Why to gamify performance management? Consequences of user engagement in gamification

Gamification offers one of the most promising solutions for information technology (IT) managers to innovate performance management systems. Yet, evidence on its benefits is limited, and IT managers are left without a clear guidance on why to implement it. To solve the problem, this article shows the benefits of gamification for overall job performance and the intermediating mechanisms through which it exercises its advantageous effects. It is theorized that employees’ engagement in gamification favorably alters their cognitions, transferring their effect onto employee attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. First, user engagement in gamification alters cognitions about the performance management system, making employees perceive justice, which, in turn, affects their satisfaction with the performance system. Second, user engagement in gamification alters cognitions about the job, influencing the perceptions of job stressors that affect job satisfaction. Third, user engagement in gamification alters cognitions about the organization, making employees perceive organizational support, which translates into higher organizational commitment. The improved cognitions then transfer their beneficial effect onto overall job performance as justice is found to exercise a mediating effect. The findings from 268 employees in a human resource service organization support the hypotheses and provide concrete evidence for the benefits of gamification in performance management.     

The effects of multilevel sanctions on information security violations: A mediating model

We proposed and empirically tested a mediating model for examining the effects of multilevel sanctions on preventing information security violations in the workplace. The results of the experiment suggested that personal self-sanctions and workgroup sanctions have significant deterrent effects on employee security violations, but that the effect of organizational sanctions becomes insignificant when the other two types of sanctions are taken into account. Theoretically, the study pointed out the importance of personal self-sanctions and informal workgroup sanctions. Practically, our results suggested that an “influencing” strategy may be more effective than an “enforcing” one in information security management.     

Anger or fear? Effects of discrete emotions on employee’s computer-related deviant behavior

Security research on the employees’ expressive motives in committing computer-related deviant behavior is limited. In this research, drawing on the appraisal tendency framework (ATF), we examine how employees’ emotions (anger vs. fear) and perceived sanctions influence their computer-related deviant behaviors in the workplace. Our empirical results show that employees who experienced anger were more likely to commit computer-related deviant behavior mediated by perceived informal sanctions. In contrast, employees who experienced fear were less likely to commit computer-related deviant behavior mediated by perceived formal and informal sanctions. The results provide important guidance for organizations to improve the effectiveness of deterrent controls.     

Protection motivation and deterrence: a framework for security policy compliance in organisations

Enterprises establish computer security policies to ensure the security of information resources; however, if employees and end-users of organisational information systems (IS) are not keen or are unwilling to follow security policies, then these efforts are in vain. Our study is informed by the literature on IS adoption, protection-motivation theory, deterrence theory, and organisational behaviour, and is motivated by the fundamental premise that the adoption of information security practices and policies is affected by organisational, environmental, and behavioural factors. We develop an Integrated Protection Motivation and Deterrence model of security policy compliance under the umbrella of Taylor-Todd's Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour. Furthermore, we evaluate the effect of organisational commitment on employee security compliance intentions. Finally, we empirically test the theoretical model with a data set representing the survey responses of 312 employees from 78 organisations. Our results suggest that (a) threat perceptions about the severity of breaches and response perceptions of response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response costs are likely to affect policy attitudes; (b) organisational commitment and social influence have a significant impact on compliance intentions; and (c) resource availability is a significant factor in enhancing self-efficacy, which in turn, is a significant predictor of policy compliance intentions. We find that employees in our sample underestimate the probability of security breaches.     

Critical Times for Organizations: What Should Be Done to Curb Workers’ Noncompliance With IS Security Policy Guidelines?

This study was designed to examine the impacts of employees’ cost–benefit analysis, deterrence considerations, and top management support and beliefs on information systems security policy compliance. Surveys of Canadian professionals’ perceptions were carried out. A research model was proposed and tested. The results confirmed that top management support and beliefs, sanction severity, and cost–benefit analysis significantly influenced employees’ information systems security policy compliance. The implications of the study findings are discussed, and conclusions are drawn.     

Which reduces IT turnover intention the most: Workplace characteristics or job characteristics?

Studies have shown that positive perceived job characteristics, such as job significance and task autonomy, tend to decrease IT personnel turnover intention. In addition, employee perception of their workplace characteristics may affect turnover. Few studies have examined this. We tested whether workplace characteristics – structural fairness, trust in senior management, employee information sharing, and job security – affected turnover intention as much as did job characteristics. We found that workplace characteristics out-predicted job characteristics. However, this was true only for programmer/analysts. The reverse was true for technical support personnel. Practical implications are discussed.     

