Mattering in digital labor

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-324
Author(s):  
Eliane Bucher ◽  
Christian Fieseler ◽  
Christoph Lutz

Purpose Online gig labor platforms bring together a global and fast-growing workforce to complete highly granular, remote and decontextualized tasks. While these environments might be empowering to some workers, many others feel disenfranchised and removed from the final product of their labor. To better understand the antecedents of continued participation in forms of crowdsourced digital labor, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between worker’s ability to create a narrative of their work mattering regardless, and their continued work engagement (WE) in these work setups. Design/methodology/approach The authors approach the relationship between individual mattering and digital WE through a longitudinal study among workers on the crowdworking platform Amazon Mechanical Turk. The authors further provide qualitative insight into individual perceptions of mattering based on essay data. Findings The authors develop a measure of mattering in crowdworking with four dimensions: reliance, social recognition, importance and interaction. Reliance is the most pronounced dimension, followed by interaction, importance and social recognition. In the final longitudinal model, only importance affects WE positively, while the other three mattering dimensions do not have a significant effect. Originality/value The findings indicate that individuals who feel that they themselves and their work “count” and “make a difference” will be more engaged in their digital labor. By clarifying the dimensionality of mattering in crowdwork and studying its differentiated effect on WE, the paper makes a contribution to research on crowdwork and the future of work. Beyond the theoretical contributions, the finding that perceived importance fosters WE has important implications for task and platform design.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunsoo Lee ◽  
Jae Young Lee ◽  
Jin Lee

Purpose The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between two sub-constructs of heavy work investment: work engagement and workaholism. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesize and critically assess existing research on the relationship between these concepts. Findings The review revealed three major shortcomings of the extant literature: a dichotomous perspective, variations in measurements and the unaddressed complexity of the relationship. Originality/value Based on these findings, this study provides a discussion on the limitations and suggestions for future research on work engagement and workaholism, including using a person-centered approach.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco António Arraya ◽  
René Pellissier ◽  
Isabel Preto

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to research factors like task-orientation and collectivism and to examine the relationship between them and goal-setting as research construct. This research investigates the phenomena of team goal-setting in a selected sports organisation. Therefore 49 players from three Portuguese elite male handball team were selected for the study. Design/methodology/approach – Three well-known questionnaires were employed to determine the relationships between the above factors in a case setting. Task- and ego-orientation in Sport Questionnaire, the Jackson Psychological Collectivism Measure and the Goal-setting in Sport Questionnaire. Findings – The results reveal that the team and players are task-oriented, collectivist and possessing professional and personal goal habits. The correlations between questionnaire outcomes indicate that, when the team wants to set goals, it should consider the players’ orientation and the team’s collectivism. Thus team goal-setting is more than only goal-setting, because of the need for task-orientation and collectivism. Research limitations/implications – The research was conducted using three teams in a specific sports and thus cannot be generalised to the general sports environment. Yet, certainly the strength of the findings indicate that the results and conclusions may be used in a wider sports or business setting. Practical implications – This research paper should provide managers and coaches with insight into the complexity of team goal-setting. It also should provide insight into the chosen process related to human resources. Originality/value – The paper adds and demonstrates to the literature on team goal-setting the importance of task-orientation and collectivism as goal-setting mediators.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjolein C.J. Caniëls ◽  
Judith H. Semeijn ◽  
Irma H.M. Renders

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether and how employees’ proactive personality is related to work engagement. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, the study proposes that this relationship is moderated by a three-way interaction between proactive personality × transformational leadership × growth mindset. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on survey data from 259 employees of an internationally operating high-tech organization in the Netherlands. Findings In line with prior studies, support is found for positive significant relationships of proactive personality and transformational leadership with engagement. Additionally, transformational leadership is found to moderate the relationship between proactive personality and work engagement, but only when employees have a growth mindset. Originality/value The study advances the literature that investigates the proactive personality-engagement relationship. Specifically, this study is the first to examine a possible three-way interaction that may deepen the insights for how proactive personality, transformational leadership and growth mindset interact in their contribution to work engagement.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaana-Piia Mäkiniemi

