysis on the relationship between creative performance and task performance, and the relationship between creative performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Overall, I found support for a medium to large corrected correlation for both the creative performance-task performance (ρ = .51) and creative performance-OCB (ρ = .49) relationships. Further, I also found that both rating-source and study location were significant moderators. Study 2 is a process model that includes creative performance alongside task performance and OCB as the outcome variables. I test a model in which both individual differences (specifically: conscientiousness, extraversion, proactive personality, and self-efficacy) and job characteristics (autonomy, feedback, and supervisor support) predict creative performance, task performance, and OCB through engagement as a mediator. In a sample of 299 employed individuals, I found that all the individual differences and job characteristics were positively correlated with all three performance criteria. I also looked at these relationships in a multiple regression framework and most of the individual differences and job characteristics still predicted the performance criteria. In the mediation analyses, I found support for engagement as a significant mediator of the individual differences-performance and job characteristics-performance relationships. Taken together, Study 1 and Study 2 support the notion that creative performance should be included in models of job performance. Implications for both researchers and practitioners alike are discussed.

Perceptions of job worth

The present study was conducted to evaluate perceptions of the importance of various factors that may determine the wage or salary level in jobs. Items describing various job characteristics reflecting the factors of Skill, Effort, Responsibility, Working Conditions, and Organizational characteristics were rated by 510 subjects from a variety of organizations. Results indicated that the items did not cluster into the five categories noted above. Instead, three factors were identified and labeled Job Complexity, Accountability, and Work Context. There were few gender or occupational differences in the ratings of the items. The implications of the results for the development of equitable wage and salary systems are discussed.

Work creativity as a dimension of job performance

To stay competitive, many employers are looking for creative and innovative employees to add value to their organization. However, current models of job performance overlook creative performance as an important criterion to measure in the workplace. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct two separate but related studies on creative performance that aim to provide support that creative performance should be included in models of job performance, and ultimately included in performance evaluations in organizations. Study 1 is a meta-analysis on the relationship between creative performance and task performance, and the relationship between creative performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Overall, I found support for a medium to large corrected correlation for both the creative performance-task performance (ρ = .51) and creative performance-OCB (ρ = .49) relationships. Further, I also found that both rating-source and study location were significant moderators. Study 2 is a process model that includes creative performance alongside task performance and OCB as the outcome variables. I test a model in which both individual differences (specifically: conscientiousness, extraversion, proactive personality, and self-efficacy) and job characteristics (autonomy, feedback, and supervisor support) predict creative performance, task performance, and OCB through engagement as a mediator. In a sample of 299 employed individuals, I found that all the individual differences and job characteristics were positively correlated with all three performance criteria. I also looked at these relationships in a multiple regression framework and most of the individual differences and job characteristics still predicted the performance criteria. In the mediation analyses, I found support for engagement as a significant mediator of the individual differences-performance and job characteristics-performance relationships. Taken together, Study 1 and Study 2 support the notion that creative performance should be included in models of job performance. Implications for both researchers and practitioners alike are discussed.^

Relative importance of false positives in the selection process

This study investigated the role of contextual factors in personnel selection. Specifically, I explored if specific job factors such as the wage, training, available applicant pool and security concerns around a job, influenced personnel decisions. Additionally, I explored if the individual differences of decision makers played a role in how the previously mentioned job factors affected their decisions. A policy-capturing methodology was employed to determine the weight participants place on the job factors when selecting candidates for different jobs. Regression and correlational analyses were computed with the beta weights obtained from individual regression analyses. The results obtained from the two samples (student and general population) revealed that specific job characteristics did indeed influence personnel decisions. Participants were more concerned with making mistakes and thus less likely to accept candidates when selecting candidates for jobs having high salary and/or high training requirements.

Women Hospitality Managers: Perceptions of Gender-Related Career Challenges

In spite of increases in the number of women who are both academically pre- pared and interested in pursuing hospitality management careers, women appear to be leaving the industry at a much higher rate than their male counter- parts. Although women are better represented in lower and middle management than ever before, there has been no corresponding increase in the number of women in top level management positions. The author explores women managers' perceptions of the career-related challenges they confront in hospitality environments and suggests that inadequate access to informal information networks, lack of women mentors, and the impact of unique job characteristics are their most significant concerns.

