ÇALIŞMA ORTAMI ÖZELLİKLERİNİN İŞE YABANCILAŞMAYA ETKİLERİ: BİLGİ TEKNOLOJİSİ ÇALIŞANLARI ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Abstract

İçinde bulunduğumuz Bilgi Çağında, Bilgi Teknolojileri (BT) çalışanları, yeni ekonominin büyümesinde en kritik faktördür. Bu nedenle iş ortamında BT çalışanlarının iş ortamlarının doğasının anlaşılması önemli bir araştırma alanı olarak görülmektedir. Böylelikle çalışmanın amacı, iş ortamını oluşturan; iş özerkliği, rol çatışması ve örgütsel adalet değişkenlerinin BT çalışanlarının işe yabancılaşma algıları üzerindeki doğrudan ve dolaylı etkilerini incelemektir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda İstanbul’da yer alan yedi teknoloji şirketinin çalışanlarından online olarak tasarlanan bir anket aracılığı ile gerekli veriler toplanmıştır. 172 sektör çalışanın katılımı ile elde edilen veriler, yapısal denklem modeli ile analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda değişkenler arasında doğrudan ve dolaylı ilişkiler tespit edilmiştir.

1. LITERATURE The information technology sector is considered as the new driving force of an economy and is therefore defined as the "strategic sector". The most important asset of the sector which has such critical importance is the information technology employees who are educated and qualified human resources. On the other hand, as in many other sectors, employees in this sector may also face a psychosocial risk due to non-corporate practices. This traditional system can cause disappointment to employees and subsequently to alienate against their jobs. In this context, one of the most important issues ignored in the information technology sector is determining the reasons underlying the negative attitudes of the employees towards their works. The “Job Demands - Resources Model”, which was developed by Demerouti et al. (2001), which aims to explain the factors necessary for the productivity and well-being of the employees in the workplace environment, provides an explanatory perspective. Work alienation arises as a result of various job demands that the employee perceives as obstacles. According to the Job Demands - Resources model, this situation may lead to emotional exhaustion afterwards (Khan et al., 2019). In the light of this information, the antecedents of alienation to work can be explained within the framework of the variables in the Job Demands- Resources model. The purpose of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effects of job autonomy, role conflict and organizational justice variables on the IT employees' perception of work alienation. 2. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY In this study, hypotheses related to variables that directly and indirectly affect the perception of information technology (IT) employees' alienation to work were tested. A descriptive research design was conducted to examine the specific effects revealed in this context. The hypotheses included in the research model developed within the scope of the literature review are presented below: H1: Job autonomy perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perceptions of procedural justice. H2: Job autonomy perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of role conflict. H3a: Procedural justice perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of powerlessness. H3b: Procedural justice perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of self-alienation. H3c: Procedural justice perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of meaninglessness. H4a: Role conflict perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perception of powerlessness. H4b: Role conflict perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perception of self- alienation. H4c: Role conflict perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perception of meaninglessness. The sample was drawn from different organizations in the information technology sector in Istanbul, Turkey's largest metropolitan city, based on purposive sampling. The sample comprised IT employees working in different areas such as software, hardware, programmers, data analysis etc. Data were collected from 172 IT employees across seven medium- sized and small companies. Since it was necessary to obtain data from a wide sample to test the hypotheses included in the research model, a questionnaire was chos en as a data collection tool. Considering that it would be more convenient to reach IT employees who are experts in the use of technology with an online questionnaire and that the questionnaire would be answered more easily by the participants, the questionnaire was designed via the internet. 3. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS Meaninglesness The designed questionnaire consists of two parts. In the first part, the scales related to the variables in the research model are presented, in the second part, there are questions about demographic characteristics. To measure work alienation, the scale developed by Mottaz (1981) and adapted and revised in Turkish by Sayü (2014) was used. Considering the previous studies in the literature on IT employees, it was decided in this study that only the procedural justice sub-dimension of the organizational justice was included in the research model. The scale developed by Colquitt et al. (2001) was used to measure procedural justice. Work autonomy scale was taken from Lim's (2008) study. The scale developed by Rizzo, Ho