Employee Goal Orientation,Work Unit Goal Orientation and Employee Creativity

For employee creativity to occur, organizations must build a context conducive to creativity, in addition to identifying employees with creative potential. Complementing and extending earlier research, we develop and test a cross‐level model about how work unit goal orientation might relate to employee creativity. We also theorize and examine the mediating role of employee information elaboration linking work unit goal orientation and employee creativity. We conduct a questionnaire survey based on multi‐source data from 340 employees comprising 53 teams in eight Taiwanese organizations. The results indicate that the work unit goal orientation is positively, whereas the work unit performance‐avoidance orientation is negatively, related to employee creativity through employee information elaboration. Furthermore, work unit goal orientation also plays a cross‐level moderating role: the positive relationship between individual‐level learning orientation and information elaboration is stronger when work unit learning orientation is higher, but weaker when work unit avoidance orientation is higher.     

Research on the acceptance of collaborative robots for the industry 5.0 era -- The mediating effect of perceived competence and the moderating effect of robot use self-efficacy

Collaborative robots (Cobots), an important component of the Industry 5.0 era, have been rapidly entering a variety of industrial application scenarios. However, employees working with them are reluctant to accept cobots into the workplace. Therefore, the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM) is unsuitable for research on the acceptance of cobots with artificial intelligence and the human-robot interaction process. In addition, anthropomorphism cannot explain the lower employee acceptance with the increase of cobots anthropomorphic from the mechanistic level. Therefore, based on the human-robot interaction phenomenon in the emerging industrial field, combined with the Uncanny Valley effect and intergroup threat theory, 300 subjects were invited to conduct an empirical study using experimental vignette methodology (EVM). The findings are as follows: 1) Perceived competence plays a mediating role in the relationship between cobots anthropomorphic and acceptance of cobots; 2) Perceived competence and perceived threat serially mediates the relationship between cobots anthropomorphic and acceptance of cobots; 3) The cobot use self-efficacy plays a moderating role in the relationship between perceived competence and perceived threat. The research results provide a mechanistic explanation for alleviating the low acceptance of cobots, give measures and methods to improve acceptance of cobots and provide solutions for the promotion and application of cobots in the industrial field.     

Can support by digital technologies stimulate intrapreneurial behaviour? The moderating role of management support for innovation and intrapreneurial self-efficacy

Drawing on theorising on digital technologies as external enablers of entrepreneurial activities and an interactionist perspective on corporate entrepreneurship, this article examines the relationship between digital technology support and employee intrapreneurial behaviour. We propose that management support for innovation as an organisational characteristic and intrapreneurial self-efficacy as an individual characteristic moderate this relationship. Findings from a metric conjoint experiment with 1360 decisions nested within 85 employees showed that support by social media, support by collaborative technologies, and support by intelligent decision support systems were significant predictors of employee intrapreneurial behaviour. However, the relative impact of support by these digital technologies varied with different levels of management support for innovation and intrapreneurial self-efficacy.     

Employee dispositions to job and organization as antecedents and consequences of information systems use

Organizations implement information systems to improve employee productivity and engender favourable organizational outcomes. Although there is evidence of positive outcomes of system use, research has suggested that system use may lead to negative consequences for employees and organizations. There has been limited research that focuses on how employees' use of information systems in the workplace is associated with their positive and negative dispositions to job and organization. We develop and test a model that posits that dispositions to job (ie, job satisfaction, job security, job anxiety, and emotional exhaustion), and organization (ie, organizational commitment and organizational trust) will play a dual role of antecedents and consequences of system use. We conducted 2 longitudinal studies in the context of 2 different systems—a functional system and an enterprise system—and found support for our hypotheses (N = 257 and 181, respectively). We found that preimplementation job and organizational dispositions significantly predicted both lean and rich measures of system use. Further, we found that rich measures of system use (ie, cognitive absorption use and deep structure use) had differential impacts on postimplementation employee dispositions—functional system use had a positive impact and enterprise system use had a negative impact. Overall, our findings offer a comprehensive understanding of system use, and its antecedents and consequences for employees in organizations.     