An examination of psychological meaningfulness, safety, and availability as the underlying mechanisms linking job features and personal characteristics to work engagement

The present study tested a nomological net of work engagement that was derived from its extant research. Two of the main work engagement models that have been presented and empirically tested in the literature, the JD-R model and Kahn's model, were integrated to test the effects that job features and personal characteristics can have on work engagement through the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety, and availability. In this study, safety refers to psychological perceptions of safety and not workplace safety behaviors. The job features that were tested in this model included person-job fit, autonomy, co-worker relations, supervisor support, procedural justice, and interactional justice, while the personal characteristics consisted of self-consciousness, self-efficacy, extraversion, and neuroticism. Thirty-four hypotheses and a conceptual model were tested in order to establish the viability of this nomological net of work engagement in which it was expected that meaningfulness would mediate the relationships between job features and work engagement, safety would mediate the relationships that job features and personal characteristics have with work engagement, and availability (physical, emotional, and cognitive resources) would mediate the relationships that personal characteristics have with work engagement. Furthermore, analyses were run in order to determine the factor structure of work engagement, assess whether or not it exhibits differential validity from organizational commitment and job satisfaction, and confirm that it is positively related to the outcome variable of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The final sample consisted of 500 workers from an online labor market who responded to a questionnaire composed of measures of all constructs included in this study. Findings show that work engagement is best represented as a three-factor construct, composed of vigor, dedication and absorption. Furthermore, support was found for the distinction of work engagement from the related constructs of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. With regard to the proposed model, meaningfulness proved to be the strongest predictor of work engagement. Results show that it partially mediates the relationships that all job features have with work engagement. Safety proved to be a partial mediator of the relationships that autonomy, co-worker relations, supervisor support, procedural justice, interactional justice, and self-efficacy have with work engagement, and fully mediate the relationship between neuroticism and work engagement. Findings also show that availability partially mediates the positive relationships that extraversion and self-efficacy have with work engagement, and fully mediates the negative relationship that neuroticism has with work engagement. Finally, a positive relationship was found between work engagement and OCB. Research and organizational implications are discussed.

An Examination of Psychological Meaningfulness, Safety, and Availability as the Underlying Mechanisms linking Job Features and Personal Characteristics to Work Engagement

The present study tested a nomological net of work engagement that was derived from its extant research. Two of the main work engagement models that have been presented and empirically tested in the literature, the JD-R model and Kahn’s model, were integrated to test the effects that job features and personal characteristics can have on work engagement through the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety, and availability. In this study, safety refers to psychological perceptions of safety and not workplace safety behaviors. The job features that were tested in this model included person-job fit, autonomy, co-worker relations, supervisor support, procedural justice, and interactional justice, while the personal characteristics consisted of self-consciousness, self-efficacy, extraversion, and neuroticism. Thirty-four hypotheses and a conceptual model were tested in order to establish the viability of this nomological net of work engagement in which it was expected that meaningfulness would mediate the relationships between job features and work engagement, safety would mediate the relationships that job features and personal characteristics have with work engagement, and availability (physical, emotional, and cognitive resources) would mediate the relationships that personal characteristics have with work engagement. Furthermore, analyses were run in order to determine the factor structure of work engagement, assess whether or not it exhibits differential validity from organizational commitment and job satisfaction, and confirm that it is positively related to the outcome variable of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The final sample consisted of 500 workers from an online labor market who responded to a questionnaire composed of measures of all constructs included in this study. Findings show that work engagement is best represented as a three-factor construct, composed of vigor, dedication and absorption. Furthermore, support was found for the distinction of work engagement from the related constructs of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. With regard to the proposed model, meaningfulness proved to be the strongest predictor of work engagement. Results show that it partially mediates the relationships that all job features have with work engagement. Safety proved to be a partial mediator of the relationships that autonomy, co-worker relations, supervisor support, procedural justice, interactional justice, and self-efficacy have with work engagement, and fully mediate the relationship between neuroticism and work engagement. Findings also show that availability partially mediates the positive relationships that extraversion and self-efficacy have with work engagement, and fully mediates the negative relationship that neuroticism has with work engagement. Finally, a positive relationship was found between work engagement and OCB. Research and organizational implications are discussed.

An organizational learning approach to expatriate cross-cultural adjustment, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between organizational learning and expatriation in overseas subsidiaries as well as in organizations as a whole. In doing so, two issues were addressed--(i) the use of expatriation as firms internationalize, and (ii) the significance of various factors to expatriate success as firms gain international experience. The sample of companies for this study was drawn from U.S. Fortune 500 multinational corporations (MNCs) in two sets of related industries--computers/electronics and petroleum/chemicals. Based on the learning that takes place within organizations as they increase their involvement overseas, a positive relationship was expected between international experience and expatriation when internationalization was low, and a negative relationship was expected when internationalization was high. Results indicate a significant positive relationship between country experience and the proportion of expatriates in that subsidiary when subsidiaries were relatively young, and a negative relationship, however not significant, for more mature subsidiaries. The relationship between overall firm degree of internationalization (DOI) and the proportion of expatriates in the firm as a whole was negative regardless of stage of internationalization, but this relationship was significant only for highly internationalized firms. It was further suspected that individual, environmental, and family-related characteristics would have a significant effect on the success of expatriates whose firms were low on internationalization, and that organizational characteristics would play a significant role in highly internationalized firms. Support for these hypotheses was received with respect to certain outcomes and some determinants of success. The preponderance of support was found for those addressing the effects of both environmental and family-related characteristics on the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates in firms with little international experience. Considerable support was also found for those hypotheses addressing the impact of organizational characteristics on the job satisfaction levels of expatriates assigned to mature subsidiaries. The relevant literatures on organizational learning and expatriation are reviewed, and a model is developed underlying the logic of the hypotheses. Research methods are then described in full detail, results are reported, and implications for theory and for management are discussed. ^

