The Psychology of Digital Media at Work

Daantje Derks, Arnold Bakker

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781848720749
• eBook ISBN: 9781135106973
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In many professions daily work life has become unthinkable without the use of a computer with access to the Internet. As technological innovations progress rapidly and new applications of interactional media are invented, organizational behaviour continues to change.

The central theme of this book is how new media affect organizational behavior and employee well-being. A variety of topics are considered:

• applications of new media in both personnel psychology and organizational psychology
• tools to improve selection and assessment
• issues arising in the context of training, learning and career development
• the use of online games for education and recreation
• the impact of mobile devices on organizational life
• the implications of new forms of collaboration by means of virtual teams.

The research documented in this volume consists of high quality, quantitative studies illustrated by lively practical examples. The combination of science and practice ensures that new insights supported by empirical studies are translated into practical implications. The book will be essential reading for researchers and students in organizational psychology and related disciplines.

1 Introduction

Daantje Derks and Arnold B. Bakker

Many employees feel really handicapped in their work when the Internet is down for a couple of hours. We only seem to realize just how dependent we have become on the Internet on days that the system fails. Especially affected are knowledge-based workers who start a regular day with switching on their computers and mobile devices (e.g. PDA, smartphone, notebook, tablet PC). That work starts when employees enter the office definitely belongs to the past. Work and family life have become highly integrated, facilitated by the technology of digital media.

Digital media affect many tasks in organizational life. The communication with both clients and colleagues is dominated by email communication either handled from a personal computer or on the move by using mobile devices. Virtual teams support international collaborations with the direct consequence that expert input in projects has become time and place independent. Globalization has encouraged this development, in that new media have made access to talent and knowledge more attainable and financially affordable. Furthermore, the application of digital media has had a major impact on organizational training and development programs. Online learning and development programs facilitate lifelong learning in the workplace, which may imply that former transfer problems from the training to the work environment are reduced. Serious games are developed to simulate real work situations to give practice a new dimension without the costs associated with practicing in real life.

In addition, online social network sites made it possible to stay in touch with business associates (LinkedIn) and/or friends and family (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) in a low-effort way. Online gaming during leisure time can facilitate psychological detachment, a precondition for a healthy recovery process resulting in happy and healthy employees. And finally, when an employee decides it is time to make a next move on the labor market, there is a good chance that a webcam test will be a significant part of the selection procedure. In other words, the impact of digital media on organizational life is evident and goes beyond simply facilitating our work. The new innovations in technology have made radical changes to the way we work.

History of digital media in a nutshell

The history of digital media in an organizational context can be divided in two broad categories. The first category entails the development and usage of digital devices aimed at facilitating the interaction between people regardless of time and physical location, formally known as computer-mediated communication.

The second category consists of digital tools within the work context with a goal other than communication. This broad category entails gaming applications for simulation/training purposes and recovery, webcam tests in personnel selection, and e-learning within an organizational context. In the current volume, both categories are represented by a section handling topics relevant for the particular category.

Computer-mediated communication

Text-based email communication has dominated scientific literature for many years (e.g. Byron, 2008; Dawley & Anthony, 2003; Derks & Bakker, 2010; Friedman & Curral, 2003; Kruger, Epley, Parker & Ng, 2005). The reason behind this is that email up till now is still the most used form of computer-mediated communication. Research has examined how the social meaning of interaction is affected by adding the digital component to the conversation, especially in situations where both parties replace face-to-face communication with email communication (Walther & Parks, 2002). Retrospectively, it is hard to imagine that when email was first introduced, people thought it would be confined to the exchange of short task-oriented messages. The lack of nonverbal cues in a text-based medium seems to imply that in the interpretation of email messages we have to rely completely on verbal information (e.g. Burgoon & Saine, 1978; Shaw, 1981; Walther, 1995). However, Derks, Fischer, and Bos (2008) concluded in their review of the field that individuals find new and innovative ways to cope with the restrictions of text-based computer-mediated communication such as the use of emoticons to compensate for the lack of visual cues; or, by acknowledging the restrictions of certain types of media and taking this into account by choosing an outlet for a message.

The introduction of the smartphone gave email a new, mobile dimension. Smartphones could affect social dynamics in the workplace by enabling new forms of interaction and collaboration (Lyytinen & Yoo, 2002a; Pica & Kakihara, 2003). The a-synchronicity of the communication that was so characteristic of email communication has changed into more synchronous communication since many recipients have the habit of answering messages the minute they arrive (Markus, 1994). In return, the organization’s expectations regarding reaction times and availability have changed (Davis, 2002; Green, 2001). Furthermore, mobile collaboration provides new challenges like building trustworthy relationships without regular face-to-face interaction.

Managers have started to realize that digital devices may also facilitate interaction between employees, especially those working in different locations. Some of the challenges accompanied by mobile collaboration are also applicable to the virtual collaboration of geographically dispersed teams. Additionally, communicating over different time zones might produce new challenges in interacting. Virtual teams are characterized by members that are geographically dispersed and those members coordinate their work predominantly by electronic information and communication technologies (Hertel, Geister & Konradt, 2005). A virtual team is different from a regular team in that the former predominantly interacts by new media; face-to-face contact, other than that facilitated by videoconferencing (e.g. Skype) is not self-evident. Lipnack and Stamps (1997) state that the members of a virtual team interact with each other in order to accomplish common goals.

