Essays on information, technology and information worker productivity

I examine how information technology (IT) skills and use, communication network structures, and the distribution and flow of information in organizations impact individual information worker productivity. The work is divided into three essays based on the task level practices of information workers at a midsize executive recruiting firm: Essay 1: "Information, Technology and Information Worker Productivity: Task Level Evidence." I develop and econometrically test a multistage model of production and interaction activities at the firm, and analyze correlations among network structure, characteristics of information flow and real economic output. I find that (a) IT use is positively correlated with non-linear drivers of productivity; (b) the structure and size of workers' communication networks are highly correlated with performance; (c) an inverted-U shaped relationship exists between multitasking and productivity such that, beyond an optimum, more multitasking is associated with declining project completion rates and revenue generation; and (d) asynchronous information seeking such as email and database use promotes multitasking while synchronous information seeking over the phone shows a negative correlation. These data demonstrate a strong correspondence among technology use, social networks, and productivity for project-based information workers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Aral, Sinan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Erik Brynjolfsson.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39003

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39003