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1 – 10 of over 40000Elisabeth Müller, Sandra Pintor and Jürgen Wegge
This paper aims to examine the effect of shared leadership on both quantity and quality of team performance, predicting that shared leadership enhances performance by affecting…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effect of shared leadership on both quantity and quality of team performance, predicting that shared leadership enhances performance by affecting quantity (level of performance) as well as quality (team errors). In addition, this paper also investigates the role of perceived task complexity in moderating the effect of sharing leadership on team performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 26 teams (N = 78) were asked to work on an interdependent team-task, where they engaged in a laboratory team decision-making exercise.
Findings
Results revealed that teams sharing leadership made fewer errors. They achieved higher levels of quality of performance. As predicted, this effect was stronger when team members perceived the task as highly complex, even though objective task difficulty was constant.
Research limitations/implications
This study extends current literature on shared leadership by documenting that sharing the lead in teams can also improve the quality of team performance and that perceived complexity of tasks is an important moderator of this effect.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, influencing perceptions of task complexity can be considered as an important strategy to stimulate shared leadership in teams.
Originality/value
Using social network approach, the authors showed that shared leadership is an important tool for preventing team errors and offer a new explanation for inconsistent findings from recent meta-analyses by showing that perceived task complexity moderates the effects of shared leadership. Additionally, this study offers an original team task for investigating shared leadership in teams.
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Jengchung Victor Chen, Huyen Thi Le and Sinh Thi Thu Tran
To provide better services to customers, especially immediate responses and 24/7 availability, businesses are implementing text-based automated conversational agents, i.e…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide better services to customers, especially immediate responses and 24/7 availability, businesses are implementing text-based automated conversational agents, i.e. chatbots on their social platforms and websites. Chatbots are required to not only provide customers with necessary consultancy and guidance but also communicate friendly and socially. Based on the cognitive fit theory, this study attempts to examine the role of chatbot as a decision aid and how the match between information presentation in forms of decisional guidance and communication style and the shopping task influences consumers' perceived cognitive fit and decision performance outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 x 2 x 2 between subject online experiment was conducted to identify which kind of decisional guidance (suggestive and informative guidance) and communication style (task-oriented vs social-oriented style) are the most appropriate for each type of shopping task (searching vs browsing task).
Findings
The findings show that when customers interact with chatbots, they will perceive higher cognitive fit if the chatbots provide them with suggestive guidance and communicate in a friendly style especially when they perform a searching task.
Originality/value
This study is the first attempt to understand the role of chatbots as a decision aid to customers using the communicative language. This study also tries to explore the cognitive fit theory in a novel way, and we propose the information presentation in forms of communicative language rather than matrices, tables and graphs.
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Silu Chen, Wenxing Liu, Guanglei Zhang and Chenling Tian
The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying mechanism as well as the boundary effect between employees' perceived ethical human resource management (HRM) and ethical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying mechanism as well as the boundary effect between employees' perceived ethical human resource management (HRM) and ethical voice based on social cognitive theory. The authors expect that employees who perceive ethical HRM could develop their moral reasoning and conduct through one of the cognitive processes (i.e. vicarious experience).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression analysis, the authors conducted a questionnaire survey on 265 employees and their immediate supervisors from a manufacturing company in China.
Findings
Employees' perceived ethical HRM was positively related to ethical voice, and moral efficacy mediated this relationship. Moral task complexity not only moderated the relationship between employees' perceived ethical HRM and moral efficacy but also moderated the indirect effect of employees' perceived ethical HRM on ethical voice such that the impact was stronger when the moral task complexity level is higher and weaker when low.
Practical implications
This research model provides a framework through which organisations can diagnose potential ethical issues with the implementation of ethical HRM, as well as increase employee awareness of ethical values and then enhance their moral efficacy. Moreover, organisations can benefit from combining interventions and practices that influence the task design.
Originality/value
This study fills research gap by examining the mechanisms that shape employees' ethical voice from the perspective of HRM through moral efficacy and demonstrates that higher levels of moral task complexity contribute to higher levels of moral efficacy and ethical voice.
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Kevin Kam Fung So, Hyunsu Kim, Stephanie Q Liu, Xiang Fang and Jochen Wirtz
Although humanoid robots are increasingly adopted in many business settings, the dynamic effects of anthropomorphism and the functional perceptions of service robots on consumers’…
Abstract
Purpose
Although humanoid robots are increasingly adopted in many business settings, the dynamic effects of anthropomorphism and the functional perceptions of service robots on consumers’ responses remain unclear. This paper aims to examine the impacts of robot anthropomorphism on consumers’ trust, receptivity and the downstream effect on satisfaction. Furthermore, it examines the mediating effects of perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) in the relationship between anthropomorphism and consumer responses.
Design/methodology/approach
After conducting two separate pilot studies to help design the research materials, this research involves three sequential studies. In studies 1A and 1B, the authors used two distinct humanoid robots (i.e. Connie and Pepper) to test the direct effects of anthropomorphism on trust and receptivity and the mediated effects via PEOU and PU. Study 2 conducted a 2 (robot appearance: machine-like vs. human-like) × 2 (task complexity: low vs. high) between-subjects experimental design to further explore the boundary effects of task complexity on trust and customer satisfaction.
