Behaviour & Information Technology

Vol. 31, No. 5, May 2012, 453-467

\ Taylor & Francis

Taylor&FiandsCroup

Age as a moderator of attitude towards technology in the workplace: work motivation

and overall job satisfaction
Steven M. Elias"*, William L. Smith'' and Chet E. Barney^
"Department of Management, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA: Department of Accounting and
Information Systems, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA
{Received 23 October 2009; final version received 26 July 2010)
Given the prevalence of technology in the workplace, an understanding of employees' attitudes towards technology
is essential. Such attitudes have been linked to such important issues as the successful implementation of new
technologies in the workplace, employee intent to use technology, and the actual usage of technology by employees.
As a result of the rapidly aging workforce, and because age has been linked to computer use and comfort, it is
important to examine the relationship that may exist between age and attitudes towards technology. This study
examines age as a moderator of 612 employees' attitudes towards technology in relation to work motivation
(intrinsic and extrinsic) and overall job satisfaction. Further, given the technological socialisation of the Generation
X (Gen X) versus the Baby Boomers, our sample comprised these two demographics. Hierarchical moderated
multiple regression indicates age moderates the relationship between attitude towards technology and intrinsic
motivation, extrinsic motivation, and to a lesser extent, overall job satisfaction. In each instance, older employees
exhibit the strongest relationships with the outcome variables when possessing a high attitude towards technology.
In contrast, older employees exhibit the weakest relationships when possessing a low attitude towards technology.
These results are supportive of the moderating effect of age on attitude towards technology. Lastly, implications and
directions for future research are discussed.
Keywords: age; attitude towards technology; motivation; overall job satisfaction

1.

Introduction

Given the recent financial debacle and related economic downturn, many older employees have delayed their
retirement (Greene 2008). In addition, numerous
individuals who had previously retired are now forced
to re-enter the workplace due to depleted retirement
accounts (Meltzer 2008). With the prevalence of an
increasingly aging labour force, comprised of both
Generation X and Baby Boomers, it is becoming more
important to have a thorough understanding of how
employee age relates to any number of work-related
attitudes. According to Howe and Strauss (2000, p.
43):
In today's data-rich infosphere, people's attitudes
(toward family, career, risk, romance, politics, and
religion), together with their behavioral tendencies (in
job choice, test scores, health, risk, sex, and drugs), can
be tracked by birth cohort. These indicators reveal a
clear break between those born in and after 1982 and
those bom before.

Our focus, therefore, is directed towards the

demographic born prior to 1982. The current research
examines the potential ways in which employee age
moderates the relationships between attitude towards

*Corresponding author. Email: selias@nmsu.edu

ISSN 0I44-929X print/ISSN 1362-3001 online
2012 Taylor & Francis
hUp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2010.5l3419
http://www.tandfonline.com

technology and intrinsic work motivation, extrinsic

work motivation, and overall job satisfaction. Insight
into whether age would serve as such a moderator is of
utmost importance given the extent and speed with
which the workforce is aging and the prevalence of
technology in the workplace.
Morris et al. (2005) noted that the implementation of new business technologies has become so
invasive that their adoption is now considered to be
a routine part of day-to-day operations. With
various forms of technology already utilised in the
workplace, the adoption of a new technology may be
viewed as merely an upgrade of existing technology
rather than as a replacement of some outdated
'paper and pencil' business method. As a result of
the continued influx of technology incorporated in
the workplace, increasing numbers of employees need
to be either trained or retrained in order to keep up
with the changes in their job demands (Culpan 1995,
Czaja et al. 1989).
Given the numerous businesses adopting and
utilising technology, it is important to understand the
attitudes of employees towards technology since such
attitudes are crucial to the successful implementation

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S.M. Elias et al.

of technological systems (Lucas 1981). When an

employee is required to implement a certain technology in order to improve production, that person may
become more motivated to utilise that technology if he
or she has a positive attitude towards that technology.
One major factor that may influence the attitude of an
employee towards technology is the particular age
group to which he or she belongs. Nosek et al. (2002)
noted that age is among the most fundamental groups
to which people belong and that attachment to such
group is likely to have an effect on observations,
attitudes, and performance of the individual within the
group. In addition, Morris and Venkatesh (2000)
studied age differences in individual adoption and
sustained usage of a new software system among 118
employees of a mid-sized financial accounting firm.
They found that when compared to older workers,
younger workers' adoption of technology was influenced by attitude towards technology, while older
workers were influenced by social pressure to utilise the
technology, as well as the ease of implementing the
software.
Czaja et al. (1989) found that with the increased use
of technology in the workplace workers in more
advanced age groups, who lack computer experience,
will need to acquire skills in order to interact with the
workplace technology. One explanation as to why older
employees lack computer experience revolves around
the fact that they were not exposed to computers during
their formal education (Ford et al. 1996). For our study,
we examine the relationships that exist between the
attitude of employees towards technology and work
motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic), as well as overall job
satisfaction. Further, we examine whether the age of
employees moderates these relationships.
Age is an extremely important variable to consider
as a potential moderator of an employee's attitude
towards technology because older employees are
believed to be lacking when it comes to experience
with new technologies (Czaja and Sharit 1993).
According to Kanfer and Ackerman (2004, p. 449),
'new job skill training, such as learning to use a new
operating system or a new programming language, can
be expected to' decrease performance and motivation
among older employees compared to younger employees. Similarly, while the relationship between employee
age and overall job satisfaction tends to be positive, the
relationship may become negative when aspects of the
work itself (e.g. the necessity to utilise new technology)
are thought to be negative (Barnes-Farrell and
Matthews 2007). Therefore, we posit that the personal
benefits associated with having a positive attitude
towards technology will be greatest among older
employees. On the contrary, younger employees,
because they should be better equipped to adapt to

