Using hybrid SEM – artificial intelligence. Approach to examine the nexus between boreout, generation, career, life and job satisfaction
| Published date | 19 November 2019 |
| Date | 19 November 2019 |
| Pages | 67-86 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-06-2017-0180 |
| Author | A. Mohammed Abubakar |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Using hybrid SEM –artificial
intelligence
Approach to examine the nexus between
boreout, generation, career, life and
job satisfaction
A. Mohammed Abubakar
College of Business and Social Sciences,
Antalya Bilim Universitesi, Antalya, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose –Boreout is a psychological state of intense boredom and apathy. Characterized by the absence of
mental stimuli (i.e. menial tasks) required to keep employees conscious about their environment, and this
incessant decline in mental stimuli may turn employees into “professional zombies.”The diversity in work
needs and preferences across generations has become a key organizational factor, generational differences
have been studied in Western countries, not much information is available about generational cohorts and
satisfaction (i.e. career, life and job satisfaction) in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to
provide more insights on these phenomena.
Design/methodology/approach –Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, this paper examines
the potential effects of boreout on important job outcomes (i.e. career, life and job satisfaction) conditioned by
generation (Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers) in the service industry. Data analyses with Artificial Intelligence
technique (i.e. artificial neural network) and structural equation modeling were conducted with data collated
from Nigerian service employees.
Findings –Results revealed that boreout has a negative impact on career, life and job satisfaction. The
hypothesized relationships were significantly moderated by generation cohorts as Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers
were found to be distinct cohorts.
Originality/value –This paper advocates that non-western organizations should avoid utmost service
standardization and rigid stylization of work processes and procedures.
Keywords Job satisfaction, Quantitative, Nigeria, Service industry, Life satisfaction, Advanced statistical,
Career satisfaction, Boreout
Paper type Research paper
Overview
Organizations are investing heavily in programs meant to improve service employees’
behaviors during service encounters (Batt and Moynihan, 2002). These behaviors are
nothing else, other than scripted interaction and behavioral schemas. Service
standardization is harmful especially when it becomes extreme, employees are required
to act like robots e.g. recitation of scripts. Research has shown that the standardization of
service often reduces on-the-job challenge, which impedes creativity and encourages
habituation ( Janssen, 2000). This lack of service arousal and excitement might help
explain recent findings, which estimated that about 20 percent of service employees
are demotivated, and that demotivation causes about 15 percent of the total turnover
(Stock, 2015). Service standardization and formal procedures designed for customer
interaction in service delivery seems to demotivate employees (Wilk and Moynihan, 2005),
demotivation results in increased service failure (Abubakar and Arasli, 2016; Harris and
Ogbonna, 2002, 2006).
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 1, 2020
pp. 67-86
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-06-2017-0180
Received 14 June 2017
Revised 26 May 2018
13 December 2018
Accepted 22 February 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
An abridged version of this research was presented at the ICEB’18, Fourth International Congress on
Economics and Business, Budapest/Hungary. The authors also thank colleagues within those sessions
for their comments.
67
Using hybrid
SEM
Research concerning lack of challenging work indicates that it can result to undesirable
outcomes ranging from job dissatisfaction, withdrawal, reduced job performance to turnover
(Bruursemaet al., 2011; Gursoy et al., 2011; Van der Heijden et al., 2012). This paper is relevant
to the contemporary satisfaction approach and the service industry as a plethora of
managementliteratures andempirical studies related to (i.e. jobsatisfaction, careersatisfaction
and life satisfaction) are limited to one or at most two forms of satisfaction (Chuang and Lei,
2011; Karatepe, 2010; Lee and Way, 2010; Zhao et al., 2011); with the exception of (Karatepe and
Karadas, 2015; Yavas et al., 2013). Accordingly, this study introduces a ne w satisfaction
understanding that combinesthe aforementioned variables. The pointhere is that, individuals
improve their overall well-being by consciously investing in the three domains of satisfaction,
so as to have a meaningful work-life and non-work-life experiences.
Research (e.g. Near, 1984; Russo et al., 2016; Sirgy and Lee, 2018) shows that the influence of
work-life (job and career related satisfactions) on non-work-life (life related satisfaction) is
pervasive and mutually reinforcing (i.e. job and career satisfactions lead to life satisfaction and
vice versa). Thus, career, job and life satisfaction are related to each other –career and job is a
priority in people’s lives and as a priority it is likely to be associated with other areas of life and
generational cohorts. While these concepts are widely used in mainstream Western contexts,
little is currently known about generational cohorts’perceptions in regard to career, life and job
satisfaction in other geo-cultural regions such Nigeria, and West Africa at large. This study
sought to redress this research gap by investigating the nature of interplay between the
variables. Moreover, literature related to work attitudes and behaviorssuch boreout in relation to
generation seems scarce in the West African context, this calls for a complete frame of reference.
Fajana (2009) argued that generational cohort is a function of employees’orientation,
attitudes and behaviors at work in Nigeria. Contrary, Owoyemi et al. (2011) found that
irrespective of the differences in age(s), the employees’attitudes to work and behaviors are the
same owing to unionized and participatory management style in Nigeria. Even with this,
boreout can still reign, because union membership in developing countries barely insulate
employees (Ineme and Ineme, 2016). Nigerian service industry workers (e.g. telecommunication
and financial services) in the same age group are more likely to share similar work attitudes
and orientation than those in the manufacturing and hospitality industry (Owoyemi et al.,
2011). Similar observations were made in South Africa (Mncwango, 2016).
To understand how lack of on-the-job challenge affects the aforementioned job outcomes,
this paper investigates a new conceptual phenomenon, known as Boreout. Job boreout refers to
“a negative psychological state of low work-related arousal manifested by job boredom, a crisis
of meaning, and a crisis of growth at work”(Stock, 2015, p. 574). Boreout as a low strain but
disturbing phenomenon needs managerial attention and represents a hidden threat to
employees at individual level and the organization at organizational level. Service employees
who suffer from boreout are less innovative as they engage in habitualized behaviors (Van Dyne
et al., 2002). Against this backdrop, using conservation of resources (COR) theory as a theoretical
framework this study develops and tests a new research model that investigates the
relationship between boreout and (i.e. career, life and job satisfaction) in the service industry.
According to Park and Gursoy (2012, p. 1195), “generational differences in work values (e.g.
work centrality, attitudes and leisure values) may further qualify the meaning of one work-
related variable to another.”This is primarily due to shared historical experiences (e.g.
birthdates, education, events, and lifestyle) among a group of people (Schuman and Scott, 1989).
Logically, one could speculate that boreout may have differential impacts on employees in
different generational cohorts. The use of the two-stage predictive-analytic, structural equation
modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis may provide a more holistic
understanding, thus, providing significant methodological contribution fromthe statistical point
of view. This is because the non-compensatory neural network analysis is able to complement
the weaknesses of the compensatory and linear SEM analysis (Abubakar et al., 2017).
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PR
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