Findings
This research theorizes and empirically examines the mediating effects of PEOU and PU in the relationship between anthropomorphism and consumers’ responses (i.e. trust and receptivity) to service robots. Results also demonstrate a moderating role of task complexity, whereby only when the task was complex did anthropomorphism affect consumer responses and customer satisfaction. The parallel mediations of PEOU and PU were also confirmed. However, when task complexity was low, the authors observed no differences between human- and machine-like robots.
Research limitations/implications
First, this research used a scenario-based method by exposing participants to different pictures or videos of service robots and measuring individuals’ responses. Consumers may respond differently upon interacting with robots in actual service contexts. Second, future research could investigate the effects of other aspects of anthropomorphism, such as robots’ voice characteristics (gender, high/low pitch), verbal communication styles and emotional expression. Finally, future research could explore other service contexts to test the generalizability of the findings.
Practical implications
Findings of this study also provide useful insight for companies interested in adopting service robots. First, the authors unearthed several positive outcomes of using human-like versus machine-like robots in service settings. Despite concerns about the perceived creepiness and discomfort associated with human-like robots, managers should not worry about these service agents’ potential negative effects. Second, it shows that human-like robots’ competitive advantage over machine-like robots stands out when task complexity is high. Managers should therefore carefully consider relevant service characteristics and task requirements when deciding whether to adopt robots.
Originality/value
This study provides original and valuable contributions to the growing literature on service robots by addressing scholarly incongruencies regarding the impact of anthropomorphism and disentangling its positive influence on consumers’ perceptions and acceptance of service robots. This study also contributes to research on technology acceptance and service robot receptivity by empirically demonstrating the mediating role of PEOU and PU. Furthermore, this research enriches the body of knowledge on task-technology fit by providing evidence that task complexity is a crucial factor to consider in service robot design.
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This paper aims to examine the influence of shared leadership on team performance in terms of quantity and quality and in addition the moderating effect of task complexity on this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the influence of shared leadership on team performance in terms of quantity and quality and in addition the moderating effect of task complexity on this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was gathered from 26 teams of students from a major university in Germany who completed a laboratory team decision-making exercise.
Findings
The results suggest that teams sharing leadership showed better team performance and made fewer errors. They achieved higher levels of quality of performance. In addition, if the team members viewed the task as highly complex then the quality of their performance was increased.
Practical implications
Therefore for organizations to optimize team performance shared leadership should be promoted, the SNA should be used to develop interventions and training and influencing perceptions of task complexity should be considered as an important strategy to stimulate shared leadership in teams.
Originality/value
This paper has an original approach by testing for the first time how perceived task complexity moderates the relationship between shared leadership and team performance and by developing an original team task to investigate shared leadership.
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Somi Lee, Howook (Sean) Chang and Meehee Cho
Crowdsourcing food delivery represents great potential for future development and expansion of the restaurant business. Accordingly, job performance and retention of delivery…
Abstract
Purpose
Crowdsourcing food delivery represents great potential for future development and expansion of the restaurant business. Accordingly, job performance and retention of delivery workers are critical for success. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate how to enhance crowdsourced delivery workers’ job performance and intent to continue working by applying the sociotechnical systems theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The data analysis was conducted using responses obtained from crowdsourced food delivery workers. A structural equation model was developed to verify the hypothesized relationships. To test the proposed moderating roles of a three-dimensional concept of social capital within the research model, multi-group analyses were implemented.
Findings
This study confirmed the significant relationships between crowdsourcing risks related to workers’ low job commitment and technical systems, attributing to reduced job performance and intent to continue working. Results documented that social systems including networks, trust and shared vision mitigated the negative impact of the perceived difficulty and complexity of technical systems and job performance.
Originality/value
Although technology has contributed significantly to the effectiveness of online food delivery, the literature has mainly focused on its benefits and has ignored the critical aspects derived from a virtual and technology-based workplace. This gap was addressed by verifying the important roles of social factors (networks, trust and shared visions) in reducing the negative impacts of technology-driven risks (perceived difficulty of task requirements and technology complexity) within the crowdsourcing food delivery context.
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Miamaria Saastamoinen and Kalervo Järvelin
The purpose of this paper is to investigate information retrieval (IR) in the context of authentic work tasks (WTs), as compared to traditional experimental IR study designs.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate information retrieval (IR) in the context of authentic work tasks (WTs), as compared to traditional experimental IR study designs.
Design/methodology/approach
The participants were 22 professionals working in municipal administration, university research and education, and commercial companies. The data comprise 286 WTs and 420 search tasks (STs). The data were collected in natural situations. It includes transaction logs, video recordings, interviews, observation, and daily questionnaires.
