All wired, all tired? Work-related ICT-use outside work hours and work-to-home conflict: The role of integration preference, integration norms and work demands

Work-related smartphone use during off-job hours and work-life conflict: A scoping review

Over recent decades the use of smartphones for work purposes has burgeoned both within and beyond working hours. The aim of the study was to conduct a scoping review to explore the association between the use of smartphone technology for work purposes in off-job hours with employees' self-reported work-life conflict. Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework was adopted. Searches were conducted in PsycINFO, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Academic Search Complete, ProQuest Central, Web of Science, ProQuest Theses, Emerald, Business Source Complete, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Google Scholar. Articles were eligible that reported on a sample of workers, were published in English between 1st January 2012 and 29th November 2023. The review was conducted and reported using a quality assessment checklist and PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews). Data charting and synthesis was undertaken narratively, using the framework approach and thematic analysis. Twenty-three studies were identified, conducted in nine countries. Nineteen studies (83%) showed a significant association between increased use of smartphone for work purposes in off job-hours and increased work-life conflict, with small-to-moderate effect sizes. This relationship was mediated by psychological detachment from work, and communication about family demands with one's supervisor. Moderators either strengthened or attenuated the relationship between use of smartphone for work purposes in off job-hours and increased work-life conflict. Findings suggest that smartphone use during off-job hours is likely to impact negatively on work-life conflict, which has implications for employee wellbeing. Managers could play a key role in clarifying expectations about after-hours availability, reducing job pressure, advocating psychological detachment from work in off-job hours where it is appropriate, and creating a workplace culture where communication about the interplay between work and home life is encouraged. The protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/WFZU6).

Digitalization and job stress: exploring the mediating roles of job and personal aversion risk with gender as a moderator

Background

This time-lagged study delves into the impact of digitalization on job stress. Digitalization is defined as the incorporation of digital technologies into various aspects of work life, fundamentally transforming processes, interactions, and decision-making.

Aim

The present research focuses on the mediating roles of job-related risk and personal risk, and the moderating effect of gender. We hypothesized that employees’ aversion to risks, both in their professional and personal facets, mediates the relationship between the rapid digitalization of their work environment and the resultant job stress. Regarding gender as a moderator, recent research suggests that gender can influence the experience of workplace stress, with women often experiencing higher levels of stress than men in certain situations. This indicates that gender might also moderate the relationship between digital living, risk perception, and job-related stress. This approach allows for an examination of the ways in which digital technology adoption influences workplace stress, considering the temporally spaced data.

Methods

Conducted over three waves of data collection among 795 Chinese employees, the research utilizes Hayes’s Model 8, adept at revealing the dynamics of digitalization’s influence in the workplace and its effects on individual well-being.

Results

The study corroborates Hypothesis 1 by establishing a significant, albeit less pronounced, relationship between digital living and job stress. The findings also support Hypothesis 2 by demonstrating that both job risk and personal risk mediate this relationship. The study’s results also validate Hypothesis 3, indicating that gender moderates the relationship between digital living, job risk, personal risk, and job stress. Finally, the significant interaction effects found in the study, particularly the stronger conditional negative effect of digital living on perceptions of job and personal risks for males, despite the absence of statistical significance failed to support Hypothesis 4.

Implications

This study sheds light on the dynamics of job stress in the context of a digitalizing work environment. The results have important implications for designing workplace strategies and interventions that are sensitive to risk perceptions and gender differences in the digital era.

Tit for tat? A study on the relationship between work connectivity behavior after-hours and employees' time banditry behavior

Based on Conservation of Resources Theory, this study tries to reveal the mechanism of action of work connectivity behavior after-hours triggering employees' time banditry behavior. By using Mplus7.4 software the analysis of 429 leader-employee paired data collected in three stages reveals that work connectivity behavior after-hours has a positive effect on work alienation and psychological distress. Work alienation and psychological distress mediates the relationship between work connectivity behavior after-hours and employees' time banditry behavior, respectively. In addition, organization-based self-esteem mitigates the positive effects of work connectivity behavior after-hours on work alienation and psychological distress, which in turn also moderates the indirect effects of work connectivity behavior after-hours on employees' time banditry behavior through work alienation and psychological distress, respectively. This study provides practical guidance for organizations to reduce employee time banditry behavior and human resource management practices in the new technological environment.

Different Results from Varied Angles: The Positive Impact of Work Connectivity Behavior After-Hours on Work Engagement

With the development of communication technology and the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become increasingly common for employees to maintain work connectivity after-hours, which has a significant impact on their psychological state at work. However, most of the existing studies have not reached a consensus on the impact of work connectivity behavior after-hours on employees' psychological state at work, and the existing studies have led to theoretical and practical disagreements. Based on the Job Demands-Resources model, we built a two-path model of work autonomy and emotional exhaustion to explore the impact of work connectivity behavior after-hours on work engagement. In addition, we compared the differences between different workplace statuses (managers and ordinary employees). Through surveys and analyses of 257 employees, the results show that work connectivity behavior after-hours positively impacts employees' work engagement by increasing managers' work autonomy and reducing ordinary employees' emotional exhaustion. This study not only reveals that work connectivity behavior after-hours positively affects work engagement but also illustrates the differences in impact between managers and ordinary employees; these findings contribute to the development of a consensus on the influence of work connectivity behavior after-hours on employees' psychological state at work, which provides insights for organizations seeking to manage work connectivity behavior after-hours, for example, by adopting different connectivity management strategies for employees with different workplace statuses.

