Stefan Tams

Opening the black box: Why and when workplace exclusion affects social reconnection behaviour, health, and attitudes

By integrating belongingness theory and the sensitivity about being the target of a threatening upward comparison (STTUC) theory, we explicate a process through which co-worker exclusion is positively related to social reconnection behaviour in the workplace. Specifically, we argued and found that exclusion prompts ingratiatory and citizenship behaviours via the perception of being envied by colleagues. Despite these positive outcomes, we also found the mediated relationship of exclusion and perceptions of being envied to be damaging to workers’ psychological health and work-related attitudes, and that these relationships were the strongest among employees with high positive affect (PA). We tested our model across two distinct samples that included full-time Dutch (Study 1) and American (Study 2) employees. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Selective attention as a protagonist in contemporary workplace stress: implications for the interruption age

Background and Objectives: The ubiquity of instant messages and email notifications in contemporary work environments has opened a Pandoras Box. This box is filled with countless interruptions coming from laptops, smartphones, and other devices, all of which constantly call for employees’ attention. In this interruption era, workplace stress is a pervasive problem. To examine this problem, the present study hypothesizes that the three-way interaction among the frequency with which interrupting stimuli appear, their salience, and employees’ deficits in inhibiting attentional responses to them impacts mental workload perceptions, ultimately leading to stress. The study, further, probes a related form of self-efficacy as a potential suppressor of interruption-based stress. Design: The study used a 2 (low vs. high frequency) × 2 (low vs. high salience) mixed model design. Methods: The 128 subjects completed a test of their inhibitory deficits and rated their mental workload perceptions and experiences of stress following a computer-based task. Results: Inhibitory deficits and increased interruption salience can alter the perception of mental workload in contemporary work environments for the worse, but interruption self-efficacy can help offset any resulting interruption-based stress. Conclusions: This study extends the literatures on work interruptions as well as on stress and coping in the workplace.

Moving cultural information systems research toward maturity: A review of definitions of the culture construct

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose both short-term and long-term recommendations, with the potential to help cultural information systems (IS) research overcome the definitional and epistemological problems that cause it to remain largely immature. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an extensive literature review to identify the major definitional and epistemological problems inherent in cultural IS research and to propose ways to overcome these problems. Findings – The paper finds that cultural research in the area of IT and people needs to employ more consistent definitions of the culture construct and that such research could benefit from a diversification of the epistemological approaches employed. Originality/value – The present paper finds that a more contemporary definition of culture is needed alongside a greater emphasis of the interpretivist approach to move cultural IS research toward maturity. The paper also suggests that anthropology constitutes a promising reference ...

The Impact of Interruptions on Technology Usage: Exploring Interdependencies Between Demands from Interruptions, Worker Control, and Role-Based Stress

Mobile technologies have dramatically increased the number of work-related interruptions. In many organizations, employees have to remain accessible and respond to these technology-mediated (T-M) interruptions even after regular work hours. At the same time, most employees have limited freedom to decide how and when they accomplish their tasks, a work condition that renders the explosion of T-M interruptions problematic. When people have limited control over their work environment, they cannot adapt their work schedules and methods to the additional demands from T-M interruptions, potentially leading them to be stressed and, in turn, to shy away from using the technologies that create these interruptions. Hence, we propose that demands from T-M interruptions negatively affect work-related IT-usage via workers’ experiences of stress and that this indirect effect depends on worker control. Psychological and physiological data (salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase) will be collected and analyzed through advanced procedures for testing moderated-mediation effects.

How and why trust matters in post-adoptive usage: The mediating roles of internal and external self-efficacy

Abstract Since the underutilization of technology often prevents organizations from reaping expected benefits from IT investments, an increasing body of literature studies how to elicit value-added, post-adoptive IT use behaviors. Such behaviors include extended and innovative feature use, both of which are exploratory in nature and can lead to improved work performance. Since these exploratory behaviors can be risky, research has directed attention to trust in technology as an antecedent to post-adoptive IT use. In parallel, research has examined how computer self-efficacy relates to post-adoptive IT use. While such research has found that both trust and efficacy can lead to value-added IT use and that they might do so interdependently, scant research has examined the interplay between these antecedents to post-adoptive IT use. Drawing on the Model of Proactive Work Behavior with a focus on its predictions about trust and efficacy, we develop a research model that integrates trust in technology and computer self-efficacy in the post-adoption context. Our model suggests that the two concepts are interdependent such that trust-related impacts on post-adoptive use behaviors unfold via computer-related self-efficacy beliefs. Contemporary tests of mediation on data from more than 350 respondents provided support for our model. Hence, our findings begin to open the black box by which trust-related impacts on post-adoptive behaviors unfold, revealing computer self-efficacy as an important mediating factor. In doing so, this study furthers understanding of how, and why, trust matters in post-adoptive usage, enabling strategic change management by elucidating the “fit” between technological characteristics and post-adoptive usage.

