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Existing work on personality traits in software development excludes game developers as a discrete group. Whilst games are software, game development has unique considerations, so game developers may exhibit different personality traits from other software professionals. We assessed responses from 123 game developers on an International Personality Item Pool Five Factor Model scale and demographic questionnaire using factor analysis. Programmers reported lower Extraversion than designers, artists and production teammembers; lower Openness than designers and production, and reported higher Neuroticism than production—potentially linked to burnout and crunch time. Compared to published norms of software developers, game developers reported lower Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness, but higher Neuroticism. These personality differences have many practical implications: differences in Extraversion among roles may precipitate communication breakdowns; differences in Openness may induce conflict between programmers and designers. Understanding the relationship between personality traits and roles can help recruiters steer new employees into appropriate roles, and help managers apply appropriate stress management techniques. To realise these benefits, individuals must be distinguished from roles: just because an individual occupies a role does not mean they possess personality traits associated with that role.

Cybersecurity is a serious threat to information technology (IT) systems, with most organisations now relying on their IT systems to function day-to-day. Therefore, it is crucial that organisations ensure they are protected. This research investigates the emotional and coping responses of employees towards a cyber-attack. Data was collected through an in-depth case study approach (24 semi-structured interviews) conducted at a global manufacturing company, along with primary observations and a corpus of secondary materials. Our data analysis applied a grounded approach which was then refined using an emotion theoretic lens with the application of Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT). Drawing on structural appraisal theory, our findings indicate the IT security team in the case study oscillated between positive problem-focused coping and negative emotion-focused coping. A key explanatory feature or turnaround mechanism that mediated this oscillation was senior management empathy and resource mobilization. Building on the analyses, a conceptual model is developed called the Transformation of Coping through Empathic Leadership (T-CEL). The research suggests the crucial role that senior management play in transforming the emotional and coping capabilities of employees through their intervention and support. The study extends the IS Security theoretical background through a TTAT-lens for the analysis of cyber-attack incidents.

One of the most significant recent technological developments concerns the development and implementation of ?intelligent machines? that draw on recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. However, there are growing tensions between human freedoms and machine controls. This article reports the findings of a workshop that investigated the application of the principles of human freedom throughout intelligent machine development and use. Forty IS researchers from ten different countries discussed four contemporary AI and humanity issues and the most relevant IS domain challenges. This article summarizes their experiences and opinions regarding four AI and humanity themes: Crime & conflict, Jobs, Attention, and Wellbeing. The outcomes of the workshop discussions identify three attributes of humanity that need preservation: a critique of the design and application of AI, and the intelligent machines it can create; human involvement in the loop of intelligent machine decision-making processes; and the ability to interpret and explain intelligent machine decision-making processes. The article provides an agenda for future AI and humanity research.

This article reviewed the current situation of coronavirus crisis, as well as policies regarding disease control implemented by China, Italy, UK and U.S. We analysed the coronavirus development trend by visualizing data with Python. We analysed the impact of social distancing and performed simulations of a variety of lockdown circumstances using NetLogo. Throughout our analysis, we examined the importance of social distancing, lockdown and quarantine measures, and extended insights on the ineffectiveness of the UK Covid-19 Tier system.

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The paper develops and tests theory that explains under what conditions the extent of email use is appraised as a stressor. Integrating concepts from information acquisition and person-environment fit theories, we hypothesize that individuals appraise their extent of email use as stressful based on the mismatch between their current and desired extents of email use. We define the mismatch as email misfit and the match as email fit. We first develop a conceptual framework that associates email misfit with the individual's experience of three key workplace stressors—work relationships stressor, job control stressor, and job conditions stressor. We then develop hypotheses framing the relationship between email fit and misfit, and these stressors. We test our hypotheses by applying quadratic polynomial regressions and surface-response analysis to survey data obtained from 118 working individuals. The paper makes three theoretical contributions. First, in reporting a theoretical and empirical construction of email fit and misfit and their relationship to workplace stressors, it shows that email misfit is appraised as stress-creating. That is, both too much email and too little, compared to what the individual desires, are associated with stressors. Secondly, it shows that IT use (in this case, email) is appraised as stressful both when it exceeds (i.e., associated with overload) and fails to meet (i.e., associated with underload), the user's expectation and preference. Thirdly, this paper suggests the person-environment approach as a theoretically novel way to conceptualize the cognitive appraisal and judgement associated with information underacquisition and overacquisition and shows workplace stressors as potentially new effects associated with them.