Working from Home During Covid-19 Pandemic and Changes to Fertility Intentions Among Parents

The Covid-19 pandemic and related massive spread of home based work led to substantial changes in the conditions for combining work and childbearing. On the one hand, working from home helped parents to accommodate increased childcare needs during the pandemic. On the other hand, it led to acute experiences of blurred boundaries between work and family life during childcare and school closures. Therefore, the direction of the impact of working from home on fertility intentions during the pandemic is not unequivocal. In this paper, we investigate how working from home was related to change in fertility intentions of mothers and fathers during the pandemic and discuss the complex mechanisms behind these relationships. With the use of unique Familydemic Survey data from a representative sample of parents in Poland, we estimate multinomial logit regressions by gender and consider a set of potential moderators, including financial well-being, gender relations, and occupational characteristics. We find evidence for an overall negative relationship between home based work and fertility intentions for mothers, but we also uncover some positive moderating effects. In particular, we shed light on the unobvious moderating role of gendered division of unpaid labor from before the pandemic.

Strain, loss of time, or even gain? A systematic review of technology-based work extending and its ambiguous impact on wellbeing, considering its frequency and duration

Especially in knowledge-intensive professions, workers engage in work-related communication and access digital work content outside of working hours. Scientific research on technology-based work extending has flourished in recent decades, but yielded inconclusive results about its relationship with workers' wellbeing and focused on different temporal characteristics of the behaviour. Consequently, in this article, we address the question of whether different temporal characteristics of technology-based work extending, such as the frequency and duration of the behaviour, may have different consequences for workers' wellbeing. In the course of a systematic literature review, we analyzed 78 empirical studies published between 2007 and 2021 that investigate the relationship between the self-rated frequency and the self-rated duration of work extending behaviours and 14 wellbeing indicators. Whereas most studies examined the frequency of work extending behaviours and its consequences, only 19 studies examined the effects of its duration. Based on our findings, we propose three effects: The strain effect of frequent work extending, the gain effect of sustained work extending, and the loss-of-private-time effect inherent to work extending and independent from its frequency and duration. Our findings not only provide in-depth information on a widespread contemporary behaviour and its psychological implications, we also reveal research gaps and shed light on behaviours associated with role transitions and thus contribute to boundary theory.

Excessive technology use in the post-pandemic context: how work connectivity behavior increases procrastination at work

Purpose

Using role stress theory, this study examines how work connectivity behavior (WCB) blurs the lines between employees' work and personal lives, thereby encouraging procrastination at work (PAW). The study also investigates the importance of role stress and remote work self-efficacy (RWSE) as mediating and moderating factors, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

The study examines the direct and indirect relationships between WCB and PAW using hierarchical regression and data from 415 Chinese teleworkers. RWSE is also estimated as a second-stage moderator.

Findings

The findings indicate that WCB has a direct and indirect (via role stress) positive influence on PAW; however, these effects are weaker among employees with higher (vs lower) RWSE.

Practical implications

This study assists managers and organizations in developing more efficient ways of maximizing employee and organizational performance while minimizing the counterproductive behaviors associated with excessive technology use.

Originality/value

By investigating the links between WCB and PAW in the post-pandemic context, this study adds a new perspective on how excessive technology use for work and non-work purposes can be counterproductive.

The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on work connectivity behavior

Introduction

Based on event system theory, this study analyzed the influence of the event strength of major public health outside the organization on work connectivity behavior.

Methods

The study collected data from 532 employees on their psychological status and working style during the COVID-19 pandemic through an online questionnaire survey.

Results

The results show that driven by financial risk perception, female employees are more willing to pay work connectivity behavior than male employees and unmarried employees are more willing to pay work connectivity behavior than married employees. The risk perception of employees aged 28-33 has the greatest impact on workplace behavior. The impact of financial risk perception on behavior of employees without children is much higher than that of employees with children. The influence of financial risk perception and social risk perception on their behavior of employees with master's degree is much higher than that of health risk perception, but the workplace behavior of employees with doctor's degree is mainly affected by health risk perception.

Discussion

The novelty of the Corona Virus Disease event has a negative influence on work connectivity duration. The criticality, disruption of the Corona Virus Disease event has a positive influence on work connectivity duration. The criticality of the Corona Virus Disease event has a positive influence on work connectivity frequency. Employees' social risk perception, financial risk perception and health risk perception has a positive influence on the work connectivity duration and work connectivity frequency.