The Role of Auction Duration in Bidder Strategies and Auction Prices

ABSTRACT In online auction research, sellers’ and buyers’ strategies have been largely examined as separate research streams and their interdependencies have not been adequately explored. This deficiency is a serious limitation since an integrative approach could build the conceptual bridge necessary to provide sellers and buyers with a deeper understanding of how to achieve desired auction outcomes. Consequently, the present study integrates these two perspectives by proposing that the seller’s auction duration strategy impacts the effectiveness of bidders’ strategies in the forms of both winning likelihood and surplus extraction. We drew upon the concept of bidders’ time costs and information asymmetry to build our hypotheses. Field data collected from eBay supported our model and demonstrated significant differences in bidders’ winning likelihood and surpluses across auctions with shorter and longer durations. The results suggested that online bidders should pay closer attention to auction duration since it can affect their surpluses and odds of winning. For instance, opportunists or last-minute bidders can improve their odds of winning significantly if they choose to participate in seven-day auctions rather than in one-day auctions.

When do I profit? Uncovering boundary conditions on reputation effects in online auctions

This study investigates buyer decision-making in online auctions.It examines the combined effects of information cues on price premium.Classical and contemporary theories are used to develop competing hypotheses.Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).Results confirm most of the effects predicted by classical theories. Reputation profiles, based on customer feedback ratings, are important for achieving above average sales prices in online auctions. However, contradictory results in past research suggest that reputation effects may depend on information alternatives to customer feedback that sellers can provide to buyers. By explicitly modeling the competing assumptions of classical and contemporary approaches to buyer decision-making and using hierarchical linear modeling to analyse data from 363 online auctions, we found that sellers may benefit from carefully evaluating what information alternatives they combine with reputation profile to realize higher sales prices.

Information Systems Project Management Risk: Does it Matter for Firm Performance?

Over the last three decades, much IS research has focused on information systems development ISD risk and its impacts on ISD success. While these studies have greatly advanced the understanding of the nomological network of ISD risk and success, the literature is still not sufficiently clear on the firm performance impacts of these concepts. Linking ISD risk and success to firm performance is important so as to better understand whether ISD projects can have broader firm-level implications, for example, in terms of providing firms with a competitive advantage. To address this research need, the present research note advances propositions regarding the linkage between ISD risk, success, and firm-level performance conceptualized as competitive advantage. This linkage sheds light on the broader effects of ISD risk, and it helps ISD research overcome the isolation in which it is often conducted. Using the concept of residual risk i.e., the risk present in the later stages of a project that remains after appropriate actions have been taken to mitigate initial risks in the early stages of a project, the authors propose that ISD risk impacts firm performance by reducing ISD success and that the value arising from ISD projects is higher when IT and business plans are synchronized i.e., when they are in alignment.

Smartphone withdrawal creates stress: A moderated mediation model of nomophobia, social threat, and phone withdrawal context

Abstract A growing body of literature demonstrates that smartphone use can become problematic when individuals develop a technology dependency such that fear can result. This fear is often referred to as Nomophobia, denoting the fear of not being able to use ones phone. While the literature (especially on technostress and problematic smartphone use) has shed ample light on the question of which factors contribute to the development of Nomophobia, it remains less clear how, why, and under what conditions Nomophobia, in turn, results in negative consequences, especially stress. Drawing on the demand-control-person model, this study develops a novel research model indicating that Nomophobia impacts stress through the perception of a social threat and that this indirect effect depends on the context of a phone withdrawal situation. Data collected from 270 smartphone users and analyzed using multi-group path analysis supported our model. The results showed that the proposed indirect effect is non-significant only when situational certainty and controllability come together, that is, when people know for how long they will not be able to use their phones and when they have control over the situation. Managers can help their nomophobic employees by instilling in them trust and perceptions of social presence while also giving them more control over their smartphone use during meetings.

When Modern Technologies Meet Ageing Workforces: Older Workers are more affected by Demands from Mobile Interruptions than their Younger Counterparts

Mobile technologies have dramatically increased the number of work-related interruptions. In many organizations, employees have to remain accessible and respond to these technology-mediated (T-M) interruptions even after regular work hours. Thus, demands from work interruptions might spill over into workers’ evening and family time, entailing role stress. Ultimately, workers might shy away from using the technologies they deem responsible, with negative impacts for organizations. At the same time, the workforce is ageing rapidly, and older workers might be even more susceptible to the negative impacts of interruptions than their younger counterparts. Hence, this research examines whether demands from T-M interruptions reduce IT use indirectly via workers’ experiences of role stress and whether this indirect effect depends on age such that it is stronger for older workers. Data collected from 121 younger and 124 older knowledge workers supported this idea. Implications for research and practice are discussed.