Findings
The analysis included the effects of WT type and complexity on the number of STs, queries, search keys and types of queries. The findings suggest that simple STs are enough to support most WTs. Complex WTs (vs more simple ones) and intellectual WTs (vs communication, support and editing WTs) include more STs than other WT categories.
Research limitations/implications
Further research should address the problems related to controllability of field studies and enhance the use of realistic WT situations in test-based studies, as well.
Originality/value
The study is an attempt to bring traditional IR studies and realistic research settings closer to each other. Using authentic WTs when studying IR is still rare. The representativeness of the WT/ST types used in interactive IR experiments should be carefully addressed: in the work flow, people seldom consciously recognise separate “STs”. This means that STs may mainly be an academic construct even to the point that studying IR without a decent context does violence to the further understanding of the phenomenon.
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Nafisat Toyin Adewale, Yushiana Mansor, Muhammad-Bashir Owolabi Yusuf and Ahmeed Onikosi
This study investigates the moderating effects of age, experience and educational qualification on the relationship between uncertainty and subjective task complexity among…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the moderating effects of age, experience and educational qualification on the relationship between uncertainty and subjective task complexity among lawyers working in private law firms in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey method was adopted and data were gathered using questionnaires. The analysis was carried out based on partial least squares structural equation modelling using SmartPLS 2.0 M3 software.
Findings
Results showed that the effect of uncertainty on subjective task complexity is significantly moderated by age, educational attainment, experience of the lawyers under study.
Research limitations/implications
Although data were collected in the most populated state and commercial hub of Nigeria, generalisation based on findings may still need to be made with caution.
Practical implications
Attainment of higher educational qualification is highly important for lawyers even though the minimum requirement to practice as a lawyer is a degree. Lawyers with higher degrees (LLM and PhD) had less uncertainty and perceived their tasks to be less complex compared to their counterparts who had the first degree (LLB).
Originality/value
The demographic profile of professionals (age, education and experience) has proven to have an impact on their perception about task complexity as determined by uncertainty as found in this study.
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Pertti Vakkari and Martti Kuokkanen
The aim of the study is to analyse theory growth in information science by using a case from information seeking studies. Scientific growth is identified with the growth of…
Abstract
The aim of the study is to analyse theory growth in information science by using a case from information seeking studies. Scientific growth is identified with the growth of theories. Three contexts of theoretical work are differentiated: unit theories, theoretical research programmes and metatheories. For analysis of theory growth tools based on the current theory of science are needed. The study introduces tools for the analysis of theory growth and theory reconstruction and applies them to analysis of a theory on information seeking. Tools include the systematisation and formalisation of theories. The usefulness of these tools is illustrated by reconstructing a theory used in a current information seeking study. It is shown that they help in specifying the theory in the following ways: 1. in stating the central concepts and their relations; 2. in revealing implicit restrictions of the theory; and 3. in facilitating the derivation of additional hypotheses from the theory’s axioms, especially by showing the mechanisms which interconnect the concepts of the theory. The results of reconstruction, specification and enrichment of the theory show future prospects for developing it and thus it creates potential growth of knowledge within the theory of information seeking.
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Hasan Humayun, Masitah Ghazali and Mohammad Noman Malik
The motivation to participate in crowdsourcing (CS) platforms is an emerging challenge. Although researchers and practitioners have focused on crowd motivation in the past, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The motivation to participate in crowdsourcing (CS) platforms is an emerging challenge. Although researchers and practitioners have focused on crowd motivation in the past, the results obtained through such practices have not been satisfactory. Researchers have left unexplored research areas related to CS pillars, such as the evolution of the crowd’s primary motivations, seekers applying effective policies and incentives, platform design challenges and addressing task complexity using the synchronicity of the crowd. Researchers are now more inclined to address these issues by focusing on sustaining the crowd’s motivation; however, sustaining the crowd’s motivation has many challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
To fill this gap, this study conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to investigate and map the challenges and factors affecting sustained motivation during CS with the overcoming implications. Studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria were published between 2010 and 2021.
Findings
Important sustainable factors are extracted using the grounded theory that has sustained participation and the factors' cohesion leads to the identification of challenges that the pillars of CS face. Crowds being the most vital part of CS contests face the challenge of engagement. The results reported the factors that affect the crowd’s primary and post-intentions, perceived value of incentives and social and communal interaction. Seekers face the challenge of knowledge and understanding; the results identify the reason behind the crowd’s demotivation and the impact of theories and factors on the crowd's psychological needs which helped in sustaining participation. Similarly, the platforms face the challenge of being successful and demanding, the results identify the latest technologies, designs and features that seekers proclaim and need the platforms designer's attention. The identified task challenges are completion and achievement; the authors have identified the impact of trait of task and solving mechanisms that have sustained participation.
Originality/value
The study identifies, explores and summarizes the challenges on CS pillars researchers are facing now to sustain contributions by keeping participants motivated during online campaigns. Similarly, the study highlights the implication to overcome the challenges by identifying and prioritizing the areas concerning sustainability through the adoption of innovative methods or policies that can guarantee sustained participation.
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