The Role of Employees’ Technology Readiness, Job Meaningfulness and Proactive Personality in Adaptive Performance

Abstract

The escalating utilization of digital technology has created new challenges and therefore calls for modifications in organizational culture, technology infrastructure and job structure. However, there is still a lack of research studies that view digital technology from the perspective of how challenges of digital technology can be addressed at the employee level. Transformation toward digitalization requires employees’ readiness to adapt to the new job structure. Adaptability is the employees’ ability to adapt to changes. Employees with adaptive performance can solve problems creatively, manage volatile situations and handle pressure effectively. Adaptive performance can be enhanced when employees are ready to adopt the utilization of digital technology or technology readiness. Technology readiness is the tendency of employees to use new technology to achieve goals related to their lives and work. However, an individual’s tendency to utilize digital technology varies depending on their perception of their job’s meaningfulness and the personality that the person has. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between employees’ technology readiness and adaptive performance, and to examine the role of job meaningfulness as a mediator and proactive personality as a moderator. Data was analyzed using the PLS-SEM. The results showed that employees with the tendency to utilize technology in their jobs have higher adaptive performance. Furthermore, the relationship is mediated by job meaningfulness and is enhanced by employees with highly proactive personalities. The findings from this study can drive organizations to motivate their employees and provide a flexible job structure to encourage the employees to utilize technology more effectively.