How agile software development methods reduce work exhaustion: Insights on role perceptions and organizational skills

Agile Project Management and Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediation Process

This article tested a moderated mediation process to explain the relationship between agile project management and emotional exhaustion. By transferring traditional stress theories to the agile context, work-related stress was introduced as a mediator, and the moderating effects of social competence, perceived team support, and a culture for psychological empowerment were evaluated. The results of two complementary field studies with 307 project employees indicated that higher levels of agile project management lowered project employees’ emotional exhaustion by reducing their work-related stress levels. This negative indirect relationship is significantly stronger when the organization fosters a culture for psychological empowerment.

How Does IT Influence Chinese IS/IT Users' Job Burnout?

Organizational utilization of information systems and information technology continues to grow in the 21st century, and job stress has become a worldwide problem; but the emotional expression of people differ in diverse cultural societies, and employees need to use IS/IT (IS/IT users) to do their work. Work exhaustion will also increase with the time. Mainland China (the PRC) and Taiwan share the same language and inherit Chinese culture; thus, this study based on job a burnout model and Chinese Guanxi perspective adopts a qualitative research method to collect IS/IT users' data from these two areas. This study has explored (1) permeability as a critical factor of the technology characteristics, (2) that technology characteristics and Chinese Guanxi will influence each other, and (3) that Chinese Guanxi will influence emotional job demands, social support, and personal accomplishment of Chinese IS/IT users. Finally, it has a contribution to both the academics and practice of the job burnout issue.

Is Guanxi critical to the job burnout of ITP and IS/IT users in Chinese society?

Purpose

The speedy development of information technology (IT) is indeed a significant issue to support the enterprises to spread their products and services to their customers. Although the adoption of IT in the enterprises can help employees' work, it will increase their work exhaustion and job burnout too.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey data of this study was collected from Chinese IT personnel (ITP): 543 and Chinese information systems (IS)/IT users: 525, totaling 1,068 respondents.

Findings

The result shows that the influences of the organizational factors and guanxi on the work exhaustion are different between Chinese ITP and IS/IT users in the research model. Also the implications of the study are discussed and made some contribution to the research and management practice.

Originality/value

By comparison between the Chinese ITP and IS/IT users, this study shows that guanxi can be antecedent factor to some organizational factors, and the organizational factors guanxi have had a different effect on the work exhaustion of Chinese ITP and IS/IT users. Given that the critical successes to the organizations, management should focus on what direction to reduce Chinese ITP and IS/IT users work exhaustion.

Challenges to agile project management during COVID-19 pandemic: an emerging economy perspective

Globally, COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 214 countries across the world, creating uncertainty and affecting every institution and individual. The organisations recognise the need of agile projects that may offer several benefits including faster deployments, adaptability and best fit alignment to fulfill the customer needs. Implementing agile projects is the key to survive in the post pandemic situation, but emerging economies have limited scope for implementation. The present study determines the critical factors that restricts implementation of agile projects in emerging economies. The critical factors are identified from literature and validated by experts. The validated critical factors are further assessed to identify the cause-and-effect relationship using Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Laboratory (F-DEMATEL) method. The results of the study posit ‘Skepticism towards the new way of working’ is the most significant causal factor affecting other factors. This study is an attempt to help project managers to consider the significant factors for agile project implementation in post pandemic situation. The project managers may be benefitted from this study by considering these factors to manage challenges for agile project implementation in emerging economies. This study contributes to assess the influencing and the influenced challenging factors for agile project implementation.

Sprint Zeal or Sprint Fatigue? The Benefits and Burdens of Agile ISD Practices Use for Developer Well-Being

Are agile information systems development practices (AISDPs), such as pair programming or daily stand-ups, universally beneficial to developer well-being? Given that agile information systems development project success is only as good as its developers’ productiveness, taking care of developer well-being is of utmost importance to organizations. Using daily survey responses of 131 agile developers spread over two workweeks, we show that the daily use of AISDP is a double-edged sword rather than a silver bullet. Although AISDPs can be motivating and activate energy resources on some days, they can be disturbing and deplete energy on others—two stress responses with opposing effects on developer well-being. As a potential antidote to the detrimental effects of AISDP, we investigate the moderating role of information technology (IT) mindfulness, a dynamic trait that captures the mindful usage of IT. We find that IT mindfulness can serve as a facilitator of positive stress responses and as a buffer against negative stress responses. A key takeaway of this study is in finding ways to influence developers (via awareness programs, time-sensitive recovery interventions, or mindfulness practices) to increase the functional and decrease the dysfunctional stress responses from daily AISDP use.

Agility and Resilience in Information Systems Research

This research analyzes how the concepts of agility and resilience are treated in IS literature. While agility has been an object of study in IS research for many decades, resilience is a fairly new topic. Both are gaining strategic importance in a firm’s sustainability and growth, especially given the remarkable changes in the landscape that the firm operates in. It is thus important to understand what agility and resilience mean in IS research. Our paper is a first attempt to study IS literature and provide a thematic analysis of facets of each concept. In doing so, we identify aspects that are common to both agility and resilience and those that are unique to each. The results of this study can be used for an empirical examination of the two constructs and a validation of how they can be measured in firms. IS researchers and industrial practitioners can benefit from a deeper understanding of agility and resilience.

Representation of grossone-based arithmetic in simulink for scientific computing

Numerical computing is a key part of the traditional computer architecture. Almost all traditional computers implement the IEEE 754-1985 binary floating point standard to represent and work with numbers. The architectural limitations of traditional computers make impossible to work with infinite and infinitesimal quantities numerically. This paper is dedicated to the Infinity Computer, a new kind of a supercomputer that allows one to perform numerical computations with finite, infinite, and infinitesimal numbers. The already available software simulator of the Infinity Computer is used in different research domains for solving important real-world problems, where precision represents a key aspect. However, the software simulator is not suitable for solving problems in control theory and dynamics, where visual programming tools like Simulink are used frequently. In this context, the paper presents an innovative solution that allows one to use the Infinity Computer arithmetic within the Simulink environment. It is shown that the proposed solution is user-friendly, general purpose, and domain independent.

How do offshoring-related changes in job characteristics affect onshore managers’ affective organizational commitment? The moderating role of perceived organizational valence

Offshoring—the transfer of work activities to providers in offshore countries—has for some time affected the nature of work in onshore locations. Not much is however known about the reactions of onshore job incumbents to such changes. In this article, we use a survey of UK firms to examine the relationship between perceived changes in onshore managers’ work characteristics induced by information systems offshoring and managers’ affective organizational commitment. We found that a perceived increase in onshore managers’ job complexity was associated with higher affective organizational commitment only if managers also perceived organizational valence, that is, only if they believed that information systems offshoring benefited their organization. A perceived increase in cross-cultural work was associated with higher affective organizational commitment, and this association was positively moderated by managers’ perceptions of organizational valence. Using the offshoring context, our findings provide insights into consequences of contemporary changes in the nature of work in developed countries and to explain the diverse reactions of onshore job incumbents to such changes.