new technologies, may not experience the personal

benefits associated with a positive attitude towards
technology to as great an extent as their older
counterparts given their socialised exposure to technologies. Younger employees also point to an entirely
new generational persona - as different from Gen X as
Xers themselves are different from Boomers (Howe
and Strauss 2000). Lastly, with an ever growing
workforce composed of an aging demographic, in
addition to calls to increase the participation level of
older employees (Buyens et al. 2008), studies that can
elucidate further insights will provide a better understanding for both the organisations and the employees.
Our study is one more step towards that end.
2. Theory and hypotheses
2.1. Attitudes
An attitude can be defined as an evaluative judgment,
either favourable or unfavourable, that an individual
possesses and directs towards some attitude object. The
attitude object can be either abstract (e.g. technology) or
concrete (e.g. the Internet). Individuals are typically
biased towards those attitude objects for which their
evaluation is positive and against those attitude objects
for which their evaluation is negative (Eagly and
Chaiken 1998). For the current study, we are interested
in the extent to which an employee's age moderates the
impact of his or her attitude towards technology within
the workplace. More specifically, our intent is to
demonstrate the strength of the relationships between
attitude towards technology and the outcome variables
among several age groups. Accordingly, we define the
attitude towards technology as one's positive or negative
evaluation towards the introduction of new kinds of
technology in the workplace. This definition is consistent
with prior conceptualisations of attitude towards
technology (e.g. Rice and Aydin 1991, Au and Enderwick 2000, Sjberg 2002).
An employee's attitude towards technology in the
workplace is important because such attitudes are
crucial to the successful implementation of technological systems (Lucas 1981). As Culpan (1995, pp. 168)
has stated, 'There is a significant relationship between
end users' attitudes and their degree of command over
the use of an information system. End-users must react
favourably to a system to ensure that it will be used
widely and effectively'. Furthermore, when an employee has a negative attitude towards technology, he or
she is likely to view technology in the workplace as a
source of anxiety (Marqui et al. 1994). The impact of
such anxiety is compounded by the fact that it is
negatively related to ease of use perceptions, which are
related to the extent to which users accept newly
implemented technologies (Fakun 2009).

Behaviour & Information Technology

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM; Davis
et al. 1989, Chao-Min et al. 2009, Dong Hee 2009,
Tzou and Lu 2009, Liu 2010), which aims to provide
insight into the factors that determine the acceptance
of technology, treats attitude towards technology as a
key determinant of one's behavioural intention to use
such technology. Of importance is that TAM is based
on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Fishbein
and Ajzen 1975, Ramayah et al. 2009, Yousafzai et al.
2010), which indicates that behaviour can be predicted
directly from behavioural intentions, which in part are
a function of one's attitudes towards the behaviour.
Noteworthy is that both the TAM and the TRA have
received considerable empirical support in terms of
their ability to explain end-users' behaviour at home
and in the workplace (Morris et al. 2005). When taking
the TAM and the TRA into consideration, if an
employee's attitude towards technology is negative, his
or her intention to use such technology will be
lessened, thereby decreasing the odds that the technology will actually be utilised. This belief is consistent
with research demonstrating the link between one's
intent to use technology and the actual usage of
technology (Bhattacherjee and Sanford 2009). When
taking this into consideration, it is no surprise that
Rice and Aydin (1991) found that a thorough understanding of attitudes towards technology should be an
essential component for research that investigates
technological innovation and implementation.

455

attitude towards technology,- the issue of employee age

has received a great deal of attention in the management literature (e.g. Posthuma and Campion 2009).
Unfortunately, the literature supports negative beliefs
directed towards employees as they become older.
What is surprising is that negative beliefs directed
towards 'older' employees are applied to individuals at
just 40 years of age. For example, employees 40 years
of age and older are typically thought of as being less
willing to accept new technologies, less willing to adapt
to changes at work, less receptive to training, and less
able to comprehend new ideas (Warr and Pennington
1993). Also, older employees are frequently thought of
as being in possession of outdated skills and lacking in
motivation (Tillsley 1990). After reviewing 117 research papers pertaining to age stereotypes in the
workplace. Posthuma and Campion (2009) discovered
that the most prevalent of these stereotypes revolve
around older employees being poor performers,
resistant to change, unable to learn and/or develop,
costly to employ, and unlikely to have a long tenure.

Given the importance of attitude towards technology, the management should strive to ensure that
employees have a positive attitude towards technology in the workplace. Dyck and Smither (1994)
demonstrated that higher levels of computer experience are associated with decreased anxiety towards
technology and a more positive attitude towards
computers. However, not all employees have the
same level of computer experience. Relevant to the
current research is that older employees, when
compared to younger employees, are less likely to
have experience and a sense of comfort when it
comes to using new forms of technology (Czaja and
Sharit 1993). Accordingly, one would expect the age
of an employee to be relevant to his or her attitude
towards technology. In terms of such attitudes,
demographic variables (e.g. sex) have been shown
not to correlate with attitude towards technology
(Form and McMillen 1983), but no such investigation has occurred in relation to employee age.

While the veracity of the negative beliefs directed

towards older employees may or may not be founded,
such notions do have a negative impact (Buyens et al.
2008). According to Marqui et al. (1994, p. 131),
'Whether the stereotypes about older workers are valid
or not, it is probable that they nevertheless have an
effect on the behaviour of the managers and employees
themselves'. This self-fulfilling prophecy is likely to be
even more pronounced in relation to technology in the
workplace given, as previously discussed, older employees are less likely than younger employees to have
experience and a sense of comfort when it comes to
using new forms of technology (Czaja and Sharit
1993). The notion that older employees are likely to
have less technological experience than younger
employees is supported by the finding that when
compared to younger employees, a significantly
smaller proportion of employees 45 years of age
and older utilise computer technology (Bu and
Gollac 1988; as cited in Marqui et al. 1994). Similar
results were obtained by Lorence and Park (2006),
who report that in 2002, 58.1% of individuals over
50 years of age used computers on an occasional
basis, compared to 86.2% of individuals under the
age of 50. These percentages were extracted from
data obtained from the 2002 Pew Internet and
American Life Project, which comprised 1871 research participants.