1. LITERATURE The information technology sector is considered as the new driving force of an economy and is therefore defined as the "strategic sector". The most important asset of the sector which has such critical importance is the information technology employees who are educated and qualified human resources. On the other hand, as in many other sectors, employees in this sector may also face a psychosocial risk due to non-corporate practices. This traditional system can cause disappointment to employees and subsequently to alienate against their jobs. In this context, one of the most important issues ignored in the information technology sector is determining the reasons underlying the negative attitudes of the employees towards their works. The “Job Demands - Resources Model”, which was developed by Demerouti et al. (2001), which aims to explain the factors necessary for the productivity and well-being of the employees in the workplace environment, provides an explanatory perspective. Work alienation arises as a result of various job demands that the employee perceives as obstacles. According to the Job Demands - Resources model, this situation may lead to emotional exhaustion afterwards (Khan et al., 2019). In the light of this information, the antecedents of alienation to work can be explained within the framework of the variables in the Job Demands- Resources model. The purpose of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effects of job autonomy, role conflict and organizational justice variables on the IT employees' perception of work alienation. 2. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY In this study, hypotheses related to variables that directly and indirectly affect the perception of information technology (IT) employees' alienation to work were tested. A descriptive research design was conducted to examine the specific effects revealed in this context. The hypotheses included in the research model developed within the scope of the literature review are presented below: H1: Job autonomy perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perceptions of procedural justice. H2: Job autonomy perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of role conflict. H3a: Procedural justice perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of powerlessness. H3b: Procedural justice perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of self-alienation. H3c: Procedural justice perceptions of IT employees negatively affect their perception of meaninglessness. H4a: Role conflict perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perception of powerlessness. H4b: Role conflict perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perception of self- alienation. H4c: Role conflict perceptions of IT employees positively affect their perception of meaninglessness. The sample was drawn from different organizations in the information technology sector in Istanbul, Turkey's largest metropolitan city, based on purposive sampling. The sample comprised IT employees working in different areas such as software, hardware, programmers, data analysis etc. Data were collected from 172 IT employees across seven medium- sized and small companies. Since it was necessary to obtain data from a wide sample to test the hypotheses included in the research model, a questionnaire was chos en as a data collection tool. Considering that it would be more convenient to reach IT employees who are experts in the use of technology with an online questionnaire and that the questionnaire would be answered more easily by the participants, the questionnaire was designed via the internet. 3. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS Meaninglesness The designed questionnaire consists of two parts. In the first part, the scales related to the variables in the research model are presented, in the second part, there are questions about demographic characteristics. To measure work alienation, the scale developed by Mottaz (1981) and adapted and revised in Turkish by Sayü (2014) was used. Considering the previous studies in the literature on IT employees, it was decided in this study that only the procedural justice sub-dimension of the organizational justice was included in the research model. The scale developed by Colquitt et al. (2001) was used to measure procedural justice. Work autonomy scale was taken from Lim's (2008) study. The scale developed by Rizzo, Ho "Araştırma, kadınların işyerinde maruz kaldığı cinsel tacizin boyutlarını ve taciz ile başa çıkma stratejilerini belirleme ve tanımlama amacını taşımaktadır. Araştırmada, nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden derinlemesine mülakat, veri toplama aracı olarak da yarı yapılandırılmış mülakat formu kullanılmıştır. Araştırma, cinsel tacize maruz kalan 498 kadın ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Veriler, NVIVO 10 nitel analiz programı ile analiz edilmiştir. Cinsel tacizin içeriği göz önüne alındığında, bir önem hiyerarşisinde çeşitli taciz formları olmasına rağmen, bunlar takip, fiziksel, sözlü ve görsel taciz yoluyla taciz olarak adlandırılabilir. Araştırma bulguları tacize uğrayan kadınlarin, işyerinde tacizi tanıma ve tanımlama güçlüğü çektiğine işaret etmektedir. Özellikle ‘taciz’ ve ‘tacizci’ kelimelerini kullanmaktan çekindikleri farklı tanımlamalarla gizleme ve önemsizleştirme sürecine girildiği görülmektedir. Suçluluk, güçsüzlük, aşağılanma, korku, öfke, çaresizlik, ne yapacağını bilememe, yadsıma taciz sonrası ortaya çıkan duygulardır. Suçluluk, güçsüzlük, aşağılanma, korku, öfke, çaresizlik, ne yapacağını bilememe, yadsıma taciz sonrası ortaya çıkan duygulardır. Taciz sonrasında, tacizle karşılaşan kadınlar işi kaybetme ve olumsuz tepkilerle karşılaşma korkusu nedeniyle sessiz kalmaktadır. Tacize maruz kalan kadınlar ‘kendini kısıtlayıcı ve kaçınmacı’ yaklaşım ile tacizden korunmaya çalışmaktadır."