Essay: Self Efficacy In IT Workplace - A Model Organization.

Description of Self Efficacy

Discuss about the Leader Effectiveness and Promotability.

Self -efficiency or commonly known as “social cognitive theory or learning theory” is the belief of an individual on own aptitude to accomplish any specific task with ease and efficacy. Think about the self efficacy is the indication of development of “self confidence” in one’s behavioural approach or it can be defined as a work specific version of the self esteem. With the advancement of time, self efficacy has been considered as one of the important and significant behavioural aspect for every individual (Middleton, Tran, & Craig, 2017). Development of self efficacy within the behavioural aspect can be the best possible way for every individual if he wants to get success in both personal lives as well as in professional life. In professional field, self efficacy provides positive impact on the employees’ efficacy, aptitude, level of effort and perseverance while handling any difficult situation or activities. Past performance, verbal persuasion and overview, poignant cues and vicarious experience can be considered as some effective sources of the self efficacy (Cherian & Jacob, 2013).  The key aspect of this research paper is to focus upon the importance of “self efficacy” in organisational workplace. In order to focus upon the fact that how self efficacy can impact upon the work place, IT sector or information technology sector can be considered as a model organisation. This study provides pragmatic evidence about the importance of self efficacy in workplace especially in IT sector by which an organisational employee can easily cope with the advancement of the technology and can exhibit his work role with ease and efficacy.

In our daily life, “self efficacy” is often unobserved, but it is considered as important and most crucial factor for every individual’s behavioural approach by which one can get easy success on any task or situation in workplace. According to famous psychologist Albert Bandura, “self efficacy is an individual’s belief and faith on his own ability and aptitude to accomplish any work or to get success in any situation.”  

Self efficacy can also be referred as personal efficacy: it is the self confidence that can be generated by a person on his own ability to gain intended outcomes from any activities. So, it can be said that, self efficacy has the potentiality to provide effective impact on every single area of a human endeavour. It can be defined by considering different theoretical approaches like: social cognitive theory, social learning theory, self concept theory and so on (Reynolds, Testa & Marc et al. 2014).  According to all these theory, it can be said that, “self efficacy” is an important aspect and concept by which a person  can confront any difficult situation or can succeed on any task or activities if he keep complete belief and faith on his own ability and aptitude. For organisational workplace, self efficacy within an individual’s behavioural approach is considered as an essential criterion (Murphy, Higgins & Shand et al. 2017)

The Importances of 'Self Efficacy' in Workplace

Self efficacy can help an employee to achieve the goal and objective with ease and efficacy that is chosen by him (Le Blanc, Demerouti & Bakker et al. 2017).

Self efficacy influences the learning abilities as well as the efficiency and efforts that employee can exert to complete the job with efficacy.

Self efficacy can enhance the persistence by which an employee can attempt difficult or challenging job or activities (Marzuki, Marzuki &Subramaniam et al. 2017)

Since, the “self-efficacy” can be considered as an important aspect for the IT organisation and for the organisational employees, it is necessary to evaluate and identify the origin or the contributing factors of “self efficacy” (Storm, Reinwand & Wienert et al. 2017).

Past performance, vicarious experiences, emotional cues and the verbal persuasion is the major contributory factors for the self efficacy.

Past performance: according to Jha, (2013)_ , past performance can be considered as one of the important factors for the development of the self efficacy. The term “past performance” indicates that when an employee got success on job-related activities, they gain more self-assurance and confidence to accomplish similar kind of activities or tasks in future with more efficacy. This is the clear indication towards the development of self efficacy and self confidence. On the other hand if an employee did not get success on his job in past, he can lose his self efficacy easily (Banik, Schwarzer &Pawlowska, 2017). In that case, organisational manager or the leader are the responsible person who can boost and enhance the self efficacy and confidence level of their employees through proper training, providing difficult assignments, offering personal and professional developmental scheme and so on.