2.2.
Since
aging
come

Based on the research cited above, our contention

is that age is an important variable to consider when
discussing technology in the workplace. Specifically,
given younger employees have typically had greater
experience with technology when compared to older
employees, their attitudes towards technology should

Age
1980, wealthy nations have been in possession of
workforces (Feyrer 2007). As such, it should
as no surprise that, albeit not in relation to

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S.M. Elias et al.

not be as influential on workplace outcome variables.

This is based on prior research indicating a positive
relationship between experience and automaticity,
which means that as an individual obtains experience
with some technology related activity (e.g. using
computers); participating in that activity requires less
cognitive effort on the part of the individual (e.g. the
reliance on attitudes, attention, or self-awareness;
Bandura 1997, Wegner and Bargh 1998, Nosek
2007). However, if older employees have typically
had less experience with technology when compared to
younger employees, their attitudes towards technology
should be more influential on workplace outcome
variables. Further, based on the Innovation and
Diffusion of Technology Model (IDT; Rogers 1983,
Hie et al. 2005, Wu and Wu 2005), and when
considering the fact that older employees typically
have less experience with technology than younger
employees, older employees should be less positive
towards using technology in the workplace. This belief
is based on the IDT characteristic referred to as
complexity. Simply put, complexity refers to the extent
to which a technology is thought of as being
complicated. When a technology is perceived by
someone as being complicated, which is likely going
to be the case when the individual has modest
experience with technology, the technology is less
likely to be adopted. While the IDT does not include
factors such as age in the model, recent research (Chen
et al. 2009) indicates the IDT can be expanded to
include demographic variables (e.g. age).

2.3.

Motivation

While it is difficult to obtain a widely agreed upon

definition of 'motivation' in general, it can be said that
an individual who is motivated has been moved to do
something (Ryan and Deci 2000). Contrary to
motivation in general, definitions of work motivation
can be found in the scholarly literature. According to
Pinder (2008, p. 11), 'Work motivation is a set of
energetic forces that originate both within as well as
beyond an individual's being, to initiate work related
behaviour, and to determine its form, direction,
intensity, and duration'. Within this definition, Pinder
alludes to the belief that one's motivation can be either
intrinsic or extrinsic, a distinction popularised by SelfDetermination Theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan 1985).
According to Deci and Ryan's SDT, when an
individual is intrinsically motivated, he or she performs
some act because it is inherently appealing and
pleasurable. For example, an intrinsically motivated
employee will perform his or her job, at least in part,
because the work is experienced as being interesting
and enjoyable. When an individual is extrinsically

motivated, he or she performs some act because it has

some instrumental value. For example, an extrinsically
motivated employee will perform his or her job, at least
in part, because the work is a means of obtaining an
income.
Although it is typically believed it is best for an
individual to be intrinsically motivated (Eccles 2005),
the importance of extrinsic motivation should not be
neglected. Indeed, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has been shown to be important with numerous
variables ranging from performance to well-being (see
Ryan and Deci (2000) for a review). Of importance to
the current study is that attitudes (e.g. attitude towards
technology) are linked to employee motivation. More
specifically, attitudes can result in the motivation of an
employee to behave in a certain fashion, though a
specific attitude usually does not relate to a specific
motive on a one-to-one basis (Pinder 2008). However,
extrinsic (Fagan et al. 2008) and intrinsic motivation
(Hwang and Yi 2002) have both been shown to
positively correlate with intentions to use computerbased technologies. Again, intentions to use technology are the primary predictors of the use of technology
(Bhattacherjee and Sanford 2009). Accordingly, we
posit that a positive attitude towards technology
should be linked to greater intrinsic and extrinsic
employee motivation in the workplace.
Hypothesis 1: A positive relationship will be observed
between attitude towards technology and intrinsic
motivation and the relationship will be moderated by
age such that the relationship will be stronger among
older employees.
Hypothesis 2: A positive relationship will be observed
between attitude towards technology and extrinsic
motivation and the relationship will be moderated by
age such that the relationship will be stronger among
older employees.

2.4.

Overall job satisfaction

The most frequently studied variable in organisational

research is job satisfaction (Wright 2006). In fact,
recent investigations show that there have been over
21,375 articles published that address the issue of job
satisfaction (Jex and Britt 2008). In terms of defining
this construct, overall job satisfaction can be thought
of as one's general attitude towards his or her job
(Spector 1997). The importance of job satisfaction is
well established as evidenced by the voluminous
studies and a full discussion of the correlates of job
satisfaction is beyond the scope of this paper.
However, job satisfaction has been found to correlate
with numerous occupational outcomes. For example,
job satisfaction has been shown to correlate with many
attitudinal variables (e.g. organisational commitment.