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The use of computer-mediated communication applications can lead to workplace stress for employees. However, such stress is influenced not only by how individuals actually use computermediated communication applications, but also how they desire to use them. This paper examines how the individual’s actual and desired use of communication tools together influence his or her workplace stress. It does so across a range of computer-mediated media (e.g. email or instant messaging), and workplace stressors (e.g. workload or work relationships). This investigation is conducted using a multi-method research design. The quantitative study found that desired and actual use together influenced workplace stress, mostly for email, but not for other media. The qualitative study further showed that such influence depends on organizational conditions such as available media or co-workers preferences. The findings emphasize the importance of considering the individuals’ desired use of CMC media, and their subjective appraisals of different media.

This paper will seek to assess the role of Cloud computing in achieving strategic agility within the UK banking sector and provides implications on how organizations in the banking sector can become more agile in their operations. Previous research has shed light on how using Cloud technology can enhance an organization’s innovation, which is a key factor in any rapidly changing sector. In order to assess the role Cloud technology has on achieving strategic agility in the banking sector, we identify the facilitators or barriers to achieving strategic agility successfully. An exploratory research design is adopted since there is little or no similar research in this area.

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Purpose Using e-mail is a time-consuming activity that can increase workload stress. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the individual's e-mail load, workload stress and desired e-mail load, drawing from the cybernetic theory of stress. Design/methodology/approach Based on prior theory, the authors first hypothesized relationships among e-mail load, workplace stress and desired e-mail load. The authors then tested these relationships on a sample of 504 full-time workers in the USA, using survey data and covariance-based structural equation modeling techniques. Findings The authors find that higher e-mail load is associated with higher workload stress; higher workload stress is associated with lower desired e-mail load; lower desired e-mail load is associated with lower e-mail load; and higher workload stress is associated with higher psychological strain, higher negative emotions and lower organizational commitment. Originality/value The study provides a novel understanding of workload stress due to e-mail load, through the lens of cybernetic theory. It contributes to the e-mail overload and technostress literatures by conceptualizing desired e-mail load as a potential outcome of workplace stress and as a regulator for e-mail load. For practitioners, the study highlights the importance of managing employees' e-mail load to prevent the negative effects of workplace stress and associated strains.

This manuscript assesses the role of a relatively new technology ‘cloud computing’ in achieving strategic agility within the UK banking sector. While there is research on how ‘cloud’ can enhance innovation capacity, there is little on the implications for strategic agility - an increasingly important topic in the IS/IT literature (Doz and Kosonen, 2010). Mell and Grance (2010) define cloud as: “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” Such new technologies have accelerated global competition per se and as a result organizations must be able to rapidly adapt their strategies as well as their operations; agility is ‘cascading’ up the organization from operations to C-Suite. Banking is no exception (Baskerville et al., 2005) and given the industry’s reputation for conservatism, we felt this was ripe for study since cloud and strategic agility are in tension with the industry’s usual pace of change. According to Lewis et al. (2014) organizational survival today very much depends on strategic agility, which in brief involves flexible and mindful responses to constantly changing environments. Our question is whether cloud enables or constrains such responses. According to Doz and Kosonen (2010) there are three dimensions to strategic agility: (i) Strategic sensitivity; (ii) Leadership unity; (iii) Resource fluidity. Can cloud deliver on all three dimensions for banking? We set out to explore these questions.

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Purpose Using email is a time-consuming activity that can increase workload stress. This paper investigates the relationship between the individual’s email load, workload stress and desired email load, drawing from the cybernetic theory of stress. Design/methodology/approach Based on prior theory, we first hypothesized relationships among email load, workplace stress and desired email load. We then tested these relationships on a sample of 504 full-time workers in the U.S., using survey data and covariance based structural equation modeling techniques. Findings –We find that (1) higher email load is associated with higher workload stress; (2) higher workload stress is associated with lower desired email load; (3) lower desired email load is associated with lower email load; and (4) higher workload stress is associated with higher psychological strain, higher negative emotions, and lower organizational commitment. Originality/value – The study provides a novel understanding of workload stress due to email load, through the lens of cybernetic theory. It contributes to the email overload and technostress literatures by conceptualizing desired email load as a potential outcome of workplace stress and as a regulator for email load. For practitioners, the study highlights the importance of managing employees’ email load to prevent the negative effects of workplace stress and associated strains.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.