Employee responses to information security related stress: Coping and violation intention

Studies on employee responses to the information security policy (ISP) demands to show that employees who experience stress over the demands would resort to emotion-focused coping to alleviate the stress and subsequently violate the ISP. However, their intent to engage in problem-focused coping to meet the ISP demands and possibly reduce ISP violations has yet to be analysed. We argue that both types of coping responses coexist in employee responses to ISP demands and they together influence ISP violation intention. Drawing upon the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, we examine how security-related stress (SRS) triggers inward and outward emotion-focused coping, and problem-focused coping to the ISP demands, which together influence employee ISP violations. We also examine how ISP-related self-efficacy and organisational support moderate the effects of SRS on coping responses. We surveyed 200 employees in the United States to test our model. The results indicate that SRS triggers all three coping responses, and ISP-related self-efficacy and organisational support reduce the effects of SRS on inward and outward emotion-focused coping. Problem-focused coping then decreases ISP violation intention, whereas inward and outward emotion-focused coping increases it. The model was further verified with ISP compliance as the outcome construct, which yielded consistent results. Understanding various coping responses to SRS and the factors that facilitate or inhibit the responses can assist managers in effectively designing and implementing the ISP to reduce employee ISP violations.     

Policies and procedures to manage employee Internet abuse

Industry analysts estimate that billions of dollars in lost revenue were attributed to employee Internet abuse. Trends also suggest that lost job productivity and corporate liability have emerged as new workplace concerns due to growth of new online technologies and mobile computing. Such employee Internet misuse creates new management dilemmas on how to respond to incidences of such misuse as well poses network security risks and drains on network bandwidth. Within an organization, it is imperative to ensure that employees are using computing resources effectively and appropriately. Utilizing the previous literature in the field, this paper proposed a revised framework to manage employee Internet abuse. The former model proposed did not account for new digital media and recommended screening applicants for Internet addiction, using more of a clinical test than a job performance test. This new model describes both prevention and intervention methods to address incidents of online misuse in the workplace and refocuses hiring decisions into post-employment training. It also examines the new hiring concerns with the new iGeneration of college graduates and it examines how organizations should best utilize acceptable Internet use policies with clear methods of Internet monitoring to enforce that workers are complying with company policies. This paper also talks about the potential benefits of rehabilitation approaches to manage employees who abuse instead of terminating them to decrease job turnover and improve job retention. Implications for current management practices are also discussed.     

An analysis of multiple factors relating to teachers' problematic information security behavior

Given the high Internet penetration rate and the huge repository of data stored online, there is a growing trend urging people to utilize data. However, the potential for the malicious use of data disclosed online necessitates attention. Risky information security behavior often leads to damage. Previous research has focused on information security behavior in the workplace; however, there has been little research on teachers' perceptions of their own information security behavior, in particular for teachers in primary and secondary education. For students at this age, their teachers can serve as models. Through understanding teachers' information security behavioral intentions and related protection motivation, we can design training programs for teachers and hence increase teachers' as well as students' normative judgment with regard to information security behavior. The purpose of this research is to explore those factors that relate to teachers' information security behavior as grounded in Protection Motivation Theory. Additionally, the construct of social norms was incorporated based on several studies. Overall, we wish to examine how perceived severity, vulnerability, response-efficacy, self-efficacy, response costs and social norms related to teachers' problematic information security behavior. Structural equation modeling was implemented to analyze the relationships. The results and implications are presented.     

Organizational Data Breach: Building Conscious Care Behavior in Incident Response

Organizational and end user data breaches are highly implicated by the role of information security conscious care behavior in respective incident responses. This research study draws upon the literature in the areas of information security, incident response, theory of planned behaviour, and protection motivation theory to expand and empirically validate a modified framework of information security conscious care behaviour formation. The applicability of the theoretical framework is shown through a case study labelled as a cyber-attack of unprecedented scale and sophistication in Singapore’s history to-date, the 2018 SingHealth data breach. The single in-depth case study observed information security awareness, policy, experience, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, threat appraisal and self-efficacy as emerging prominently in the framework’s applicability in incident handling. The data analysis did not support threat severity relationship with conscious care behaviour. The findings from the above-mentioned observations are presented as possible key drivers in the shaping information security conscious care behaviour in real-world cyber incident management.     

The influence of the informal social learning environment on information privacy policy compliance efficacy and intention

Throughout the world, sensitive personal information is now protected by regulatory requirements that have translated into significant new compliance oversight responsibilities for IT managers who have a legal mandate to ensure that individual employees are adequately prepared and motivated to observe policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance. This research project investigates the antecedents of information privacy policy compliance efficacy by individuals. Using Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance within the healthcare industry as a practical proxy for general organizational privacy policy compliance, the results of this survey of 234 healthcare professionals indicate that certain social conditions within the organizational setting (referred to as external cues and comprising situational support, verbal persuasion, and vicarious experience) contribute to an informal learning process. This process is distinct from the formal compliance training procedures and is shown to influence employee perceptions of efficacy to engage in compliance activities, which contributes to behavioural intention to comply with information privacy policies. Implications for managers and researchers are discussed.     

