Loss of labor time due to malfunctioning ICTs and ICT skill insufficiencies

Alexander van Deursen and Jan van Dijk

International Journal of Manpower, 2014, vol. 35, issue 5, 703-719

Abstract: Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to unexplore the area of information and communication technology (ICT) use in organizations related to the assumed productivity gains by the use of ICTs. On the one hand, the paper focus on the losses of labor time that are caused by malfunctioning hardware or non-functional software, and on the other hand, the paper focus on the labor time losses that are caused by a lack of skills to maximize ICT. Design/methodology/approach - – To estimate these losses, the paper conducted a large-scale survey among the Dutch workforce. The respondents were presented scenarios, and then they were asked to assess the loss of labor time. Findings - – When working with ICTs, malfunctioning ICT and ICT skill insufficiencies lead to a loss in labor time of 7.5 percent. The losses increase with decreasing educational attainment level. Age does not contribute to the total average losses. Workers highly underestimate the effects of ICT-related training. The role of co-workers is more significant than the formally organized means by the organization. Originality/value - – Due to ICT's significance among the labor force, investigating the reported losses is an important step to further improve the use of ICTs in the workplace.

Keywords: New technology; Human resource management; Labour; Employee productivity; Productivity rate; Hours of work; Company performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijmpps:v:35:y:2014:i:5:p:703-719

DOI: 10.1108/IJM-07-2012-0102

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Manpower is currently edited by Professor Adrian Ziderman

More articles in International Journal of Manpower from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().