Behaviour & Information Technology

job involvement, positive affect, and organisationbased self-esteem), absenteeism, employee turnover,
and job performance (see Jex and Britt (2008) for a
review).
The Baby Boomer generation born beginning in
post-World War II was 18 years of age in 1963 as they
began to enter the workforce. Computer technology
was not commonplace as it has been for the Gen X
population. In fact, consider the future of computing
set forth by Michael (1963, p. 20):
Improvements in multipurpose computers and their
programming, including the development of central
libraries of computer programs and computer data and
of computers that can do much of their own
programming, will add to the incentive to apply
them. These resources will increase the number of
computer users who are not expert in computer design
or programming.
This Boomer generation did not grow up with the
technology that was so readily available and accepted
within the Gen X population. Accordingly, they most
likely could not fathom the future of technology in the
workplace much less utilising it for work applications.
Books such as The Next Generation described the
future of technology that seems quaint in retrospect,
but was perhaps unfathomable to the reader in 1963.
According to Shepard (1977), it was not until the
1960s that scholars began to examine the ways in which
technology in the workplace may impact job satisfaction. Shepard continues that throughout the 1960s and
1970s, while there was some divergence of opinion, many
researchers began to observe issues involving the
introduction of technology at work as being crucial to
job satisfaction. Unfortunately, investigators continue
to cite a lack of empirical research examining job
satisfaction in relation to technology, particularly in
more technologically advanced industries (Gamst and
Otten 1992). What research has been completed in this
area would indicate a mostly positive relationship
between the introduction of technology in the workplace
and job satisfaction (e.g. Form and McMillen 1983).
Along these lines, while the interpretation of the finding
itself has been the subject of some debate, ChadwickJones (1969) reported an increase in manufacturing
employees' job satisfaction after automation technologies were introduced at their plant. Given the relationship that has been shown to exist between the actual
implementation of technology and job satisfaction, we
may infer the existence of a relationship between attitude
towards technology in the workplace and overall job
satisfaction. The rationale behind this inference is that if
an employee were to have a negative attitude towards
technology, the introduction of technology in the
workplace would not result in increased overall job

457

satisfaction. Support for this contention may be

observed in the management literature dedicated to
attitudes at work and numerous workplace outcome
variables (e.g. job satisfaction and organisational
commitment; Lucas 1981, Lines 2005, Elias 2009).
Hypothesis 3: A positive relationship will be observed
between attitude towards technology and overall job
satisfaction and the relationship will be moderated by
age such that the relationship will be stronger among
older employees.

3. Method
3.1. Participants
According to Tulgan (2000) the attitudes of Xers and
Boomers are galaxies apart as Xers were born in the
fast lane of the information superhighway. We wanted
our study to elucidate the potential disparity between
Baby Boomers (growing up without technology) and
Gen X (growing up with emerging technology). While
there has been a small amount of variance in
classifications, the Baby Boomer generation is typically
defined as being born between 1943 and 1960 and Gen
X between 1960 and 1980 (Zemke et al. 2000), or 19451965 and 1965-1985, respectively (Howe and Strauss
2000). Because our data set was collected in 1997, it
effectively captures only these generations. Thus, we
utilise this fortuitous opportunity to use a representative data set that would include the two generational
demographics necessary for this study. The data used
for this study was obtained from the Inter-university
Consortium for Political and Social Research and was
originally collected in 1997 by the International Social
Survey Program (1997). Although the original data set
was composed of 671 respondents residing in the
United States of America, 32 respondents were
removed because they were not employed at the time
of data collection and 27 respondents were removed
because they provided incomplete data. As a result,
our sample comprised 612 employees. When considering all 671 respondents, the typical respondent was
39.47 years of age (SD = 11.43), worked 42 hours per
week (SD = 12.98), and completed 13.91 years of
education (SD = 2.48). In terms of sex, 47.40% of
participants reported being male and 52.60% of
participants reported being female.

3.2.

Measures

3.2.1. Attitude towards technology

Attitude towards technology was assessed via two
items, each of which was scored on a 5-point Likert
scale. Prior to responding to the two questions.

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S.M. Elias et ah

participants read the statement, 'New kinds of

technology are being introduced more and more in
the USA: computers, robots, and so on.' The anchors
provided for question one ('Do you think these new
technologies will over the next few years ...') ranged
from one (greatly reduce the number of jobs) to five
(greatly increase the number of jobs). Next, the
anchors provided for question two ('Do you think
that the introduction of new technologies in the USA
over the next few years will make work ...') ranged
from one (much less interesting) to five (much more
interesting). An attitude towards technology scale
score was then obtained by calculating the average of
the two items.

3.2.2.

Work motivation

Extrinsic motivation was assessed via three items (e.g.

'My opportunities for advancement are high') and
intrinsic motivation was assessed via four items (e.g.
'My job is interesting'). For both types of motivation,
a 5-point Likert scale was used (1 = strongly disagree;
5 = strongly agree). An extrinsic motivation scale
score was then obtained by calculating the average of
the three extrinsic motivation scale items, while an
intrinsic motivation scale score was then obtained by
calculating the average of the four intrinsic motivation
scale items.

3.2.3.

Overall Job satisfaction

Overall job satisfaction was assessed utilising a single

item measure ('How satisfied are you in your main
job?') using a 7-point Likert scale (1 = completely
dissatisfied; 7 = completely satisfied). While it may
have been more consistent, and therefore desirable, to
maintain a 5-point scale for the measurement of overall
job satisfaction, given the archival nature of the data,
this was not an option. In addition, studies have shown
that there is no significant difference in reliability
utilising a 5-point Likert scale versus a 7-point Likert
scale (Lissitz and Green 1975, Jenkins and Taber
1977). Further, while reliance upon a single item
measure may not appear to be optimal, there are
nevertheless some variables for which it has been
demonstrated that single-item measures are acceptable,
if not preferable. In fact, relevant to the current
research is the conclusion that when assessing overall
job satisfaction, a single-item measure of overall job
satisfaction is preferable to a measure based upon
many items assessing several facets of job satisfaction
(Scarpello and Campbell 1983). Indeed, single item
measures of overall job satisfaction have been used
(Adler and Golan 1981, Mossholder et al. 1988,
Ironson et al. 1989). More recent support for this has

also been provided by Wanous et al. (1997), who metaanalytically demonstrated the appropriateness of using
a single-item measure to assess overall job satisfaction.
According to the Wanous et al. meta-analysis, strong
convergent validity exists between single-item measures
of overall job satisfaction and job satisfaction scales in
that the two forms of measurement have a corrected
mean correlation of .67. Accordingly, for purposes of
this study the 7-point Likert single-item overall job
satisfaction measure utilised is appropriate.

