The Human Sustainability of ICT and Management Changes: Evidence for the French Public and Private Sectors

Maëlezig Bigi, Nathalie Greenan, Sylvie Hamon-Cholet and Joseph Lanfranchi
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Maëlezig Bigi: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire pour la Sociologie Economique, Centre d’Etudes de l’Emploi et du Travail, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris 75003, France
Sylvie Hamon-Cholet: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Recherche en Sciences de l’Action, Centre d’Etudes de l’Emploi et du Travail, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris 75003, France

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-23

Abstract: We investigate the human sustainability of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and management changes using a French linked employer-employee survey on organizational changes and computerization. We approach the human sustainability of changes through the evolutions of work intensity, skills utilization, and the subjective relationship to work. We compare in the private sector and the state civil service the impacts of ICT and management changes on the evolution of these three dimensions of work experience. We find that intense ICT and management changes are associated, in the public sector, with work intensification and knowledge increase. In the private sector, ICT and management changes increase the use of skills, but at a rate decreasing with their intensity and without favoring the accumulation of new knowledge. However, their impacts on the subjective relationship to work are much stronger, with public sector employees expressing discouragement, as well as the feeling of an increased effort-reward imbalance when private sector employees become more committed. We find that this divergence is neither explained by the self-selection of employees in the two sectors nor by implementation of performance pay. We identify two partial explanations: one is related to employee turnover in the private sector, the other to the role of trade unions. These results suggest that the human sustainability of ICT and management changes depends on their intensity and on how their implementation takes into account the institutional context of the organization.

Keywords: organizational changes; ICT; management tools; work experience; employee outcomes; comparison of public and private sectors; linked employer-employee survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Working Paper: The Human Sustainability of ICT and Management Changes: Evidence for the French Public and Private Sectors (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:10:p:3570-:d:173994

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