Vicarious experiences: the second contributory factor of self efficacy is “vicarious experiences” (Kim & Beehr, 2017). It means that observing or knowing the success story of co worker in any task, one can feel motivated and encouraged for carrying out similar or more difficult tasks with ease and efficacy.

Emotional cues: self efficacy can also be developed by emotional cues. There are a strong correlation between the psychological cues and the self efficacy. Sweaty hand or dry mouth are considered as a sign and symptoms of nervousness. An employee may feel such sign or symptoms while he feels that he is not capable to accomplish any task within workplace. On the other hand, while that employee gets success to confront the difficulties or challenges with efficacy, he can feel relaxed and stress free and also can develop high sense of efficacy and confidence towards similar task or situation (Seibert, Sargent & Kraimer et al. 2017).

Contributing factors of self efficacy

Verbal persuasion: the third contributory factor of self efficacy is “verbal persuasion”. It signifies that effective communication between two or more people can be act as a contributory factor for developing or boosting one’s self efficacy (Lent, Ireland& Penn. et al. 2017).  In workplace, the use of verbal persuasion can be best possible way for the team leaders as well as for the manager to boost the ability and efficacy of their employees. It can also develop “Pygmalion effect” within the behavioural approach of an individual which can be described as a self- fulfilling predict through which one can get easy success on any difficult situations ( Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2017).

Self efficacy is simply understood as that determinant which helps to instill one’s own belief to succeed in definite situations of life. It primarily comes into use by fostering the process of reaching the goals, tasks and challenges for a definite sector under consideration (Cherian & Jacob, 2013). Applying the element of self efficacy upon the IT sector an array of research studies can be brought into light. Although not several of researches are based upon the exact implementation of self efficacy factor into the IT sector, a considerable literature can be achieved in this relevant context.

For obtaining the benefits received from the Information Technological prospect in a complete manner it is necessary to believe in the significance of it. The greater the acceptance rate the larger shall be the applicability range (Piperopoulos & Dimov, 2015). It therefore becomes essential to identify the determinants that contribute in accepting and rejecting the technological advantages. In relation with identifying the factors affecting the acceptance of technological procedures, self efficacy is noted as one of the inevitable element that leads to individual difference among people. Earlier researches are based upon identifying the how the success of Information Technology growth results in wider acceptance (Ross, Perkins & Bodey, 2016). For the purpose of exploring further and delving deep into the issue a quantitative research study was conducted upon 53 participants. A survey method by administering questionnaires was carried on to analyse the data retrieved from the selected sample. The findings related to the study were achieved by confirming the theoretical impact of technological significance in rendering immense effectiveness among specified sectors (Farmer & Tierney, 2017). The studies which were taken as reference to validate the research were found to fall in favor of self efficacy and its prevalence. Sufficient basis of empirical studies have contributed to suggest that there prevails a positive impact of self efficacy on the intention of behavior one has for the actual utility of technology. The perceived utility that was conceived by the participants was found to get strengthened after the intervention process which gets positively reflected through the implementation of technology in real (Bullough, Renko & Myatt, 2014). On assessing areas of interests and ability of the managers and the employees who were considered as the research sample a subsequent positive introduction of technology could be gagged. After the quantitative analytical process it could be stated employees and managers who were devoid of technological intervention in their lives are found to have the capability to make use of them. However, an extremely positive outcome can be yielded with respect to technological acceptance in people’s working lives in other significant sectors.

Importance of Self Efficacy in IT Sector

Every research is initiated with a preconceived apprehension to yield a certain result in a particular direction (Pasha, Hamid & Shahzad, 2017). In light of a research result finding every study bears a certain level of significance associated with it. Self efficacy is denoted as an important factor in influencing the adoption of technologies in a positive manner.

Another study implicates upon the fact that actual usage of information technology deals with hardware, software and telecommunication equipments. The processes and information distribution needs to be effective in generating one’s self efficacy. The perceived usefulness related with the capturing, processing, storing and distributing of information shall be obtained only if individuals develop efficacy to attain those skills (Pinchevsky & Bogler, 2014). This can only be possible if the appropriate utility can be reached among people. Knowledge about the issue is intrinsically related with the development of aptitude to incorporate information technology into our sphere. This however, from the earlier studies in this respect it has been established that there lies a strong relationship between the possession of self efficacy and channelizing them to enhance it intervention.