3.2.4. Demographics
A demographics questionnaire was also completed by all
respondents. The characteristics utilised for this study
include age, sex, education, and the number of hours per
week the respondent spent working at his or her job.
3.3.

Procedure

Participants were recruited via a multi-stage, area

probability sampling technique based on home addresses. Once an address was selected for inclusion in the
study, a 'Kish grid' was used to identify a respondent
from within the household. Data were then collected
through proctored, self-report written surveys completed in the same order. In order to ensure the reliable
administration of the surveys, the data collection
process was supervised by the principal investigators.
To be eligible for participation, respondents must have
been at least 18 years of age. Also, there was no upperage cut-off for eligibility to participate. In addition, only
one individual per household was eligible to participate
in the data collection process. Substitution of respondents from within a household was not permitted at any
time during the completing of the survey.
4. Results
4.1. Preliminary analyses
In order to assess the convergent and discriminant
validity of the scales used in this study, a principal
component factor analysis with varimax rotation was
completed on all the survey items. As can be seen in
Table 1, which includes the survey items, four factors
were extracted from the data accounting for a total of
65.73% of the variance. Factor 1 (extrinsic motivation)
had an eigenvalue of 3.07 and accounted for 19.74% of
the variance. Factor 2 (intrinsic motivation) had an
eigenvalue of 1.35 and accounted for 18.61% of the
variance. Factor 3 (overall job satisfaction) had an
eigenvalue of 1.20 and accounted for 14.00% of the
variance. Factor 4 (attitude towards technology) had
an eigenvalue of LOO and accounted for 13.38% of the
variance.

Behaviour & Information Technology

459

should age serve as a significant moderator variable,

although its bivariate correlations with the predictor
variables are small. Table 2 is also important because it
suggests a lack of multicollinearity, which is an issue of
concern when variables in a study are highly correlated
with one another (coefficients > 0.70; Vogt 2007).
This is not an issue in our study. In fact, the strongest
correlation was between intrinsic motivation and
overall job satisfaction (r = 0.47).
While some believe the problem is greatly overstated in the literature (e.g. Spector 2006), another
potential issue is common method variance (CMV) due
to the self-report nature of the data used in this study.
The concern that self-reported survey research results
can potentially inflate relationships due to research
participants responding to survey items in a consistent
fashion (Podsakoff and Organ 1986) should be taken
into consideration. One manner in which CMV can be
assessed is through the completion of the Harman's
one-factor test (Podsakoff and Organ 1986). An
assumption of this test is that if CMV is present, a

Table 2 includes the means and standard deviations

for each of the variables, as well as their correlations.
As can be seen in Table 2, attitude towards technology
was positively related to extrinsic motivation, intrinsic
motivation, and overall job satisfaction; however,
attitude towards technology was negatively related to
age. In addition, age was negatively related to extrinsic
motivation. That the correlations between age and the
remaining variables are small makes the results of the
analyses performed to assess moderation much more
important and informative. To be sure, significant
interactions may be observed without observing a
significant relationship among the predictor variables
(Villa et al. 2003). As Howell et al. (1986, p. 89) have
pointed out, ' . . . moderators affect the nature of the
relationship between two other variables, without
necessarily being correlated with either of them'.
Furthermore, when an interaction is observed, the
moderation may be such that the relationship between
the predictor variables is masked (Aiken and West
1991). Support for this contention would be provided

Table 1. Factor analysis of survey items.

Factor loadings

Survey item
1. Extrinsic motivation
My job is secure
My income is high
My opportunities for advancement are high
2. Intrinsic motivation
My job is interesting
1 can work independently
In my job I can help other people
My job is useful to society
3. Overall job satisfaction
How satisfied are you in your (main) job?
4. .Attitude towards technology
New kinds of technology are being introduced more and more in America:
computers, robots, and so on. Do you think these new
technologies will over the next few years . . .
Do you think that the introduction of new technologies in America
over the next few years will make work . . .

0.71
0.73
0.74

0.24
-0.05
0.06

-0.13
0.16
0.20

0.07
0.05
0.04

0.42
0.03
0.04
0.11

0.49
0.88
0.87
0.86

0.43
0.06
0.14
0.04

0.07
0.01
0.07
-0.01

0.43

0.24

0.55

0.15

0.05

0.08

-0.06

0.81

0.07

-0.02

0.14

0.80

Note: N = 612; Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation.

Table 2.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Descriptive statistics and correlations among the variables of interest.

ATT
Age
Intrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation
Job satisfaction

Mean

SD

3.34
39.47
3.93
3.16
5.32

0.98
11.43
0.65
0.77
1.25

(0.57)
-0.06
0.13**
0.16**
0.17**

(N/A)
0.05
-0.12**
0.07*

(0.68)
0.38**
0.47**

(0.63)
0.42**

(N/A)

Note: N = 6\2; ATT = attitude towards technology; N/A = not applicable; values in prentices are reliability coefficients; A reliability coefficient
is not provided for ATT because the measure contains just two items. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.0\.

460

S.M. Elias et al.

single factor will account for all of the covariance

among the variables of interest. Confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA) indicates that CMV did not significantly impact the results of this study given that a
single factor did not provide an adequate fit to the
data, i\35) = 353.66, p < 0.001, TLI = 0.65, CFI =
0.73, RMSEA = 0.12 (age was not included in the
CFA as it is a demographic variable).

below the mean and one standard deviation above the

mean, respectively. For illustrative purposes, although
the upper and lower values for each vertical axis vary
based on the research results, a three-point range of
values was used in order to be consistent in
presentation.

