Antecedents and Consequences of Job Satisfaction among Information Center Employees

Abstract:

The determinants and consequences of job satisfaction for Information Center (IC) personnel have received very little attention, despite their importance to the successful implementation and use of computer technology in organizations. This study explores the antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction for IC employees. Five components of job satisfaction—work, supervision, coworkers, pay, and promotion—were examined besides overall job satisfaction. Two stress variables—role ambiguity and role conflict—were considered as antecedents to satisfaction. Organizational commitment and intention to leave the organization were considered as outcomes from job satisfaction. The study also assessed the importance of personal characteristics as moderating variables to the relationship between the two role stressors and job satisfaction. Results show that role ambiguity was the most dysfunctional variable for IC employees in relation to job satisfaction. Organizational tenure was found to moderate the relationships between role stressors and overall job satisfaction, and some of its components. In addition, the relationship between role ambiguity and some components of job satisfaction were found to be education- and age-dependent. Results also confirmed the importance of job satisfaction in predIcting organizational commitment and intention to leave. Implications for IC management and future research are discussed.

Key Words and Phrases::

• information center
• information center personnel
• information systems management
• intention to leave
• job satisfaction
• organizational commitment

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Magid Igbaria

Magid Igbaria is a Professor of MIS in the College of Business and Administration at Drexel University. He holds a B.A. in statistics and business administration and an M.A. in information systems and operations research from Hebrew University. He received his Ph.D. in computers and information systems from Tel Aviv University. Formerly, he lectured at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, and Ben-Gurion University in Israel, and acted as the administrative director of the Center of Management Information Systems (CEMIS) at Tel Aviv University. He has published articles on management of IS functions, economics of computers, computer performance evaluation, charging of computer services, compumetrical approaches in IS, IS careers, international IS, and microcomputers in business in Applied Statistics, Communications of the ACM, Computers and Operations Research, Decision Sciences, Information Systems Research, Information & Management, INFOR, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Omega, MIS Quarterly, and others. His current research interests focus on international information systems, management of information systems, career development of IS professionals, and end-user computing.

Tor Guimaraes

Tor Guimaraes holds the J.E. Owen Chair of Excellence in Information Systems at Tennessee Technological University. He has a Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Minnesota and an M.B.A. from California State University, Los Angeles. He was a professor and chairman of the MIS department at St. Cloud State University, and before that an assistant professor and director of the MIS Certificate Program at Case Western Reserve University. He has spoken at numerous meetings sponsored by professional organizations including ACM, IEEE, ASM, DPMA, INFOMART, and Sales and Marketing Executives. He has consulted on several IS topics with many leading organizations including TRW, American Greetings, AT&T, IBM, and the Department of Defense. He has published over fifty articles in leading journals such as Communications of the ACM, Decision Sciences, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Omega, Computers and Operations Research, Information & Management, and Data Base.