Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology Flashcards
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
What is it about (Introduction)?
- Digital technologies have been transforming workplaces and increasing productivity BUT could overuse of IT now be sapping employees’ and organizations’ well-being?
- We may be entering an era in which human frailties begin to slow down progress from digital technologies
- Purpose of the study: explore the implications of IT-induced technology stress, technology addiction and IT misuse in the workplace describe the key negative effects of IT use in the workplace, explain the risks they pose and suggest ways managers can mitigate their impact
- Qualities that make IT useful - reliability, portability, user-friendliness and fast processing – may also be undermining employee productivity, innovation & well-being dark side of IT hurts employees and their organizations and robs companies of some of the productivity gains expected from their IT investments
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
What is The effect of technostress?
- Individuals experience “IT use-induced stress” or “technostress” for a number of reasons:
1. feel forced to multitask rapidly on simultaneous streams of information from different devices simply because information feeds come at them in real time
2. remote work and flextime tether them round the clock to their devices and workplaces
3. short technology cycles and pressures from IT vendor mean constantly changing interfaces, screens and functionalities - Complex user interfaces that do not naturally fit with task workflows are an additional source of stress because they create work overload when they are used
- Often, the more enthusiastically & restlessly organizations embrace IT, the more technostress their employees suffer
- Even as they dream of escaping from IT, many employees also confess to feeling “addicted” to some of these stress-causing technologies and employees take their work home spend time responding to work emails when at home, while commuting, each weekend day and each vacation day
- It also allows employees to take their leisure-time activities to work (e.g. using Facebook)
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
What istge threat of employees misusing organisational IT??
- Threat of employees misusing organizational IT resources and triggering “attacks” of different kinds
- Fireworks and other network defenses can potentially stop attacks from the outside but no security technology can stop an employee who has authorized access to a computer system from obtaining confidential information and selling it to competitors
- Attacks stemming from internal sources are greater in scope and severity
- Other kinds of insider IT misuse: (1) truly malicious user behavior such as stealing sensitive corporate data, (2) unsanctioned behavior such as accessing unauthorized parts of a corporate network or knowingly using unlicensed software, (3) naïve user actions such as opening an unknown email attachment
- Most common motivation for IT misuse by an employee is a desire to be more effective
- Significant motivation for technology misuse is the desire to help others
- IT use requirements such as creating hard-to-guess passwords and blocking access to certain websites and cloud-based storage services are seen as constraining and themselves a form of stress that encourages IT misuse
- Respondents who feel that security policies in their organizations were complex, burdensome and stressful were significantly more likely to try to justify their misuse of IT
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
Why should senior leaders care about technostress: Risks to productivity & innovation
- Risks to productivity & innovation the more time and effort employees spend keeping abreast of ever-changing applications, struggling through information gluts, trying to understand how best to navigate through and use IT, and making mistakes, the less time they have for the job their IT tools are intended to support
* rush to respond to incoming information causes employees to process only that information which is immediately available rather than wait for the information they actually need to do the job
* effect of IT can reduce innovation & productivity in technology-enabled and relationship-orientated workflows the more IT employees used, the less effective they were
* distraction posed by IT use and its accompanying flow of information also seems to interfere with relationship building
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
Why should senior leaders care about technostress: Excessive IT use can harm employee well-being
Excessive IT use can harm employee well-being: too stressful to cope with and learn constantly changing applications etc. desire to leave the job or reduced commitment, lower satisfaction with the job
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
Why should senior leaders care about technostress: Monetary & reputational risks
Monetary & reputational risks: IT misuse has financial ramifications for organizations and public disclosure of problems caused by employee or contractor IT use can cause negative publicity and competitive disadvantage
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
Why should senior leaders care about technostress: Technical integrity and operational viability of the corporate IT system
Technical integrity and operational viability of the corporate IT system: IT misbehaviors such as using unlicensed software, downloading email attachments or sharing passwords with coworkers and sensitive information with nonemployees can put the organization’s data and systems at risk, unlicensed software usage can lead to significant downtime and sending or receiving email/phishing viruses can cause system downtime, employees addicted to social media may post sensitive company information that they are not permitted to share with outsiders
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
Why should senior leaders care about technostress: Legal risks
Legal risks: companies may be liable for not adequately disclosing the potential of IT addiction & bear the consequences in lawsuits
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
How can organisation restiste the dark side?