Information and communication technologies-assisted after-hours work: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of the relationships with work-family/life management variables

The phenomenon of information and communication technology (ICT)-assisted after-hours work has led to rising academic interest in examining its impact on workers' lives. ICT-assisted after-hours work may intrude on the home domain and contribute to higher work-family/life conflict, lower work-family/life balance, or higher work-family/life enrichment (the last one owing to the acquisition of competencies transferable to the home domain). Additionally, owing to cultural and societal differences in gender roles, the relationships between ICT-assisted after-hours work and work-family/life management variables may differ between female and male workers. To analyze the current empirical findings, this study performed a literature review with 38 articles and a meta-analysis with 37 articles. Our findings showed that ICT-assisted after-hours work was positively related to work-family/life enrichment (r = 0.335, p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.290, 0.406]), but also to work-family/life conflict (r = 0.335, p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.290, 0.406]). However, neither gender nor pre-/post-COVID significantly affect the relationship between ICT-assisted after-hours work and work-family/life conflict. Finally, future research and implications are discussed.

"Out of office": Availability norms and feeling burned out during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of autonomy and telepressure

Introduction

Digital innovations make it possible to work anywhere and anytime using any kind of device. Given these evolutions, availability norms are emerging at work. These norms specifically refer to the experienced beliefs or expectations from colleagues or superiors to be available for work-related communication after regular work hours. We rely on the Job-Demands Resources Model as we aim to investigate the relationship between these availability norms and burnout symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. We first of all study to what extent availability norms are associated with heightened burnout symptoms. Secondly, we study how both a personal demand, namely telepressure, and a job resource, namely autonomy, could offer distinct and relevant explanations for the role these availability norms play in experiencing burnout symptoms.

Method

We collected data through a survey study with 229 employees from various organizations in the second half of 2020.

Results

The findings indicated that indeed availability norms are significantly associated with more burnout symptoms and that both heightened telepressure and reduced autonomy mediated this relationship.

Discussion

This study contributes to theory and practice as we offer insight into how availability norms at work could be detrimental for the occupational health of employees, which can be taken into account when setting up rules and regulations at work.

Affective temporal experiences and new work modalities: The role of Information and Communication Technologies

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, new ways of working emerged, such as fully remote to hybrid work. As the restrictions with regards to the spatial dimension of work become less rigid, the temporal dimension surfaces as one of the more important aspects of work. In this study, we draw from the Negative Theology of Time to present a more nuanced understanding of how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) influence temporal experiences and how these shape work itself. We do this by leveraging the metaphor genre, linking our observations to existing literature, and discussing chronopathic experiences, chronotelic behaviours and uses of ICTs.

Shining a light on an additional clinical burden: work-related digital communication survey study - COVID-19 impact on NHS staff wellbeing

Work-related communication volume within the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) has had little systematic research previously. The impact of communication volume on work-life balance of healthcare staff in the NHS is also not known and has not been an area of focus or governance. COVID-19 led to a shift to non-physical work, with greater reliance on digital communication for clinical decision making. We sought to elucidate the relationship between communication, work-life balance, and COVID-19. An online survey was conducted to assess the platforms used to communicate professionally, the volume of and time spent on work-related communications, how this has changed from before to during COVID-19, and the effect on work-life balance. A total of 3047 healthcare staff provided consent and evaluable data. Emails were reported as the most frequently used communication tool, and the majority of staff asked, reported increased work-related communications due to COVID-19. Staff estimated receiving 14 emails on an average day before COVID-19. During the pandemic, staff estimated getting approximately 17 emails on an average day and 29 emails on a busy day. Work communications reportedly took up increased amounts of family and home time during COVID-19. A large proportion (36%) of staff were unable to switch off from work-related communications already before COVID-19, worsening (57%) during the pandemic. Work-related digital communication is a vital component of working in the NHS. We provide the first detailed data on the types, volume, and impact of such communication on NHS staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to pre-pandemic levels. We found that 82% of staff support the need for NHS guidance on work-related communications to help manage overload, protect emotional wellbeing, and increase resilience. Further work is urgently needed in this area to tackle the negative impact of communication technologies (technostress) on work-life balance to reduce staff stress, burnout, and turnover or early retirement of some staff.

Does authoritarianism necessarily stifle creativity? The role of discipline-focused authoritarian leadership

A burgeoning body of research has shown that authoritarian leadership (AL) embodies the characteristics of "light" and "dark," meaning that it does not always have a negative impact on employees' creative activities. However, studies explaining this potential positive effect are insufficient. To extend the AL and creativity literature, we draw on self-determination theory and event system theory, and elicit discipline-focused AL and appointment event criticality to examine whether, when, and how authoritarian leaders affect employee creativity positively. With time-lagged data collected from 435 employees and their direct leaders in China, we found that discipline-focused AL has an indirect positive effect on employee creativity through creative self-efficacy. Additionally, appointment event criticality strengthens the positive relationship between discipline-focused AL and creative self-efficiency, and the indirect impact of discipline-focused AL on employee creativity through creative self-efficiency. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Electronic communication during nonwork time and withdrawal behavior: An analysis of employee cognition-emotion-behavior framework from Chinese cultural context

Although a large number of literatures have explored the relationship between electronic communication during nonwork time and individual perception and behavior under the Western culture background, we still have some limitations on this topic under the cultural background of collectivism, dedication and “Guanxi” in China. Different from Western organizations, Chinese employees tend to put work first and are more inclusive of handling work tasks during nonwork time. This type of communication during nonwork time can significantly affect employees’ cognition, emotion and behavior. From the perspective of Job Demands-Resources theory, this study constructs a double-edged (U-shaped) model between electronic communication during nonwork time and employee withdrawal behavior. Sample data were collected from 516 employees with clear working time boundaries in China. The results indicate that electronic communication during nonwork time has a U-shaped effect on employee withdrawal behavior and an inverted U-shaped effect on employee’s cognition, namely job engagement. Job engagement plays a mediating role between them. Moreover, regulatory emotional self-efficacy has a moderating effect on the relationship between electronic communication during nonwork time and job engagement. These findings not only provide theoretical and practical implications for managers and employees on how to reduce withdrawal behaviors, but also advance our understanding of electronic communication during nonwork time in Chinese cultural context.

