Information Technology and High Performance Workplace Practices: Evidence on Their Incidence from Upstate New York Establishments
Sharing Ownership, Profits, and Decision-Making in the 21st Century
ISBN: 978-1-78190-750-4
Publication date: 9 December 2013
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the nature and the determinants of the incidence and diffusion of a range of new technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
We collected new survey data in 2001 for medium sized establishments in upstate and central New York.
Findings
Our econometric findings suggest that the use of new technologies tends to be more extensive in firms in which greater use is made of flexible work practices and flexible compensation practices and when skill levels are high. We find that the use of IT, the intranet, and computer literacy training is greater when the average tenure of managers is low, which might reflect a greater comfort with new technologies by younger managers. Larger establishments tend to use the Internet more extensively, which may reflect the cost of setting up Internet billing and purchasing systems, and an intranet communication system. Managerial tenure does not affect the use of the Internet in general perhaps because these might be operations that are less central to the activities of more senior managers. Also, we find mixed evidence for our digital divide hypothesis that predicts that the use of new technologies would be greatest in metropolitan areas and least in rural locations.
Research limitations/implications
We recognize it is potentially risky to draw inferences from a relatively small survey.
Originality/value
Some findings mesh with those contained in earlier studies (e.g., Black & Lynch, 2004) though, importantly, now finding emerge when a broader range of new technologies is being considered.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
We are indebted to the Levitt Center at Hamilton College for financing the survey of upstate New York establishments. We are grateful for comments on earlier drafts from Ann Owen and participants at a Conference of the International Association for the Economics of Participation. In addition, we acknowledge research assistance from Michael Kaufman, Jiang Li, Farah Zakir, and Hedgecote Associates.
Citation
Jones, D.C. and Pliskin, J. (2013), "Information Technology and High Performance Workplace Practices: Evidence on Their Incidence from Upstate New York Establishments", Sharing Ownership, Profits, and Decision-Making in the 21st Century (Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 61-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0885-3339(2013)0000014004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited