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1 – 10 of over 120000Michael P. O’Driscoll, Paula Brough, Carolyn Timms and Sukanlaya Sawang
The impact of technology on the health and well-being of workers has been a topic of interest since computers and computerized technology were widely introduced in the 1980s. Of…
Abstract
The impact of technology on the health and well-being of workers has been a topic of interest since computers and computerized technology were widely introduced in the 1980s. Of recent concern is the impact of rapid technological advances on individuals’ psychological well-being, especially due to advancements in mobile technology that have increased many workers’ accessibility and expected productivity. In this chapter we focus on the associations between occupational stress and technology, especially behavioral and psychological reactions. We discuss some key facilitators and barriers associated with users’ acceptance of and engagement with information and communication technology. We conclude with recommendations for ongoing research on managing occupational health and well-being in conjunction with technological advancements.
Kyong eun Oh and Jacek Gwizdka
This study seeks to explore technology use in a higher education classroom with the focus on tablet computers.
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to explore technology use in a higher education classroom with the focus on tablet computers.
Design/methodology/approach
Study participants consisted of 36 undergraduate students from Rutgers University's Information Technology and Informatics major. Data were collected using an online survey, a classroom observation, and a group interview.
Findings
The study findings demonstrate unexpected technology uses that can be explained by the characteristics of the student group, the Net generation, namely, their impatient multi‐tasking and opportunistic behaviour. Students used tablet computers to take notes, conduct group activities and interact with the instructor. Students’ preference for typing was found to be a barrier in their adoption of tablet computers.
Research limitations/implications
The findings can help technology developers and educators better understand and optimize their use of computing technology in higher education. Limitations of this study include only one class was studied, and classroom observation probed student behaviors only at selected points in time.
Originality/value
The unique value of the study included: the study was not limited to tablet technology and investigated students’ use of multiple technologies; the study captured student behaviors in an actual learning environment, and the study provides empirical evidence for students’ multi‐tasking in a classroom and for their use of tablet computers for hand writing.
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The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of informationtechnology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern thepersonnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s…
Abstract
The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.
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Examines the impact of the intensity level of computer‐basedtechnologies (CBTs) on quality. The intensity level of CBTs isempirically‐based. The main thrust of the intensity level…
Abstract
Examines the impact of the intensity level of computer‐based technologies (CBTs) on quality. The intensity level of CBTs is empirically‐based. The main thrust of the intensity level of CBTs is fourfold. First, the technology must, intuitively, exist. Second, it must be integrated with other available technologies. Third, it must be utilized to a certain extent. Finally, it must have been used long enough to produce synergistic results. Determines whether there are differences in quality among firms with different intensity levels of CBTs. The analysis was based on data collected from 165 manufacturing firms in three industry groups in the USA. These are industrial machinery equipment, electronic and electric machinery equipment, and transport equipment. Descriptive statistics show the following: (1) the level of technology integration is low; (2) the level of programmable automation is also low; (3) most of the CBTs are used as stand‐alone technologies; and (4) most of the CBTs are used in the early stages of designing the product. The results also suggested that differences in quality exist among groups with different intensity levels of CBTs. These findings have many implications for both practitioners and academicians. For practitioners, the intensity level of CBTs, as operationalized here, can be used by manufacturing firms as a vehicle to benchmark their performance against that of their competitors. For academicians, introduces a new measure for operationalizing the intensity level of CBTs. Also discusses other implications.
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Lalitha K. Sami and N.B. Pangannaiah
The purpose of the present paper is to review the impact of information technologies on users of libraries and to understand the problems encountered in their information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the present paper is to review the impact of information technologies on users of libraries and to understand the problems encountered in their information technology (IT) usage by reference to the concept of “technostress”, the inability to cope with the new computer technologies in a healthy or positive manner.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was undertaken to further our understanding of the influence of IT based services on the users of libraries.
Findings
The paper provides a literature derived set of information about library users who initially find it difficult to cope with the new technology and experience anxiety (termed “IT anxiety”, “technostress” or alternatively “technophobia”). This is bound to affect their adoption of IT technologies negatively. They may eventually begin to avoid contact with computers. Since this avoidance strategy is highly impractical in the modern IT dependent world, the various causes of technostress must be analysed, so that users can be trained to overcome technophobia.
Research limitations/implications
The conclusions in the present paper are based on articles from different sources and not on any field study.
Practical implications
Being a review article, it reflects the problems encountered by a range of users in different countries. The paper also pragmatically provides factors to be considered in designing a training module.
Originality/value
The paper organises information collected from different sources and presents a consolidated picture of the problems encountered by users in exploiting computers in libraries, while suggesting the means to overcome these problems.