Work-related use of information and communication technologies after-hours (W_ICTs) and employee innovation behavior: a dual-path model

Purpose

The current study aims to identify work-related use of information and communication technologies after-hours (W_ICTs) from passive and active perspectives and examine mechanisms and different effects of information and communication technologies on employee innovation behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Experience sampling method (ESM) was employed to capture dynamic within-person variance in daily-behaviors and daily-mood. In total, 92 employees completed an identical online survey each day for ten workdays.

Findings

The findings showed that the influence patterns and mechanisms of passive and active W_ICTs were utterly different. Passive W_ICTs was negatively associated with employee innovation behavior via emotional exhaustion, while active W_ICTs was positively associated with employee innovation behavior through perceived insider status. Furthermore, differential leadership significantly narrowed the positive relationship between passive W_ICTs and emotional exhaustion. However, differential leadership did not significantly moderate the relationship between active W_ICTs and perceived insider status.

Originality/value

This study is an important step forward in dividing W_ICTs into passive and active W_ICTs and discovers a dual path of two types of W_ICTs on employee innovation behavior. Findings of this study have heuristic value for future research.

The association of work-related extended availability with recuperation, well-being, life domain balance and work: A meta-analysis

Work-related extended availability (WREA; the availability of employees for work-related matters in their leisure time) seems to be associated with decreases in well-being and life-domain balance, but to date there is no quantitative synthesis of the scattered evidence. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis (113 articles with 121 studies relying on k = 117 independent samples with N = 131,872) on the associations between WREA and employee outcomes while examining potential moderators as well as differences between availability demands and behaviors. WREA was adversely associated with recuperation, well-being and private life, but favorably with some work-related criteria. There were no systematic differences in effect sizes between availability demands and behaviors; however, segmentation preferences were a moderator. Overall, these results suggest that WREA may pose a threat to employee recuperation, well-being and private lives, especially when employees prefer separating work and private life. However, positive potentials of WREA should not be overlooked. Plain Language Summary Work-related extended availability (WREA) refers to the availability of employees for work-related matters in their leisure time. Studies have shown that WREA may go along with primarily negative consequences for employees, but to date, there is no comprehensive overview of the literature statistically summarizing the current state of research, which was done in the study at hand. We assumed that WREA be related to problems with recovery, poorer well-being and difficulties to find a balance between work and private life. We also assessed in how far WREA goes along with attitudes towards work, absence from work and the intention to change jobs. Moreover, we considered differences between demands to be available and behaviors of actually taking care of work-related matters during leisure time. Finally, we investigated factors that may be associated with stronger consequences of WREA. We included 113 scientific papers with a total of 131,872 participants. WREA was related to problems with recovery, poorer well-being and difficulties to find a balance between work and private life, but also to more positive attitudes towards work. We did not find systematic differences between demands to be available and availability behaviors. However, we found that the relationship between WREA and work creating conflict with family life were stronger in samples with higher preferences to segment work and private life. Our findings suggest that WREA may pose a threat to employee recuperation, well-being and private lives, especially when employees prefer separating life domains. Still, positive potentials of WREA should not be overlooked.

Techno-invasion and job satisfaction in China: The roles of boundary preference for segmentation and marital status

BACKGROUND: While the intensive work-related use of information and communication technologies after working hours have led to increased techno-invasion, much less is known regarding whether and for whom techno-invasion influences job satisfaction. OBJECTIVE: Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and person-environment fit theory, this study examined the relationship between techno-invasion and decreased job satisfaction. Specific attention was paid to the moderating effect of boundary preference for segmentation and its joint influence with marital status on this relationship. METHODS: Questionnaire data were collected by an online survey of a nationwide and diverse sample of 472 employees from China. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: We found that techno-invasion negatively correlated with job satisfaction, which was strengthened by boundary preference for segmentation. Furthermore, the results of a three-way interaction effect suggested that the moderating role of boundary preference for segmentation on the relationship between techno-invasion and job satisfaction is stronger for unmarried employees than it is for married ones. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of techno-invasion on employees’ job satisfaction can be strengthened or weakened by their boundary preference for segmentation and marital status.

Off-Time Work-Related Smartphone Use and Bedtime Procrastination of Public Employees: A Cross-Cultural Study

While previous studies have examined the negative effects of work-related smartphone use after hours, little is known about whether and how it influences employees’ unhealthy sleep behavior (i.e., bedtime procrastination). Drawing on the ego depletion theory, this study explored the effects of work-related smartphone use after hours on bedtime procrastination. To further uncover potential cross-cultural differences, a sample of 210 public employees from the United States and 205 public employees from China were used. Results via path analysis revealed that off-time work-related smartphone use positively influenced bedtime procrastination via the mediating role of self-control depletion. These findings were consistent between the United States and Chinese sample; however, off-time work-related smartphone use after hours increased the likelihood of self-control depletion more strongly in the United States than in China. The implications of our findings for both theory and practice were discussed.

