Prof. Stefan Tams (HEC Montréal)

Programm

Datum: 24. Oktober 2018

Zeit: 16.00 - 17.30 Uhr

Ort: Ludwigstr. 28, RG, Raum 211

Titel: Modern IT Meets an Old Workforce: A Moderated Mediation Model of Age, Information Processing Resources, and Computerized Task Performance

Abstract

“There is overwhelming evidence that older users perform worse on computerized tasks (or IS-enabled tasks) than their younger counterparts. This is alarming given that the workforce is aging rapidly at the very same time as organizational technologies are proliferating. Unfortunately, the explanation for this lower computerized task performance remains unclear, so that managers have difficulty understanding what to do to help older users realize their full potential in their contribution to organizational success. The research model presented here uses mediation concepts and analysis to theorize that older users perform worse on computerized tasks because the ability to process information declines with age. The model suggests that computer experience and computer self-efficacy reduce the negative impacts of this decline, whereas IT overload and the cost of IT use aggravate them. Data collection was conducted using a laboratory experiment and a large-scale survey of IT users. Conditional Process Analysis integrating mediation and moderation analysis was used to analyze the data. The results support the model as well as a post-hoc spin–off model in which extended feature use is substituted for information-processing speed. They also point towards a few simple but often neglected solutions to the problem of older users’ reduced task performance. In particular, organizations need to provide ample computer training and better user conditions for older employees, and they need to make systems design changes that specifically target them.”