A lack of shiny objects... (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Technology keeps improving, but it doesn't appear to improve worker productivity. It's a paradox that the computer industry would love to solve because it would boost sales tremendously.
There's little reason to upgrade from older technologies[1] if you cannot show that the capital investments will provide a multi-year boost to the bottom line. This is partly why many companies have been delaying their technology investments.
Claire Brown, professor of economics and director of the Center for Work, Technology and Society at the University of California at Berkeley, says that economists have trouble measuring the right data. "We can measure costs very well but when we look for productivity gains we can't find them in the data."
Read also: 3 things your company must do to win the war for top tech talent[2] (TechRepublic)
Brown was speaking on a recent panel organized by Unisys to announce the results of a 12-country survey that collected information from more than 12,000 workers[3] about technology use at their companies.
The workers in the Unisys study self-assessed their employer as a leader or a laggard in technology. Those working at technology laggards were 450 percent more likely to be thinking about quitting, and they reported 750 percent more frustration with their job compared with those at technology leaders.
These results are backed up by a recent digital workplace study[4] from Aruba that polled more than 7,000 workers in 15 countries. It found that staff at technology leaders[5] "were more likely to have strong job satisfaction, and more likely to be positive about their work-life balance than the "Digital Laggards" (those who have less access