Another study which also based their findings upon empirical findings obtained by quantitative data analysis tried to relate individual differences with IT perspectives. It is the component of individual difference that helps in deciding the further steps to be taken by an individual in their own unique manner. On assessing the individuals were found to show difference in their attitudes and perspectives towards technological usage (Jha, 2013). This is considered as the reason for the prevalence of individual differences. Some among the employees selected as the participants of the study were yet to develop their self efficacy in a manner so that they could reach better positions in their work-life. Lack of achievement towards the set goals and objectives are indicative of the fact they fall short of proper development of self efficacy (Brantley& Bradshaw, 2017).

Conclusion

In order to accomplish the study smoothly and successfully, it can be concluded that Self efficacy (belief and faith on one’s capability and propensity to carry out any task) is the foremost essentiality for every individuals especially for the working employees. It can provide positive impact on the employees’ performance level and efficiency and on the persistence with which they can achieve the ultimate goal and success with ease. Organisational and the managerial implication of the self efficacy in workplace include promotional and recruitment decisions, personal and professional developmental and training process, to set a clear goal and so on. In IT sector, self efficacy can be beneficial for the organisational employees by which they can cope with the continuous advancement of the technologies which in turn can help them in accomplishing the tasks or duties smoothly. This assignment provides a brief description about the “self efficacy” and its implication in IT organisation, from which it can be concluded that self efficacy can boost the performance level and self esteemed of a person by which he can cope with any difficult situation or tasks efficiently. It is also beneficial for the organisation as the organisational management can get ultimate business success through high level of job performance from the employees. It is advantageous for any organisation in maintaining sustainability in the era of high competition and rivalry in business arena.

Determinants for Accepting Technological Procedures

Being an employee in a popularised organisation in IT sector, I personally believe that “self efficacy” is an important factor for achieving the targeted goal or objectives. Every job has different target and objectives. In order to achieve those targets with ease and efficacy, “self efficiency” is the most important factor for every employee. Being an organisational employee, I also have the responsibility to set some certain target and objective for my job. These objectives are considered as helpful for my career by which I can maintain my persistence in workplace. In past years, due to inadequacy of self efficacy, I could not be able to get success on my work. It was also a barrier for me to achieve the success or the goal chosen by me. After proper assessment, I realize that effective communication with others, developmental and training session can be considered as best possible way by which i can boost my “self efficacy”. In order to work on improvisation of my “self efficacy”, I realise that, the encouragement from the co workers and surroundings or from family members is act as a contributory factor for boosting the self confidence level and self efficacy. Continuous motivation and support from colleagues can enhance one’s self efficacy. Self assessment or self motivation can also act as a contributor for me in order to enhance my “self efficacy”. From my overview or perception, I can say that enhancement of “self efficacy” is the foremost factor for every individual by which he can easily confront with any difficulties. More formally, it can be said that, self efficacy is the only way out by which one can get success over any challenges or difficult situation.

Reference list

Banik, A., Schwarzer, R., Pawlowska, I., Boberska, M., Cieslak, R., & Luszczynska, A. (2017). Women with family cancer history are at risk for poorer physical quality of life and lower self-efficacy: a longitudinal study among men and women with non-small cell lung cancer. Health and quality of life outcomes, 15(1), 62.

Brantley, C. L., & Bradshaw, D. (2017). Secondary Teachers' Perceptions and Self-Efficacy Regarding Technology Integration: A Phenomenological Study.

Bullough, A., Renko, M., & Myatt, T. (2014). Danger zone entrepreneurs: The importance of resilience and self?efficacy for entrepreneurial intentions.Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(3), 473-499.

Cherian, J., & Jacob, J. (2013). Impact of self efficacy on motivation and performance of employees. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(14), 80.

Conclusion

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