Privacy and biometrics: An empirical examination of employee concerns

Advances in authentication technology have led to a proliferation of biometric-based systems in the workplace. Although biometric technologies offer organizations a cost-effective method of increasing security, employees are often hesitant to permit use. The collection and storage of employee biometric data raises concerns about proper use of these intensely personal identifiers. This work draws from organizational privacy practices, electronic monitoring, procedural fairness, self-construal, and technology adoption theories. We investigate the effects of independent and interdependent self-construal on three newly developed dimensions of employee privacy concern related to organizational use of biometric technology. These dimensions include perceived accountability, perceived vulnerability, and perceived distrust toward the organization. We test the predictive power of our model using data from an organization deploying a new biometric system designed to track employee work assignments under the auspices of improving personnel safety. Results indicate that self-construal plays a significant role in the formulation of privacy concerns and both perceived accountability concerns and perceived vulnerability concerns are significant predictors of attitude toward using biometric technology in the workplace.     

Age as a moderator of attitude towards technology in the workplace: work motivation and overall job satisfaction

Given the prevalence of technology in the workplace, an understanding of employees' attitudes towards technology is essential. Such attitudes have been linked to such important issues as the successful implementation of new technologies in the workplace, employee intent to use technology, and the actual usage of technology by employees. As a result of the rapidly aging workforce, and because age has been linked to computer use and comfort, it is important to examine the relationship that may exist between age and attitudes towards technology. This study examines age as a moderator of 612 employees' attitudes towards technology in relation to work motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and overall job satisfaction. Further, given the technological socialisation of the Generation X (Gen X) versus the Baby Boomers, our sample comprised these two demographics. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression indicates age moderates the relationship between attitude towards technology and intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and to a lesser extent, overall job satisfaction. In each instance, older employees exhibit the strongest relationships with the outcome variables when possessing a high attitude towards technology. In contrast, older employees exhibit the weakest relationships when possessing a low attitude towards technology. These results are supportive of the moderating effect of age on attitude towards technology. Lastly, implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Impact of using social network services on workplace ostracism,job satisfaction,and innovative behaviour

Research has found workplace ostracism to negatively impact workplace attitudes and behaviours such as job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and job performance. However, research investigating beyond the direct effects of workplace ostracism and findings about boundary conditions for mitigating the negative effects of workplace ostracism are limited in organisational studies. In this regard, this study explored the mediating effects of job satisfaction on the relationship between workplace ostracism and innovative behaviour and the moderating effects of social networking services for work-related purposes for the relationship between workplace ostracism and job satisfaction. The two-wave study consisted of 237 full-time employees in large organisations in South Korea. The hierarchical regression analyses resulted in job satisfaction to mediate the relationship between workplace ostracism and innovative behaviour and social network service to significantly moderate the relationship between workplace ostracism and job satisfaction. Moreover, mediated moderation was found for the study model, which further suggests that using social network services for work-related purposes had indirect effects on innovative behaviour.     

Seniors and Information Technology in China

Technology, particularly information technology (IT), is changing rapidly and offers many advantages for users. IT has the potential to improve one’s quality of life, but only if used. Research has shown that, in most developed and developing nations, senior use of IT lags behind that of other segments of society. This “gray divide” is a concern for government, business, and others. Concern about senior adoption and use of IT has been the motivation for numerous studies and is the motivation for this study of Chinese seniors. This exploratory study examines urban Chinese seniors’ IT use, computers and mobile phones in particular, but also their attitudes and behaviors as they relate to the use of those devices. More specifically it examines several potential factors that motivate or hinder senior’s use of information technology, including self-efficacy, satisfaction, comfort with technology, and both positive and negative attitudes. This study provides some insight into the quantity and diversity of Chinese senior technology use in urban China. Particularly noteworthy, the study found that technology ownership was quite high, and in general the Chinese seniors studied had positive attitudes and beliefs concerning information technology. This is generally good news for the Chinese government, which must efficiently provide services for the growing population of Chinese seniors, as well as for businesses that wish to capitalize on one of the largest senior populations in the world.