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This essay asks: How can we understand and theorise the impacts of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on everyday life based on Radical Humanism? How can Lefebvre's ideas be…
Abstract
This essay asks: How can we understand and theorise the impacts of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on everyday life based on Radical Humanism? How can Lefebvre's ideas be used to reveal the ideological character of contemporary accounts of the impacts of robots and AI on society? It engages with rather unknown works of the Radical Humanist Henri Lefebvre on the sociology and philosophy of technology such as Vers le cybernanthrope (Towards the Cybernanthrope). Foundations of a Lefebvrian, dialectical, Radical Humanist approach to the sociology and philosophy of technology are presented. This essay introduces Lefebvre's notion of the cybernanthrope and sets it in relation to robots and AI in contemporary society. Based on Lefebvre's critique of the cybernanthrope, this chapter develops foundations of the ideology critique of robots and AI in digital capitalism. It discusses examples of technological deterministic and social constructivist thought in the context of robotics, AI, and cyborgs and argues for an alternative, Lefebvrian, dialectical approach. This essay situates Humanism in the context of computing, AI and robotics. The chapter advances a Lefebvrian Radical Humanism by engaging in analyses of AI and robots in Post-humanism, Transhumanism, techno-deterministic approaches, social construction of technology approaches, techno-optimism, techno-pessimism, acceleratonism, the mass unemployment hypothesis and Spike Jonze's movie Her. This chapter shows that the major lesson we can learn from the Radical Humanist sociology of technology and Henri Lefebvre's works on technology is that Radical Humanism helps creating and sustaining technologies for the many, not the few. This insight remains of high relevance in the age of digital capitalism, smart robots and AI.
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This paper aims to critically reassess established approaches to the teaching and analysis of computer ethics, and to propose a revised methodology, drawing on the practical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to critically reassess established approaches to the teaching and analysis of computer ethics, and to propose a revised methodology, drawing on the practical experience of teaching undergraduates in a culturally diverse, international learning environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical in scope, reviewing concepts and methods in the existing literature and developing an alternative inter-disciplinary and multi-dimensional framework.
Findings
Ethical analysis can benefit from broader, inter-disciplinary perspectives that take into account the social and economic context in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are designed, deployed and used, and the complex forces that drive their development. A richer analysis of this context enables a better understanding of the specific properties and applications of ICTs which, in turn, foreground particular ethical issues. This can result in a more self-reflexive and rounded appreciation of the ethical, legal and professional issues invoked by ICTs.
Originality/value
The paper develops a revised, flexible methodology for doing ethics which can be applied to any case study or domain of application. It outlines some of the key questions and major ethical principles that are generated by ICTs. The paper has pedagogical value for both teachers and students of computer ethics, but has relevance also for information technology professionals and practitioners.
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Heather Holden, Ant Ozok and Roy Rada
The purpose of this study is to explore the current usage and acceptance of classroom technologies by secondary math/science education teachers in one community.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the current usage and acceptance of classroom technologies by secondary math/science education teachers in one community.
Design/methodology/approach
Forty‐seven secondary education math and science teachers in one American city responded to a survey about their use and perceptions of technology in their lives and classrooms.
Findings
Results indicate teachers use technology more for personal instructional reasons, such as class preparation, than for interactions with their students whether inside the classroom or outside the classroom. Primary factors inhibiting the use of technology relate to time, training, and preparation. Teachers can see the benefit of using technology to promote students’ learning experience. However, teachers are neutral about technology being advantageous for improving in‐class activities.
Originality/value
A significant connection between teachers’ technology acceptance and usage is presented.
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Information science has been conceptualized as a partly unreflexive response to developments in information and computer technology, and, most powerfully, as part of the gestalt…
Abstract
Purpose
Information science has been conceptualized as a partly unreflexive response to developments in information and computer technology, and, most powerfully, as part of the gestalt of the computer. The computer was viewed as an historical accident in the original formulation of the gestalt. An alternative, and timely, approach to understanding, and then dissolving, the gestalt would be to address the motivating technology directly, fully recognizing it as a radical human construction. This paper aims to address the issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a social epistemological perspective and is concerned with collective, rather than primarily individual, ways of knowing.
Findings
Information technology tends to be received as objectively given, autonomously developing, and causing but not itself caused, by the language of discussions in information science. It has also been characterized as artificial, in the sense of unnatural, and sometimes as threatening. Attitudes to technology are implied, rather than explicit, and can appear weak when articulated, corresponding to collective repression.
Research limitations/implications
Receiving technology as objectively given has an analogy with the Platonist view of mathematical propositions as discovered, in its exclusion of human activity, opening up the possibility of a comparable critique which insists on human agency.
Originality/value
Apprehensions of information technology have been raised to consciousness, exposing their limitations.
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