Work pressure, emotional demands and work performance among information technology professionals in South Africa: The role of exhaustion and depersonalisation

SA Journal of Human Resource Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Work pressure, emotional demands and work performance among information technology professionals in South Africa: The role of exhaustion and depersonalisation
 
Creator Dos Santos Tome, Jessica van der Vaart, Leoni
 
Subject — job demands; task performance; counterproductive work behaviour; indirect effects; IT professionals; South Africa
Description Orientation: Technological advancements are occurring at a rapid rate, and individuals working in information technology (IT) often work under challenging and emotionally demanding circumstances. Also, there is a shortage of IT professionals, and organisations have difficulty retaining them. These circumstances may result in exhaustion and depersonalisation that have negative consequences for the work performance of the remaining IT professionals.Research purpose: This research aimed to investigate the relationships between work pressure, emotional demands, exhaustion, depersonalisation, task performance and counterproductive work behaviour among IT professionals within South Africa.Motivation for the study: Research on the individual work performance of IT professionals, specifically in South Africa, is limited in number and scope.Research approach/design and method: In this study, a quantitative approach was used to collect cross-sectional data from a convenience sample of 296 IT professionals in South Africa.Main findings: Results from structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that emotional demands and depersonalisation impacted task performance positively and negatively, respectively. Depersonalisation positively impacted counterproductive work behaviour, and work pressure positively impacted exhaustion.Practical/managerial implications: Organisations should aim to create awareness of IT professionals experiencing emotional demands, work pressure and depersonalisation as there are consequences for these behaviours. Beyond awareness creation, management should design and implement interventions to optimise emotional demands and to minimise work pressure and depersonalisation.Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to the limited literature on IT professionals’ work performance within a South African context by providing insights on the role exhaustion and depersonalisation play (or the lack thereof) in explaining the effect of work demands on individual work performance.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-10-08
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1362
 
Source SA Journal of Human Resource Management; Vol 18 (2020); 12 pages 2071-078X 1683-7584
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1362/2150 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1362/2149 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1362/2151 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1362/2148
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Jessica Dos Santos Tome, Leoni van der Vaart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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