- Organizations have traditionally used technical approaches to helping their employees use IT: routine, one-time and one-size-fits-all technical training
- However, the interactions between employees and IT is beginning to increasingly consist of a continual stream of use of different types of IT in addition to periods of use of a particular application multimodal use demands a multimodal response
Authors suggest that managers go beyond technology orientated solutions and encourage employees to step back & examine their personal relationship with IT
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
WHAT SENIOR EXECUTIVES CAN DO ?
WHAT SENIOR EXECUTIVES CAN DO
* Promote security behaviors such as safe computing practices to coworkers
* Empower employees to be circumspect and mindful about how they use IT from anywhere and about its potential good and bad impacts
* Create a climate that encourages employees to really understand the IT they use at work mastery of IT is often best achieved by giving employees the resources to “mess around” and experiment with the devices and applications
* Belief that older people feel more stressed from “technology insecurity” is a myth: feel less stressed perhaps due to more informed use of IT (not interrupted by cellphones etc.)
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
WHAT IT LEADERS CAN DO ?
WHAT IT LEADERS CAN DO
* Provide forums for employees to discuss and share their IT related experiences, challenges and remedies with colleagues reduces some of the stress
* Key is to inject information that alerts employees to the negative effects of IT usage and encourages them to explore these topics on their own and with others
* Remain engaged with users for significantly longer periods after implementing the system need to let employees know about features such as email archiving that can potentially counter or offset impacts such as information overload
* Engaging employees in the design and implementation of countermeasures (such as blocking technologies to address workplace addiction to IT) can help increase compliance and reduce misuse
* Develop and implement IT-use policies that clearly define appropriate use and forbid the misuse of the company’s IT resources need to be understandable and not a significant hindrance to employees’ normal job duties or else they risk becoming an additional source of stress
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
WHAT IT LEADERS CAN DO ?
WHAT IT LEADERS CAN DO
* Provide forums for employees to discuss and share their IT related experiences, challenges and remedies with colleagues reduces some of the stress
* Key is to inject information that alerts employees to the negative effects of IT usage and encourages them to explore these topics on their own and with others
* Remain engaged with users for significantly longer periods after implementing the system need to let employees know about features such as email archiving that can potentially counter or offset impacts such as information overload
* Engaging employees in the design and implementation of countermeasures (such as blocking technologies to address workplace addiction to IT) can help increase compliance and reduce misuse
* Develop and implement IT-use policies that clearly define appropriate use and forbid the misuse of the company’s IT resources need to be understandable and not a significant hindrance to employees’ normal job duties or else they risk becoming an additional source of stress
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
WHAT HR LEADERS CAN DO ?
WHAT HR LEADERS CAN DO
* Have perhaps the most significant role to play in combating the dark-side effects of IT
* First issue_ assessing the extent of the dark-side effects of technostress or technology addition that their organization may be facing not easily quantified
* Should work together with IT leaders to create programs and audit exercises to regularly measure and monitor the extent to which employees are plagued by IT effects and are less productive, innovative or effective
* Improve employees’ sense of well-being at work mood-management strategies such as fostering a positive work environment, helping employees find meaning in their work and offering a pleasant physical work environment, among others, should help reduce IT misuse
* Need to consider tailoring organizational policies regarding IT use to individual-specific traits
* Will increasingly face the prospect of having to decide on alternate and complex courses of action to deal with deviant IT use, stress and addiction organizational, legal and medical
(Article: Tarafdar et al.: The Dark Side of Information Technology)
What is the best way to restiste the dark side of IT?
A holistic and integrated approach by senior executives, IT leaders and HR leaders can help mitigate the most damaging consequences of the dark-side phenomenon
