General Probe.
Question 7 asked respondents whether the main tasks of their job changed as a result of the introduction
of new software (programmes and applications) in the last 12 months. Respondents could
choose between the answer categories “Yes” and “No.” All categories were exclusive categories and,
therefore, percentages add up to 100 percent. In total, 16.39 percent of the British respondents and
8.61 of the German respondents selected “Yes” whereas 83.61 of the British respondents and 91.38 of
the German respondents selected “No.”
Only respondents that selected the response “Yes” at 3 received question 7. As a consequence, 26
respondents (14 English speaking respondents and 12 German speaking respondents) did not receive
this question due to the filter in question 3. For question 7, we asked a general probe (Probe 8) that
all respondents received who chose the answer category “Yes” at question 7. Due to the high percentage
of respondents that selected the answer category “No” at this question, 10 British respondents
and 5 German respondents received Probe 8.
The intention of Probe 8 was to understand which type of changes respondents had in mind when
answering question 7 and how the organisational changes due to the introduction of new software
are perceived by the respondents. To answer these questions, we asked the respondents to tell us how
they felt about the changes in their main tasks of their job resulting from the introduction of new
software. Out of the respondents that felt that the tasks of their main job have changed, 6 respondents
associated positive changes with the introduction of new software (5 British respondents, 1 German
respondent). Several of these respondents also provided reasons for their positive evaluation. For
example:
- “New experiences, enrichment through specialized knowledge.” (German respondent, ID 125)
- “Easier and better system” (British respondent, ID 356)
- “New invoicing and staff management software made everything a lot easier to keep track of
and [it is possible to] manage all in one place without having to have multiple documents
open.” (British respondent, ID 377)
However, a few British respondents (2 respondents) had more mixed feelings. For example, respondent
755 pointed to the increased workload at the beginning but the positive impact of the new software
in the long run: “
It was a bigger workload to start with because it was a more sophisticated database
and needed to be learned; however, once learned it reduced my workload slightly.”
Three German respondents felt the changes had been negative. One respondent explained why: “
Much
more work and more complicated processes” (ID 109). None of the British respondents perceived the
changes as purely negative.
Finally, three respondents (ID 93, ID 108, ID 136) did not describe their feelings related to the change
but simply described the factual changes in their job tasks without a positive or negative evaluation. For example, respondent 136 described the changes as follows: “
We are using mapping to show where
development land is available; I have learned how to enter data onto this map.”
For a more detailed breakdown of the respondents‘ answers please refer to the tables in the attached PDF document.