Many studies have focused on the comparison between traditional teams and virtual teams (e.g. Archer, 1990; Bordia, 1997; Chidambaram & Bostrom, 1993; DeMeyer, 1991; Galegher & Kraut, 1994). However, since virtual teams can also communicate face-to-face and traditional teams can also make use of digital media it might not be useful to draw a clear line between those two types of teams (Hertel et al., 2005). Instead, some authors suggest it might be more useful to consider the relative ‘virtuality’ of a team and its consequences for management (Axtell, Fleck & Turner, 2004; Bell & Kozlowski, 2002; Griffith & Neale, 2001; Hertel et al., 2005; Kirkman, Rosen, Tesluk & Gibson, 2004). A virtual team is in this view characterized as a team with a high degree of virtuality. The majority of the studies examining the performance of virtual teams has not detected a difference between traditional and virtual teams (for an overview, see Powell, Piccoli, and Ives, 2004).

Besides communicating by email, which is still the preferred medium for task-related communication, it also possible to stay in touch with team members or colleagues by means of social media. Recently, the popular press reported that social networking sites exceed email in the amount of time that people spent on them during a normal day. This is remarkable, since the history of social network sites is relatively short. Online social networks have gained popularity very quickly. Sites can be oriented towards work-related contexts (e.g. LinkedIn.com), shared interests (e.g. MySpace.com), or friends (e.g. Facebook.com) (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007). Hampton and Wellman (2003) suggest that social network sites enhance place-based community and facilitate extending your social capital – the accumulation of resources through relationships with other people (Coleman, 1988). A great advantage of the online aspect of these networks is that it creates the ability to maintain valuable connections as one goes through significant life changes. This ‘maintained social capital’ permits us to stay in touch with a social network after physically disconnecting from it (Ellison et al., 2007).

Applications of digital media other than communication tools

Computer-based alternatives to live training have become more common in recent years (Alexander, Brunyé, Sidman & Weil, 2005). Therefore, in this section of the book, we consider online training from three different, though related, perspectives.

E-learning in the workplace, serious gaming, and gaming during free time share the general factor that we focus on the effects of engaging in these activities on work-related experiences and behaviors. The effects are considered both in terms of improved learning and in terms of transfer to the workplace. Besides these learning centered applications of digital media, the webcam test is included in this part of the book which is an assessment tool. However, even though the goal of the webcam test is different, it is also important that the situations presented in the test resemble the working conditions as best as possible.

E-learning in a general sense is defined as ‘a wide set of applications and processes, such as web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital collaboration’ (Kaplan-Leierson, 2002, para. 85). Often cited advantages of e-learning are that it allows organizations to deliver training consistently to all employees; update training content when necessary; and to provide training to employees on demand, anytime, and anywhere (Burgess & Russell, 2003). Furthermore, DeRouin, Fritzsche, and Salas (2005) argue in their review that saving costs is also an appealing factor for organizations to offer e-learning programs to their employees. However, the ultimate purpose of e-learning is not to reduce training expenses, but to improve the way the organization does business (Bersin, 2002). It should be noted though that figures on return of investment are very scarce in all kind of training programs in which e-learning is no exception (DeRouin et al., 2005).

Comparable to the discussion on the virtuality of virtual teams, e-learning does not automatically imply that the entire training is digital and that there is no face-to-face contact at all. Next to e-learning there is also a mixed form called ‘blended learning.’ In blended learning, traditional classroom sessions are combined with e-learning and self-study (Kovaleski, 2004). Through blended learning, organizations can both profit from the cost savings associated with e-learning and the personal touch associated with classroom instruction (Goodridge, 2001; Masie, 2002).

However, the main question remains how effective these e-learning programs are. DeRouin and colleagues (2005) state that it is difficult to conclude that e-learning is as effective, or perhaps even more effective, at the learning level than traditional classroom-based training. Besides the potential learning effects of e-learning, the transfer of the skills learned in training to the job is just as important (Strother, 2002). In a large-scale survey conducted by Skillsoft (2004), 87% of the e-learners reported using skills and knowledge they had gained from e-learning back on the job. The skills and business areas most improved by e-learning were IT skills, communication with coworkers and customers, business outcomes (e.g. sales), work processes (e.g. project management), and personal skills (e.g. assertiveness, leadership qualities). The results of this survey suggest that employee behavior can be effectively changed as a result of e-learning (Skillsoft, 2004), although it should be noted that the improvements were self-reported.

The effectiveness of online training by e-learning and gaming is not well understood. Overall, the higher the transfer to the operational environment, the more successful the training is considered to be (Alexander et al., 2005). Alexander et al. state that four factors are driving transfer: fidelity, immersion, presence, and user acceptance.

Fidelity refers to the extent to which the virtual environment emulates the real world (e....

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• Part 1 Online communication and collaboration
• Part 2 Gaming and online tests
• Index