4.3.
4.2.

Moderating effect of age

Hierarchical moderated multiple regression (HMMR)

was performed in order to assess whether age
moderated the effect of attitude towards technology
on the outcome variables (Jaccard and Turrisi 2003).
(See Baron and Kenny (1986) for a comprehensive
discussion of mediation versus moderation.) For each
HMMR model, respondent sex, education, and hours
worked weekly were controlled for at Step 1. Attitude
towards technology and age were next entered into the
model at Step 2. The interaction term, which was equal
to the product of mean-centred attitude towards
technology and mean-centred age, was then entered
into the model at Step 3. When a significant interaction
was observed, the main effects for attitude towards
technology and age were not interpreted, as doing so
can be misleading (McClendon 2002). Further, because
the focus of this study is assessing age as a moderator
of attitude towards technology, the interaction terms
rather than the main effects are germane. Accordingly,
significant interactions were interpreted by graphing
the regression lines for each of the three age groups:
18-33 years of age (M = 26.93, SD = 4.40), 34-43
years of age (M = 38.44, SD = 2.93), and 44-1- years
of age (M = 51.96, SD = 6.74). These groupings were
assigned based upon their delineating three sizeequivalent age categories. In addition, while the 3343 years of age group may include a small amount of
overlap of both Baby Boomer and Gen X, the 18-33
years of age group is clearly composed of only Gen X,
and the 44-1- group is composed only of the Baby
Boomer demographic. Accordingly, any differences
elucidated in this study from the moderating effect of
age between Baby Boomers and Gen X would be
clearly demonstrated.
Noteworthy is that the 44-1- years of age grouping
is consistent with prior research labelling employees
over the age of 40-45 years as 'older' (Bu and Gollac
1988, Warr and Pennington 1993), particularly given
the average participant in this group is 5L96 years of
age. To be clear, age was treated as a continuous
variable in the HMMR analyses and was only
categorised when a significant interaction was in need
of interpretation. Low and high attitude towards
technology were defined as one standard deviation

Intrinsic motivation

The results of the HMMR can be seen in Table 3.

Education was observed to be strongly related to
intrinsic motivation, such that the level of intrinsic
motivation is greater with higher levels of education.
Further, the interaction between attitude towards
technology and age was found to be a significant
predictor of intrinsic motivation. This interaction is
graphically depicted in Figure 1.
In support of Hypothesis 1, the level of attitude
towards technology is most relevant to intrinsic
motivation for those employees 44 years of age and
older. Indeed, in addition to being the only statistically
significant slope, the slope of the regression line for
employees 44 years and older (slope = 0.17,
p < 0.001) far exceeds that of either the 18-33-year
old employees (slope = 0.03, p > 0.610) and the 3443-year old employees (slope = 0.04, p > 0.360).
Furthermore, Figure 1 also shows that intrinsic
motivation is lowest among those 44 years and older
when attitude towards technology is low just as this
same aged group of employees exhibited the highest
level of intrinsic motivation when attitude towards
technology is high.

4.4.

Extrinsic motivation

While the number of hours worked per week indicated

the strongest relationship to extrinsic motivation, none
of the individual control variables served as predictors
of extrinsic motivation. Interestingly, the interaction
between attitude towards technology and age did serve
as a predictor of extrinsic motivation. This interaction
is depicted in Figure 2.
Attitude towards technology appears most relevant
to extrinsic motivation among those employees 44 years
of age and older. This was also the case for intrinsic
motivation and is in support of Hypothesis 2. Moreover, the slope of the regression line for employees 44
years and older (slope = 0.25, p < 0.001) is the only
statistically significant slope and, further, far exceeds
that of either the 18-33-year old employees (slope =
0.07, /) = 0.17) and the 3443-year old employees
(slope = 0.00, p = 0.99). In addition. Figure 2 illustrates that low attitude towards technology negatively
impacts extrinsic motivation only among those employees 44 years of age and older. It appears that the level of

461

Behaviour & Information Technology

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--34 - 43 years
-*-44 years +

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ca

ca

-18-33 years
-34 - 43 years
-44 years +
LowAttitute
Toward
Technology

High Attitude
Toward
Technology

es
o

Figure 1. Regression lines predicting intrinsic motivation

from attitude towards technology.

Figure 2. Regression lines predicting extrinsic motivation

from attitude towards technology.

CM

High Attitude
Toward
Technology

ca

LovvAttitute
Toward
Technology

00

o o

attitude towards technology has no apparent impact on

extrinsic motivation among employees 34-43 years of
age. This contention is based upon the absence of a
slope in the regression line for this age group. Therefore, regardless of any increase in attitude towards
technology, extrinsic motivation will not increase
among employees 34-43 years of age. Lastly, whereas
a high attitude towards technology among employees
44 years of age and older was associated with the
highest level of intrinsic motivation, this was not the
case for extrinsic motivation. A high attitude towards
technology among employees 18-33 years of age was
associated with the highest level of extrinsic motivation
despite a modest slope.