PurposeThe study explores techno-work engagement, which is a positive and fulfilling state of well-being with respect to the use of digital technology at work. It provides insight into the circumstances in which the educational use of ICT enhances work well-being.Design/methodology/approachA total of 60 Finns from the education sector wrote descriptions of situations in which they experienced techno-work engagement related to the use of educational technology. The responses were analysed qualitatively.FindingsParticipants experienced techno-work engagement not only when educational technology facilitated work, enabled progress and produced novelty value but also when working in collaboration and in a positive climate.Originality/valueThis first qualitative study of techno-work engagement deepens the understanding of positive well-being experiences associated with the use of educational technology. It also provides suggestions for leading technology-related work well-being in educational sector.


Author(s):  
Elaine Farndale ◽  
Susanne E. Beijer ◽  
Marc J.P.M. Van Veldhoven ◽  
Clare Kelliher ◽  
Veronica Hope-Hailey

Purpose – To date, work engagement has been the domain of academics whilst organisation engagement has been the focus of practice. The purpose of this paper is to address the growing divide by exploring the construct clarity and discriminant validity of work and organisation engagement simultaneously, providing insight into how these constructs relate empirically, as well as investigating the nomological network of each. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data were collected through online surveys from 298 employees in two multinational companies. Respondents were primarily managerial and professional employees. The survey included measures of work and organisation engagement, as well as work outcomes and organisation performance. Findings – The findings indicate that work and organisation engagement are distinct constructs, and have differential relationships with important employee outcomes (commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour, initiative, active learning, job satisfaction), and organisational performance. Practical implications – The findings provide opportunities for practitioners to explore the potentially unique ways in which different types of engagement may add value to jobs and organisations. Originality/value – The study takes important steps in bridging the academic/practitioner divide: the paper clearly demonstrates how the two concepts of work and organisation engagement relate to and complement each other as useful constructs for research and practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Zaib Abbasi ◽  
Umair Rehman ◽  
Ding Hooi Ting ◽  
Muhammad Ali Quraishi

Purpose Advertising through the videogame has become one of the most effective and prevalent channels of advertisement, especially via pop-up ads – appearing on the screen that interrupts children’s gaming activity. Despite its importance, the effectiveness of pop-up ads and its advertising value in online videogames (O-VGs) to predict children’s inspired-to behavior remains scant. This study aims to investigate the underlying factors that explain the relationship between the four dimensions of pop-up ads and perceived advertising value, which further predicts children’s inspired-to behavior. Design/methodology/approach Data from 196 parents who observed their children while playing O-VGs, were analyzed using Smart-PLS. As the respondents are parents, the authors took extra precautions to ensure that the findings are valid. Findings Results showed that perceived irritation and incentives of pop-up ads do not affect children’s advertising value, whereas perceived informativeness and entertainment of pop-up ads positively impact perceived advertising value among children. Besides, children’s perceived advertising value of pop-up ads in O-VGs predict their inspired-to behavior. Originality/value This study contributes to children’s inspired-to behavior via empirically studying the perceived advertising value as a potential deriving source of inspiration. Finally, the study provides information for developers/advertisers about why and under what circumstances children perceived advertising value affect inspired-to behavior.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roksana Binte Rezwan ◽  
Yoshi Takahashi

PurposeIn this study, the authors examine how employees' retention intentions are related to their proactive personalities through the theoretical lens of the model of motivational force of turnover and the model of proactive motivation. More specifically, the authors also verify the partial mediation of work engagement on the main relationship and moderation of high-performance human resource practices (HPHRPs) in the process, which has rarely been explored previously.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesized model was tested using partial least squares structural equational modeling on a sample of 221 employees of a bank in Bangladesh.FindingsThe results showed that having a proactive personality is positively related to retention intentions due to enhanced work engagement. However, the effect of the interaction between having a proactive personality and HPHRPs was found to be not significant on work engagement and retention intention.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by exploring the reason behind mixed results found in the relationship between having a proactive personality and retention intentions through work engagement as a mediator and HPHRPs as a contextual boundary condition in a single model.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Sanders ◽  
Barbara J. Phillips ◽  
David E. Williams