Analytical approximations to predict performance measures of manufacturing systems with job failures and parallel processing

Parallel processing is prevalent in many manufacturing and service systems. Many manufactured products are built and assembled from several components fabricated in parallel lines. An example of this manufacturing system configuration is observed at a manufacturing facility equipped to assemble and test web servers. Characteristics of a typical web server assembly line are: multiple products, job circulation, and paralleling processing. The primary objective of this research was to develop analytical approximations to predict performance measures of manufacturing systems with job failures and parallel processing. The analytical formulations extend previous queueing models used in assembly manufacturing systems in that they can handle serial and different configurations of paralleling processing with multiple product classes, and job circulation due to random part failures. In addition, appropriate correction terms via regression analysis were added to the approximations in order to minimize the gap in the error between the analytical approximation and the simulation models. Markovian and general type manufacturing systems, with multiple product classes, job circulation due to failures, and fork and join systems to model parallel processing were studied. In the Markovian and general case, the approximations without correction terms performed quite well for one and two product problem instances. However, it was observed that the flow time error increased as the number of products and net traffic intensity increased. Therefore, correction terms for single and fork-join stations were developed via regression analysis to deal with more than two products. The numerical comparisons showed that the approximations perform remarkably well when the corrections factors were used in the approximations. In general, the average flow time error was reduced from 38.19% to 5.59% in the Markovian case, and from 26.39% to 7.23% in the general case. All the equations stated in the analytical formulations were implemented as a set of Matlab scripts. By using this set, operations managers of web server assembly lines, manufacturing or other service systems with similar characteristics can estimate different system performance measures, and make judicious decisions - especially setting delivery due dates, capacity planning, and bottleneck mitigation, among others.

Personnel selection, safety performance, and job performance: Are safe workers better workers?

The present dissertation consists of two studies that combine personnel selection, safety performance, and job performance literatures to answer an important question: are safe workers better workers? Study 1 tested a predictive model of safety performance to examine personality characteristics (conscientiousness and agreeableness), and two novel behavioral constructs (safety orientation and safety judgment) as predictors of safety performance in a sample of forklift loaders/operators (N = 307). Analyses centered on investigating safety orientation as a proximal predictor and determinant of safety performance. Study 2 replicated Study 1 and explored the relationship between safety performance and job performance by testing an integrative model in a sample of machine operators and construction crewmembers (N = 323). Both Study 1 and Study 2 found conscientiousness, agreeableness, and safety orientation to be good predictors of safety performance. While both personality and safety orientation were positively related to safety performance, safety orientation proved to be a more proximal determinant of safety performance. Across studies, results surrounding safety judgment as a predictor of safety performance were inconclusive, suggesting possible issues with measurement of the construct. Study 2 found a strong relationship between safety performance and job performance. In addition, safety performance served as a mediator between predictors (conscientiousness, agreeableness and safety orientation) and job performance. Together these findings suggest that safe workers are indeed better workers, challenging previous viewpoints to the contrary. Further, results implicate the viability of personnel selection as means of promoting safety in organizations.^

Analytical Approximations to Predict Performance Measures of Manufacturing Systems with Job Failures and Parallel Processing

Parallel processing is prevalent in many manufacturing and service systems. Many manufactured products are built and assembled from several components fabricated in parallel lines. An example of this manufacturing system configuration is observed at a manufacturing facility equipped to assemble and test web servers. Characteristics of a typical web server assembly line are: multiple products, job circulation, and paralleling processing. The primary objective of this research was to develop analytical approximations to predict performance measures of manufacturing systems with job failures and parallel processing. The analytical formulations extend previous queueing models used in assembly manufacturing systems in that they can handle serial and different configurations of paralleling processing with multiple product classes, and job circulation due to random part failures. In addition, appropriate correction terms via regression analysis were added to the approximations in order to minimize the gap in the error between the analytical approximation and the simulation models. Markovian and general type manufacturing systems, with multiple product classes, job circulation due to failures, and fork and join systems to model parallel processing were studied. In the Markovian and general case, the approximations without correction terms performed quite well for one and two product problem instances. However, it was observed that the flow time error increased as the number of products and net traffic intensity increased. Therefore, correction terms for single and fork-join stations were developed via regression analysis to deal with more than two products. The numerical comparisons showed that the approximations perform remarkably well when the corrections factors were used in the approximations. In general, the average flow time error was reduced from 38.19% to 5.59% in the Markovian case, and from 26.39% to 7.23% in the general case. All the equations stated in the analytical formulations were implemented as a set of Matlab scripts. By using this set, operations managers of web server assembly lines, manufacturing or other service systems with similar characteristics can estimate different system performance measures, and make judicious decisions - especially setting delivery due dates, capacity planning, and bottleneck mitigation, among others.