“It is ok to be interrupted; it is my job” – perceptions on technology-mediated work-life boundary experiences; a sociomaterial analysis

Purpose

This study aims to explore how and why employees perceive technology-mediated interruptions differently and the role of sociocultural factors in this process using sociomaterial analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered from 34 Sri Lankan knowledge workers using a series of workshop-based activities. The concept of sociomateriality is employed to understand how sociocultural elements are entangled with technology in work-life boundary experiences.

Findings

The findings of the thematic analyses suggest how culture is intertwined in the way employees perceive technology-mediated interruptions and how they manage information communication technologies (ICTs) to balance their work and nonwork demands. Participants have been unable to avoid technology-mediated boundary interruptions from work, as organisations have created norms to keep employees connected to organisations using information communication technologies. Traditional gender roles are specifically found to be entangled in employees' boundary management practices, disadvantaging women more.

Practical implications

The findings highlight how national culture and gender norms create challenging work-life experiences for female employees than males. This could create a disadvantageous position for female employees in their career progression. It is crucial to consider factors such as boundary preferences and family concerns when deciding on family-friendly work policies. Also, organisations have to consider the development of explicit guidelines on after-hours communication expectations.

Originality/value

Using the lens of sociomateriality, researchers can understand the contextual entanglement of ICTs with national culture and gender norms in creating different work-life boundary experiences. It seems ICTs are creating a disadvantage for female employees when managing work–nonwork boundaries, especially in power distant and collectivist cultures where traditional gender norms are highly valued and largely upheld. This study also contributes to the current discourse on work-life boundaries by providing insights from non-western perspectives.

An Episodic Process Model of After-Hour ICT-Related Interruptions at Home

As remote and hybrid work become mainstream, after-hour interruptions from work into personal life (i.e., boundary violations) via information communicative technology will become even more prevalent. These interruptions trigger employees to suddenly disengage from their nonwork roles and reengage in work (i.e., interrole transitions), which can translate into adverse work and well-being outcomes for employees. It is critical to study after-hour ICT-related interruptions to ensure employees can effectively perform in both their work and nonwork spheres. Although there is a substantial knowledge base for boundary violations and interrole transitions, we have limited understanding of the mechanisms through which these experiences affect individuals on a daily basis. The present study builds on boundary theory with a comprehensive qualitative investigation of the boundary violation-interrole transition process and development of an episodic process model grounded in data. Using the event reconstruction method, employee experiences with after-hour ICT-related interruptions were deeply explored. Content analysis revealed defining features and underlying mechanisms of the boundary violation-interrole transition process and the interrelationships of these mechanisms, facilitating the development of an episodic model with testable propositions for future boundary research. The results suggest that after-hour ICT-related interruptions are a particular type of perceived work-family incompatibility that can be problematic for employees, thereby advancing work-family theory. As these interruptions cannot be eliminated and will increase as more employees work remotely, the results and proposed model can inform the design of organizational interventions intended to mitigate the negative effects of interruptions on employees’ daily lives.

How Work-Family Conflict and Work-Family Facilitation Affect Employee Innovation: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotions and Work Flexibility

This paper aims to verify the effects of work-family conflict and work-family facilitation on employee innovation in the digital era. Based on resource conservation theory, this study regards the work-family relationship as a conditional resource. Employees who are in a state of lack of resources caused by work-family conflict will maintain existing resources by avoiding the consumption of further resources to perform innovation activities; employees who are in a state of sufficient resources are more willing to invest existing resources to obtain more resources. In this study, 405 employees from enterprises in the Chinese provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Sichuan, and Guangdong, and in the municipality of Tianjin were selected as the research object. These enterprises are knowledge-based companies, and their employees frequently transfer knowledge at work. We collected questionnaires from the frontline employees of these companies. The results show that negative and positive emotions mediate the effect of work-family conflict and work-family facilitation on employee innovation. Moreover, work flexibility has a significant moderating effect on the mediating role of emotions between work-family facilitation and employee innovation behavior. In the digital era, when facing different work-family situations, employees need to pay attention to and dredge their negative emotions to avoid reducing their innovative behaviors due to self-abandonment; in parallel, they need to guide their positive emotions toward innovation, so as to promote their innovative consciousness and behavior. This paper expands the research perspective of employee innovation behavior.