4.5. Overall job satisfaction

None of the control variables served as predictors of
overall job satisfaction and the interaction between

462

S.M. Elias ti di\.

attitude towards technology and age did approach

significance {p < 0.08). This interaction is depicted in
Figure 3.
As was observed for both intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation, attitude towards technology appears most
relevant to overall job satisfaction among those
employees 44 years of age and older. While all three
of the age groups show robust slopes, the slope of the
regression line for employees 44 years and older
(slope = 0.33, p < 0.001) exceeds that of either the
18-33-year old employees (slope = 0.13, p > 0.171)
and the 34-43-year old employees (slope = 0.20,
p < 0.047). The slope of the regression line for 1833-year old employees is not statistically significant;
however, as attitude towards technology increases, the
level of overall job satisfaction increases as well for all
three age groups. Further, similar to intrinsic motivation, overall job satisfaction is greatest among employees 44 years of age and older who possess a high
attitude towards technology. Interestingly, overall job
satisfaction is lowest among employees 44 years of age
and older who possess a low attitude towards
technology. In fact, this same age group also exhibited
the lowest levels in both intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation when a low attitude towards technology
was present.

5.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the

relationships that exist between attitude towards
technology in the workplace and motivation (intrinsic
and extrinsic) and overall job satisfaction. Further, we
examined whether an employee's age moderates these
relationships. It was hypothesised that older employees, those 44 years of age and older, would exhibit

a
o

,
.i2

- ^ 1 8 - 3 3 years
--34 - 43 years
-*-44 years +
LowAttitute
Toward
Technology

High Attitude
Toward
Technology

Figure 3. Regression lines predicting job satisfaction from

attitude towards technology.

positive relationships, which would be strengthened by

the respective attitude towards technology. In general,
our hypotheses were supported. What was somewhat
surprising, however, was that motivation (intrinsic and
extrinsic) and overall job satisfaction, in addition to
being high among older employees possessing a
positive attitude towards technology, was lowest
among older employees when a low attitude towards
technology was possessed. In general, the moderating
effect of age on employees' attitude towards technology was clearly demonstrated in that the effect of
attitude towards technology was strongest among
older employees.
5./.

Theoretical implications

We initially held that our hypothesised results refuted

previous beliefs where older employees may be less
willing to adapt to technological changes in the
workplace (Warr and Pennington 1993, Larwood
1997) or where they may lack motivation (Tillsley
1990, Posthuma and Campion 2009). This was
supported by our findings that motivation and overall
job satisfaction increase as older workers possess a
more positive attitude towards technology. In contrast;
however, our findings also may provide support for the
aforementioned studies. The older employees in this
study clearly exhibited the lowest levels of motivation
and overall job satisfaction when their attitudes
towards technology are low. In short, age undoubtedly
moderates the relationships between attitude towards
technology and the outcome variables. This study
elucidates the importance of this moderating effect and
therefore not only provides support for prior studies
but also provides reconciliation in terms of prior
contradictory findings. Accordingly, our analyses show
that among employees with a positive attitude towards
technology, older employees reported the highest levels
of intrinsic motivation and overall job satisfaction.
Conversely, and perhaps just as important, among
employees with a low attitude towards technology,
older employees reported the lowest levels of intrinsic
motivation, extrinsic motivation, and overall job
satisfaction. We initially hypothesised that the outcome variables' positive relationships with attitude
towards technology would be strongest among older
employees. However, that the opposite results were
observed when the older employees' attitude towards
technology was low further supports our contention
that age is an important moderating variable when it
comes to issues of technology at work.
Our findings that age moderates the relationships
between attitude towards technology and motivation
and overall job satisfaction are important given the
relevance of each of these outcome variables within the

Behaviour Information Technology

workplace. Recall that intrinsic (Hwang and Yi 2002)
and extrinsic (Fagan et al. 2008) motivation have been
linked to intentions to use computer-based technologies. Further, intentions are important given their
ability to predict behaviour in general (Fishbein and
Ajzen 1975) and specifically in relation to technology
usage (Bhattacherjee and Sanford 2009). A great deal
of literature has addressed the relationships between
age and the attitudes and motivation of older employees (Sandell 1987, Belsky 1998), yet the topic of
attitudes of older workers towards technology has
received much less attention. We contend that additional studies in this important area are necessary to
gain further insight into the motivation and job
satisfaction of aging work groups. Moreover, studies
that address an aging workforce faced with continuous
technological challenges must consider the moderating
affect of age on an employee's attitude towards
technology. Our study is an important step in that
direction.
5.2. Practical implications
This study addresses the aging work force demographic and, accordingly, provides insightful consideration given the continuous technological changes in
the workplace. The number of employees that comprise the 44 years and older age group is continually
growing and scholars have argued that participation
levels of older employees should be increased (Buyens
et al. 2008). Many employees approaching retirement
may likely need to delay their withdrawal from the
workforce. Likewise, many retirees may need to reenter the workforce as a result of the economic
downturn. As such, participation rates of employees
in their 60s and 70s may dramatically increase in the
very near future. When taking this into consideration,
further research should be undertaken to provide
greater insight for both management and organisations
to better address this ever growing workforce
demographic, particularly within an ever changing
technological environment. As Barnes-Farrell and
Matthews (2007, p. 140) have pointed out, ' ... a
clearer understanding of the attitudes and motives of
older workers can help to guide management practices
and organisational policy aimed at meeting the needs
of an aging workforce and encouraging older workers
to remain engaged and active members of the
workforce'.
The results of this study indicate that management
should not assume all employees will respond similarly
to the implementation or modification of technology in
the workplace. This implication is consistent with
Spector's (1982, p. 482) contention that management
theories should not assume '... that the same basic

