Information Technology Usage and Its Relationship With Job Characteristics among Administrative Support Personnel in the Malaysian Service Industry
Information technologies have fostered changes in job responsibilities, task content, and human interactions. The changing tools, methods and strategies of businesses compel workers worldwide in all capacities to re-examine and re-evaluate their skills and knowledge. Consequently, this change has...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2002
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/9294/1/FPP_2002_19.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/9294/ |
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| Summary: | Information technologies have fostered changes in job responsibilities, task
content, and human interactions. The changing tools, methods and strategies
of businesses compel workers worldwide in all capacities to re-examine and
re-evaluate their skills and knowledge. Consequently, this change has also
resulted in a need to re-evaluate and redesign office jobs systematically.
This study examines the relationship between information technology and the
job of the administrative support personnel captured through their use of
information processing technologies. An empirical survey involving 506
administrative support personnel from service industries was carried out via a
structured mail questionnaire. Results indicated that respondents used
elementary to intermediate levels of both technical and non-technical skills
with most information technologies. A major conclusion is that
administrative support personnel are not assuming greater responsibility for performing high-level tasks, such as managerial tasks, that involved the use of
non-text handling technologies. This is contrary to reports and claims made
by management that administrative support personnel were operating in an
administrative capacity, performing tasks at a managerial level, and assuming
greater responsibility.
Findings in this study have also indicated that information technology skill
levels affect support workers' perception of the job characteristics. However,
it was concluded that the more skilled administrative support personnel are in
using information technologies, the higher their perceptions of internal work
motivation. This study is aimed at providing input in designing and
redesigning of office jobs that are both meaningful to the workers as well as
the employers and for educators to deliver curricula that are relevant and
competitive.Therefore, management must redesign administrative support
jobs to take advantage of information technologies to perform higher-levels
administrative and managerial tasks so as to enhance workers' job satisfaction
levels. More importantly, office management educators must provide students
with higher and advanced information technologies knowledge and skills so
that they are able to accept new challenges and excel in their profession upon
entering the job market. |
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