Work-Family Enrichment: Influence of Job Autonomy on Job Satisfaction of Knowledge Employees

In order to explore the specific path of the influence of job autonomy on the satisfaction of knowledge employees, the current study deduced and established a Chain Mediation Model, which was based on the Resource-Gain-Development Model and the Conservation of Resources Theory. Primary data were gathered through questionnaire surveys at several cities in China by using a professional platform named "Wenjuanxing." The target populations were employees with a bachelor's degree or above, who were engaged in higher knowledge content and have mastered certain professional knowledge and skills, including technical R & D personnel, management personnel, professionals (such as accountants, lawyers, and medics) and other personnel generally recognized by the academic community. In order to improve the reliability of the sample and reduce the error caused by regional differences, the questionnaires were disseminated to involve as many cities in China as possible, such as Tianjin, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Guangzhou. SPSS24.0 and Aoms24.0 were used as multivariate data analysis tools for statistical analysis. The results showed that job autonomy can significantly improve the satisfaction of knowledge employees; however, it cannot affect the satisfaction of knowledge employees through self-efficacy. The findings of the study also revealed that job autonomy has a positive impact on both resource source domain satisfaction and resource acceptance domain satisfaction through work-family enrichment, especially the positive emotions in the resource source domain. Job autonomy improves the self-efficacy of knowledge employees, which, in turn, improves their overall satisfaction through the work-family enrichment path.

After-hours work-related technology use and individuals' deviance: the role of other-initiated versus self-initiated interruptions

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of after-hours work-related technology use on interpersonal, organizational and nonwork deviance through work–family conflict (WFC) by focusing on the moderating role of other- and self-initiated interruptions.

Design/methodology/approach

The online survey included 318 valid samples from employees working in different organizations in the Anhui provinces of the People's Republic of China. The authors applied Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) process macros for testing mediation and moderated mediation analysis while conducting path analytic procedures and bootstrapping analysis.

Findings

This study found that after-hours work-related technology use is positively associated with interpersonal, organizational and nonwork deviance through WFC. This positive relationship strengthens in the presence of other-initiated interruptions compared with self-initiated interruptions. The results show that as compared to self-initiated interruptions, other-initiated interruptions strengthen the relationship between after-hours work-related technology use and its outcomes in the forms of WFC and deviance.

Originality/value

After-hours work-related technology use is a ubiquitous phenomenon and got significant scholarly attention. However, its effect on WFC and individual deviant behaviors has never been studied. Moreover, the moderated-mediation role of self-initiated and other-initiated interruptions presents a unique and important development in the context of after-hours work-related technology use and deviant behavior.

Risk factors of musculoskeletal symptoms among mobile device users during work from home

Objectives. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is affecting people throughout the world. People are forced to conduct various activities at home using mobile devices (MDs) as a result of the outbreak. In this case, prolonged use of MDs is the major cause for work-related health problems. Methods. We used systematic cluster random sampling to sample a diverse group of Indians from India's various states. Subjects filled out a questionnaire with questions about their demographics, MD usage and musculoskeletal symptoms (MSSs) faced. The relationship between MSSs and various factors was investigated using χ² and binomial logistic regression analysis. Results. An online survey yielded 720 responses. More than half of employees registered MSSs in their upper body regions. Age, gender and MD usage were correlated with MSSs in various body regions. According to the binomial logistic regression findings, gender was significantly linked to MSSs in each body region. Conclusions. Results show that MDs can be used effectively in intermediate leisure activities if they are used in accordance with their basic needs.

Defrag and reboot? Consolidating information and communication technology research in I-O psychology

Several decades of research have addressed the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology. However, segmented research streams with myriad terminologies run the risk of construct proliferation and lack an integrated theoretical justification of the contributions of ICT concepts. Therefore, by identifying important trends and reflecting on key constructs, findings, and theories, our review seeks to determine whether a compelling case can be made for the uniqueness of ICT-related concepts in studying employee and performance in I-O psychology. Two major themes emerge from our review of the ICT literature: (a) a technology behavior perspective and (b) a technology experience perspective. The technology behavior perspective with three subcategories (the “where” of work design, the “when” of work extension, and the “what” of work inattention) explores how individual technology use can be informative for predicting employee well-being and performance. The technology experience perspective theme with two subcategories (the “how” of ICT appraisals and “why” of motives) emphasizes unique psychological (as opposed to behavioral) experiences arising from the technological work context. Based on this review, we outline key challenges of current ICT research perspectives and opportunities for further enhancing our understanding of technological implications for individual workers and organizations.

Association of individual and device usage factors with musculoskeletal disorders amongst handheld devices users during homestay due to pandemic

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading in India and different parts of the world. The outbreak delivered not only the condition of dying from infection but also forced people (especially office workers and students) to perform all working (office work, classes, assignments, etc.) and non-working activities (leisure activities such as social media, gaming, etc.) at home using handheld devices (HHDs). In this situation, HHD usage for longer durations is mainly responsible for work-related health issues. Therefore, the paper aims to explore HHD usage patterns and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) amongst HHD users during homestay and the impact of individual and HHD usage–related factors on MSDs.

Design/methodology/approach

From different states of India, 651 people (especially HHD users from universities and industries) were sampled by using systematic cluster random sampling. In addition, an online questionnaire was used to collect data on the prevalence and risk factors of MSDs. Finally, mean comparisons and chi-square analysis was used to analyse the collected data.

Findings

The prevalence rate of MSDs was higher in upper body parts as compared to the lower body parts. The association of gender with MSDs in various body parts was substantial. The time spent on various working and non-working activities using HHDs was significantly associated with MSDs in upper body parts.

Practical implications

Homestay work may be used as an alternative working arrangement, and the risk factors that have the most significant impact on the health of HHD users may be identified by organizations. The findings suggest the proper use of HHDs as per their essential need with intermediate recreational activities.