463

processes account for behaviour across all individuals

and that situational characteristics cause predictable
behaviour across people'. Indeed, as the current
research would suggest, the relationships between an
employee's attitude towards technology and work
motivation and overall job satisfaction depend on the
employee's age. Accordingly, the management stands
to benefit from this knowledge when planning for the
implementation of new technologies and related
employee trainings. After all, the ways in which the
management handles such implementations may not
only determine the extent to which such implementations are effective but may also impact the potential
changes that can result in organisational culture
(Zuboff 1982). According to Zuboff, the management
should attend to three issues when deploying new
technologies. The first issue is management policies
towards the quality of the employment relationship,
the second issue revolves around attitudes towards
managerial control, and the third issue revolves around
attitudes towards the basic nature of an organisation
and/or its management. Based on the results of the
current research, we contend that the management
should also attend to the demographics of their
employees (e.g. age), as well as their employees'
attitudes towards technology.
Prior research supports a positive relationship
between experience and automaticity, which requires
less cognitive effort on the part of an individual (Wegner
and Bargh 1998). This relationship has been observed in
the context of technology at work in that greater
unfamiliarity with technology results in greater anxiety.
Perhaps the management can address the issue of both
anxiety and a negative attitude towards technology
through computer training and the creation of a
supportive work environment while taking the moderating affect of employee age into consideration. According to Igbaria and Chakrabarti (1990, p. 229),
'Computer training contributes strongly to decrease in
computer anxiety and has an indirect effect on attitudes
toward microcomputers. However, computer experience and management support were found to affect the
attitudes towards microcomputers directly'. Of course,
if technological training is not available, and the use of
technology is a bonafideoccupational qualification, the
deleterious impacts of a lack of technological experience
and a negative attitude towards technology may be
mitigated during the employee selection process. In sum,
when the management better understands the moderating affect of age on the level of attitude towards
technology and the resulting impacts on the relationship
of motivation and overall job satisfaction of the
employees, more effective training and screening may
be implemented to enhance the workplace environment
and avoid potential problems.
. :

464
5.3.

S.M. Elias et al.

Future research and limitations

As a result of recent financial downturns, employees

are delaying retirement, exacerbating issues revolving
around an aging workforce. Therefore, continued
research is necessary when considering the issue of
age and technology at work. The implementation of
new technologies at work has certainly outpaced the
empirical research examining the links between technology and employee age. Indeed, in their review
article addressing age in the workplace. Posthuma and
Campion's (2009) most recent reference addressing age
and information technology/computing dates back to
2001. Taking the above into consideration, any
research examining the role of age in relation to
technology at work is warranted.

Accordingly, the archival nature of this study, while

limiting to a certain extent, did not limit our ability to
sufficiently test our hypotheses.
Another possible limitation of this study is the use
of a single-item measure of overall job satisfaction and
a two-item measure of attitude towards technology.
The single-item measure of job satisfaction is not
overly problematic, however, given our interest in
overall job satisfaction. As mentioned above, singleitem measures have been shown to be appropriate for
such a construct (Wanous et al. 1997). Nevertheless, it
may have been preferable to have had access to several
items assessing attitude towards technology; however,
this limitation is not new given prior research on
attitude towards technology (e.g. Rice and Aydin
1991) where just three items were employed to assess
the construct.

The current research examined whether age would

moderate the impact of one's attitude towards
technology at work. While the results of this study
are valuable, future research should examine such
moderation in different work environments where
various technologies may be utilised. For example, it
would be interesting to assess whether the results of
this study generalise to work environments where
technology makes a job simpler versus more difficult or
novel versus routine. Along these lines, while all of the
respondents in this study were employed at the time of
data collection, little is known about the extent to
which they used technology in the workplace. Therefore, future research should examine the potential role
the frequency of technological usage plays in the
relationships between employee age, attitude towards
technology, motivation, and overall job satisfaction.
While age is of much importance to the variables
included in this study, future research should examine
it in the context of other demographic (e.g. gender and
socioeconomic status), organisational (e.g. organisational support and organisational climate), and compatibility variables. For example, Al-Gahtani and
King (1999) have demonstrated how numerous employee and organisational factors impact end-users'
attitudes, satisfaction, and information technology
usage.

6.

While the results of this study are insightful, certain

limitations exist. First, cross-sectional, single-source
archival data was analysed. While the use of archival
data in and of itself is not problematic, it does not
allow for the researcher to take part in the development of the survey items and the related administration
of the survey to participants. Given that the primary
purpose of this study was to address whether age
moderates the relationships between attitude towards
technology and motivation and overall job satisfaction
of the Baby Boomer and Gen X demographic, the data
available for analysis were not problematic.

The initial purpose of this study was to examine

whether age moderates the relationships between
attitude towards technology and motivation and overall job satisfaction. Our findings clearly suggest that
age does moderate these relationships in the Baby
Boomer and Gen X demographic. When taking these
supportive results into consideration, it can be said
that our results are significant and have numerous
implications as previously discussed. Given the aging
demographic of the work force and the ever changing
technologies being introduced through a wide variety
of workplace applications, this study is timely and of

Given the method in which the data for this study

was collected, one cannot rule out the issue of common
method variance (CMV). However, concerns over
CMV are lessened given the results of the Harman's
one factor test which indicated that CMV did not
significantly impact the results of this study. Likewise,
CMV concerns are reduced given that significant
interaction terms were observed in the data (see
Podsakoff et al. 2003). Nonetheless, confidence in the
results of this study would be bolstered by having them
replicated in future longitudinal studies, and/or studies
utilising data obtained from multiple sources. Lastly,
the reliability coefficients obtained for the intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation scales were lower than conventional standards, but this may be due, in part, to the
small number of items used to assess each variable.
While it is certainly the case that alpha is a function of
item intercorrelations, alpha should not be interpreted
without taking the number of scale items into
consideration (Cortina 1993). In sum, while limitations
in this study exist, the findings of this study are
meritorious and any existing limitations may be
addressed in future studies.

Conclusion

Behaviour & Information Technology

great relevance. While our study provides insight by

elucidating the moderating effect of age in relation to
attitudes towards technology at work, we nevertheless
concede that this is just another step in the needed
research addressing workplace attitudes.
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