The Effect of ICT Usage on Employees’ Satisfaction: a Job Characteristics Perspective

The paper investigates employees’ job satisfaction, examining the relationship with 33 some job related variables and considering the impact of the use of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) at work. One job demand that is workload and one job resource that is work-life balance are included. On the basis of our analysis, carried out on a sample of 33,265 employees in Europe (data source: European Working Conditions Survey 2010, last at disposal), we conclude that ICT usage plays a controversial role. Indeed, on the one hand, we prove that ICT usage might weaken the negative relationship between workload and individual job satisfaction. On the other hand, while we hypothesize that ICT might increase the strength of the positive relationship between work-life balance and job satisfaction, the results demonstrate the opposite. Managerial implications are finally considered to underline how important a ‘good’ management of the ITCs is to improve of job satisfaction.