Originality/value

It is observed that the musculoskeletal health of office workers and university students is a cause for concern during homestay. The current study provides the prevalence of MSDs experienced by HHD users and the association of individual and HHD usage factors with MSDs.

Can Leaders Prevent Technology From Backfiring? Empowering Leadership as a Double-Edged Sword for Technostress in Care

Purpose: Recent studies have called for more contextual studies of technostress and the role leaders can have in this experience. While technostress is an increasingly prevalent and severe phenomenon in care professions, limited studies have addressed its potential negative consequences for employee well-being and quality of care delivered in this sector or, more importantly, examined how the adverse consequences of technostress could be mitigated. Therefore, the present study addresses this gap by investigating how technostress in childcare affects quality of care delivered via emotional exhaustion and what influence empowering leadership plays in this relationship. Design/methodology approach: Incorporating the views of 339 Dutch childcare workers, this study tests a model in which technostress influences quality of care delivered, mediated by emotional exhaustion and moderated by empowering leadership. Findings: Results confirm that techno-invasion and techno-overload predict higher emotional exhaustion and lower quality of care delivered among childcare workers. Empowering leadership reduced the influence of techno-invasion on emotional exhaustion but strengthened the influence of techno-overload. Originality/value: Our results provide childcare organizations with relevant information on the increasing use of ICT that influences both childcare workers' well-being and quality of care they deliver. Important implications are suggested for leadership geared at stimulating employees' responsibility and accountability for different dimensions of technostress.

Work from Home and the Use of ICT during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia and Its Impact on Cities in the Future

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in restrictions on activities involving physical contact, such as working. Indonesia began to apply the system of work from home (WfH) to minimize the spread risk of COVID-19 in March 2020. This research is aimed at finding out the coverage of WfH, mapping changes of workplace, identifying the use of ICT to support WfH, and analyzing the concept of workplace and work systems in future cities. The method used in this research is qualitative and quantitative. A questionnaire (Google Form) was sent to different WhatsApp groups whose members are experts in urban and regional planning, geography, the environment, smart cities, and IT, with total of 176 respondents. The focus group discussion conducted online focused on the use of ICT to support WfH during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of this research shows that even before the pandemic, both the government and private sectors had a plan to apply WfH. Because of the pandemic, it became the catalyst for the implementation of WfH. The implementation of WfH has changed workplace orientation. The use of ICT was a primary need in implementing WfH during the pandemic. However, the WfH system implemented in the government sector has not been integrated, and neither has the one in private sectors. WfH is seen to have been effective enough, but it still needs lots of support from many sectors. In the future, WfH can still be maintained, along with working from the office (WfO). The WfH concept is highly recommended for big cities because it can support reduced population mobilization, resulting in reduced congestion and movement costs, and improved efficiency of working time by reducing travel time. On the other hand, it can help in the matter of limited of space that office buildings provide.

Work flexibility-ability and work–family conflict: the joint role of willingness and worry

Purpose

This study introduced a focus on work flexibility-worry and intended to test whether work flexibility-worry would weaken the strengthening power of work flexibility-willingness on the relationship between work flexibility-ability and work–family conflict from the perspective of person–situation interaction.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants were 924 employees recruited by the snowballing technique. They completed questionnaires about demographics and work flexibility. Multivariate stepwise regression was used to analyze the collected data.

Findings

Results showed that work flexibility-ability can reduce work-to-family conflict. However, this effect is most pronounced only among individuals with a high work flexibility-willingness who simultaneously experience low work flexibility-worry.

Practical implications

For organizations that want to provide work flexibility benefits to employees, they should not only pay attention to employees' personal preference for work flexibility but also create a climate in which all employees are allowed to use the flexibility supply without criticism from coworkers and without impacting organizational evaluations, which can benefit employees' functioning in both their work and family roles.

Originality/value

This study clarified the joint role of willingness and worry in predicting the extent to which work flexibility-ability reduces work–family conflict, which helps organizations to better understand the conditions under which work flexibility can better reduce work–family conflict.

Technology-enacted abusive supervision and its effect on work and family

This study examines the effects of technology-enacted abusive supervision, defined as subordinate perceptions of supervisor's use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to engage in hostile communications. This research was designed to examine if technology-enacted abusive supervision has an impact on both the work and family domains. Based on conservation of resources theory, we theorize that technology-enacted abusive supervision enhances subordinate engagement in emotional labor surface acting, which contributes to emotional exhaustion, which in turn impacts both the work and family domains. Results demonstrate significant paths in both domains. Subordinate perceptions of technology-enacted abusive supervision are positively related to the engagement in technology-enacted incivility through the serial mediation of emotional labor surface acting and emotional exhaustion. Additionally, subordinate perceptions of technology-enacted abusive supervision are positively related to family undermining at home for the subordinate through the serial mediation of emotional labor surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and stress transmission.