PurposeThe relationship between musicians and the music industry has often been depicted as a dichotomy between creativity and commerce with musicians conflicted between their roles as artists and their roles as marketers of sound. Recently, marketing researchers have problematized this dichotomy and suggested musicians perceive these roles as inevitable and indivisible. However, the processes of how musicians market their sound to the industry gatekeepers remain unclear. This study seeks to find the key industry gatekeepers for musicians and how musicians sell their personal sound to them.Design/methodology/approachUsing an interpretative phenomenological approach, ten interviews with professional musicians across different music genres provided insight into the strategies musicians use to market their sound to industry gatekeepers.FindingsIn total, three key gatekeepers and the five strategies that musicians use to sell their sound are identified. The gatekeepers are record labels, other musicians and consumers. Musicians sell their sound to these gatekeepers through the externally directed strategies of using social media to build relationships, defining their personal sound through genre and creating a unique sound, and through the internally directed strategies of keeping motivated through sound evolution and counting on luck.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are limited by the small number of musicians interviewed and the heterogeneous representation of music genres.Originality/valueThe study contributes to theoretical understandings of how musicians as cultural producers market their sound in a commercial industry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 459-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Conte ◽  
Bryan Aasen ◽  
Caitie Jacobson ◽  
Casey O’Loughlin ◽  
Lukas Toroslu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine whether polychronicity, an individual difference variable that involves a preference for multitasking, moderates the relationships between work-family conflict (WFC) and two work criteria, job satisfaction and work engagement; second, to examine two measures of polychronicity (the multitasking preference inventory (MPI) and the inventory of polychronic values (IPV)) and investigate whether polychronicity moderates the relationships between WFC and work criteria differently when measured by the MPI or the IPV. Design/methodology/approach The study’s sample included 257 respondents from the Amazon Mechanical Turk service who completed an online survey. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to test whether polychronicity moderated the relationships between WFC and two work criteria, job satisfaction and work engagement. Findings Polychronicity was found to significantly moderate the relationship between the work engagement and WFC. Follow-up analyses indicated that those who were lower in polychronicity had a significant decrease in work engagement as WFC increased, whereas those who were higher in polychronicity had relatively the same work engagement level regardless of changes in WFC. The results suggest that individuals higher in polychronicity have more personal resources and may be more resilient than those lower in polychronicity when it comes to not letting conflicts between their work and family lives affect how engaged they feel in their work. Originality/value This study extends the application of polychronicity to new domains of WFC and work engagement. The current study also contributed to the literature by investigating two measures of polychronicity (MPI and IPV) and finding that the MPI significantly moderated the relationship between WFC and work engagement, but the IPV did not. These findings indicate that there are important differences between the MPI and the IPV, and additional research is needed in comparing these two polychronicity measures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-580
Author(s):  
David W. Drewery ◽  
Robert Sproule ◽  
T. Judene Pretti

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between a lifelong learning mindset and career success. A lifelong learning mindset is a way of approaching one's work with curiosity, strategic thinking, and resilience. Career success refers to objective (e.g., number of promotions) and subjective (e.g., job satisfaction) indicators of progress and fulfillment in one's work.Design/methodology/approachTwo studies are presented. Both studies draw from an accounting and finance program at a Canadian university. In study 1, data were collected from students (n = 62) and their supervisors at the end of a four-month co-operative education (co-op) work term. In study 2, data were collected from graduates (n = 148).FindingsResults suggest that developing a lifelong learning mindset enhances both objective and subjective career success. Participants' lifelong learning mindset was associated with objective career success in both studies (supervisor-rated performance in study 1 and number of promotions in study 2). Lifelong learning mindset was associated with subjective career success in study 2 (job satisfaction, work engagement, and job-related self-efficacy) but not in study 1 (experience satisfaction).Originality/valueThis article presents the first empirical examination of the relationship between a lifelong learning mindset and career success. Insights from the article highlight the fact that educators and workplace managers might work together to promote a lifelong learning mindset for current and future workers.


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