University of Twente Student Theses
The relationship between technological legitimacy and job crafting: The case of a Dutch care organization
Brunink, K.R. (2017) The relationship between technological legitimacy and job crafting: The case of a Dutch care organization.
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| Abstract: | Care providers are increasingly turning towards new technologies to improve the quality of existing care services and to maximize the efficiency of care provision. Although such new technologies are generally perceived as innovations that provide many benefits to clients and care professionals, it is also claimed that meaningful work processes and social connections of care professionals may be eliminated, due to the use of such technologies. As a result, care professionals are expected to change or redefine elements of their job to adjust their work to their own abilities and needs. Despite the fact that a number of studies have been performed on how people change the task or relational boundaries of their job to adjust their work to their preferred work processes, it has not been investigated yet how such changes are influenced by people’s perceptions of the legitimacy of a specific technology. Therefore, the present study can be seen as the first study that investigates the relationship between technological legitimacy (the degree of alignment between a technological innovation and social rules, widely held social norms and people’s perceptions towards the technology) and job crafting (the physical and cognitive changes in the task or relational boundaries of one’s job). The main goal of this study is to gain insights into how job crafting activities are influenced by the degree and various forms of legitimacy. To investigate this, semi-structured in-depth interviews were taken with 19 care professionals, who provide care to psychically and psychiatrically disabled people. These care professionals were asked about their experiences with the use of distant care technologies (WhatsApp, telephony and Skype), as well as how they handle changes in their work processes, due to the use of distant care technologies. A relevant contribution of this study is that the use of a technology does not necessarily mean that users perceive the technology as legitimate. Moreover, it is argued that job crafting occurs regardless of the degree of legitimacy, because people craft their job if they perceive a technology as highly legitimate and if a technology has a relatively low degree of legitimacy. Besides, the results of this study indicated that pragmatic legitimacy is the form of technological legitimacy that is perceived as the most important influencer of job crafting, whereas most job crafting activities are related to changes in the relational boundaries of one’s job. Since this is the first study that investigates the relationship between technological legitimacy and job crafting, some directions for future research are suggested. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | RIBW Groep Overijssel, Zwolle, Nederland |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies MSc (60713) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/73462 |
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