Time to Disentangle the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Constructs: Developing a Taxonomy around ICT Use for Occupational Health Research

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the workplace has gained considerable research attention in the occupational health field due to its effects on employee stress and well-being. Consequently, new ICT-related constructs have proliferated in occupational health research, resulting in a need to take stock of both potential redundancies and deficiencies in the current measures. This paper disentangles ICT-related constructs, developing a taxonomy of ICT-related constructs in terms of ICT demands, resources, motivation, use, and strains. We then integrate this taxonomy with stress and motivation theories to identify three key implications for ICT and workplace health research and practices in terms of providing suggestions on understudied areas for building better theories, highlighting important psychometric issues for building better constructs and measures, and offering recommendations for building better interventions. This review aims to serve as a guide for researchers to move forward with the current state of research and provide recommendations for organizations in terms of both potential repercussions and best practices for ICT use in the workplace.

Implementing Remote Working Policy in Corporate Offices in Thailand: Strategic Facility Management Perspective

There was a sudden shift in the way people work during the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep business continuity, many organizations have implemented a remote working policy for employees to work from home. Strategic facility management (FM) acted to support remote working policies by developing organizational norms in an organization. Meanwhile, the human resource (HR) department chose to achieve business performance while remote working by gaining job motivation among employees. However, there is limited understanding of how well organizations adapted to the remote working policy, and what are the critical factors affecting their remote work performance. The present study aimed to explore the effect of organizational norms on remote working, on remote work productivity, and organizational commitment among Thai employees. The study conducted an online questionnaire survey to a total of 414 Thai employees from various corporate offices. Hierarchical component modeling was applied and achieved a good model fit on the measurement and structural models. Results indicated that organizational norm has a significant effect on perceived productivity and organizational commitment, while sustaining work demand. Moreover, employees’ job motivation can sustain employees’ commitment to the organization in a remote working context. These findings proposed the strategic FM guide, through which a remote working policy can further enhance FM practice.

Sustainable Development of an Individual as a Result of Mutual Enrichment of Professional and Personal Life

Presently, the development of civilization requires a vision of balancing the interests of employees and employers in the sphere of work as never before. Work-life balance is directly linked to social sustainability. The aim of this article is to analyze various dimensions of mutual enrichment of the professional and private life of an individual and to describe how positive experiences in professional and non-professional life influence the improvement of satisfaction, health, and achievements, thus enabling the sustainable development of the individual. The conducted research was of a qualitative nature. Thematic exploration was used to analyze the findings of 34 in-depth interviews with experienced HR managers and employees at various levels of enterprises in Poland. The research shows that the work and personal life of the respondents interact, complement, and enrich in different ways, depending on the stage of the employee’s life. Habits developed by practicing a specific sport discipline or other type of hobby are helpful in the effective implementation of professional tasks. In addition, non-professional interests, including communing with culture and art, have a positive impact on professional activities. On the other hand, the respondents emphasized that thanks to their professional activities, specific to the type of work they perform, they are sometimes more extroverted, meticulous, organized, and consistent when performing activities outside of work and in other aspects of private life.

Reliability and Validity of a Stress Scale in Public Employees from Murcia (Spain)

Stress is common in all work environments. Technostress and the difficulty of separating the family arena from the work environment are some of the new and emerging risks faced by companies, employees and society in general. Most of the available instruments for measuring stress in workers have been focused on education professionals and healthcare workers. Therefore, it is necessary to validate simple and friendly-use tools to detect stress levels in public workers. The aim of this study was to determine the internal consistency of an adapted version of the Student Stress Inventory-Stress Manifestations (SSI-SM) for public employees and to determine if high-stress levels are related to personal and work-related factors. A cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted from October 2016 to February 2019 including 468 Spanish public workers based in Murcia. An adapted version of the SSI-SM was administered and data on personal and work-related factors were collected. Results showed that all of the factors had Cronbach’s α over 0.700, and no items need to be deleted due to correlations with the factor exceeding 0.300. Factor 1, “Self-concept”, has a Cronbach’s α of 0.868, with values of 15.62 ± 4.99; factor 2, “Sociability”, Cronbach’s α: 0.853, with mean values of 13.33 ± 4.17; factor 3, “Somatization”, Cronbach’s α: 0.704, mean value of 5.35 ± 1.90 and: factor 4, “Uncertainty”, Cronbach’s α: 0.746, with a mean value of 8.19 ± 2.51. In conclusion, the internal consistency of the adapted SSI-SM for public employees with different work positions and shifts has been validated and determined. This study provides a useful tool for the early detection of stress in public employees and may be potentially useful for preventing the harmful consequences of stress.

Towards More Proactive Sustainable Human Resource Management Practices? A Study on Stress Due to the ICT-Mediated Integration of Work and Private Life

This article discusses sustainability in Human Resource Management (HRM) in the blurred digital working life, focusing on the emotion of stress. Its empirical basis is an activity and emotion diary study conducted with 26 employees of three industrial companies in Sweden. Our results show that work and private life are integrated by digital activities and also by emotions. Due to the extensive use of digital devices, stress in the working sphere is not only connected with work, and stress in the private sphere is not only connected with private life. The study also shows that stress is often episodic and can end due to activities connected with both the trigger and non-trigger spheres. From a social sustainability perspective, this study suggests that HRM should gently extend employee consideration beyond the traditional temporal and spatial boundaries of work, i.e., also including private life when understanding work in the digital age.