The wave of digitalisation has major consequences for the interaction of companies with their external environment. Digital applications are used to personalise and optimise services. Within this project we want to investigate how digitalisation has also changed the internal environment of companies.
- A lot of literature on digitalisation effects focuses on 'the employee' and ignores the heterogeneity of the workforce. Office managers (OM) make extensive use of digital technologies. They are the focus of this project.
- In the literature we mainly find information about the positive effects of digitalisation. This would lead to higher job satisfaction and a better work-life balance, but there is little research proving these relationships, especially for the position of OM.
- Research has substantiated the relationship between the use of technology and, among other things, stress and burn-out, but little is known about other negative side-effects.
This leads to the following research questions:
- "Which digital applications are used today by the Flemish OM?" This leads to the development of a digitOF index. By means of explorative factor analysis we examine whether this index can be subdivided into different dimensions (see also research question 2). Method: Literature study, expert interviews (OM)
- "To what extent does the multitasking use of these digital applications lead to a higher or lower level of job quality/job satisfaction in OM?" We examine whether there is a difference in influence depending on the dimension of a) digital applications (cf. digitOF index for research question 1), b) job quality and c) job satisfaction. Method: Large-scale quantitative survey (OM)
- "What are the main positive and negative associations with OM with digitalisation of the working environment? Method: In-depth interviews (OM)