Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play an important role in nearly all work places in developed societies, and are starting to have a major impact in developing countries as well. Since the broad introduction of ICT in work places in the 1970s, researchers have tried to evaluate the effects of ICT on employees’ quality of (working) life. Depending on a wide range of factors, studies have found both negative effects (i.e., increased stress and burnout) and positive effects (i.e. advantages of a-synchronous communication, increases in job satisfaction). Since the early days of ICT implementation there is also an acceleration of processes observable which influences not only all aspects of work, but society in general. In current sociological approaches (e.g., Hartmut Rosa, 2006), acceleration is even described as the core element of modern societies. In this context ICT play a significant role because they not only accelerate processes (one of the best examples is the ever-increasing number of emails) but ICT itself accelerates over time (i.e. there is a continuously increasing number of ICT implementations in organizations). Against the background of these relatively new and wide-ranging developments the effect of ICT on quality of working life of employees needs to be reevaluated. It may be expected that, depending on specific personal, organizational and job conditions, the range of possible positive and negative effects will even further increase. This book will bring together a number of highly reputable experts in the field of ICT and quality of working life from different backgrounds (e.g., sociology, work and organizational/industrial psychology, cognitive psychology, industrial engineering, macroergonomics etc). Some of the authors have studied the effects of ICT on work places since the beginnings of the field. In a wide range of perspectives, the authors try to reevaluate the current impact of ICT on quality of (working) life. The chapters describe changes not only in a wide range of working areas, but also in different national contexts. A final chapter aims to integrate the diverse perspectives of the authors and gives recommendations how to increase the possible positive outcomes and to diminish negative effects of ICT in an accelerated society.weiterlesen