How can AI-integrated applications affect the financial engineers' psychological safety and work-life balance: Chinese and Iranian financial engineers and administrators' perspectives

BACKGROUND

The integration of AI in finance has significantly reshaped the role of financial engineers, improving efficiency and decision-making. However, it also affects psychological safety and work-life balance. Financial engineers face increased pressure to keep up with evolving technologies, fear of job displacement due to automation, and blurred boundaries between work and personal life. Exploring the link between AI applications, psychological well-being, and work-life balance is crucial for optimizing individual performance and organizational success, ensuring a sustainable and supportive work environment.

OBJECTIVES

This qualitative study investigates how AI-integrated finance applications influence financial engineers' psychological safety and work-life balance. By exploring financial engineers' lived experiences and perceptions, the study seeks to provide insights into the human implications of AI adoption in finance.

METHODOLOGY

The study utilized qualitative research methods, specifically thematic analysis, to examine data from 20 informants selected through theoretical sampling. Thematic analysis techniques were employed to identify recurring patterns, themes, and meanings within the data, allowing for a rich exploration of the research questions.

FINDINGS

Data analysis revealed several themes related to the impact of AI-integrated applications on financial engineers' psychological safety and work-life balance. These themes include the perception of job security, the role of automation in workload management, and the implications of AI for professional identity and job satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS

This study's findings highlight the multifaceted effects of AI integration in finance, shedding light on the opportunities and challenges it presents for financial engineers. While AI offers potential benefits such as increased efficiency and productivity, it raises concerns about job security and work-related stress. Overall, the study underscores the importance of considering the human implications of AI adoption in finance and calls for proactive measures to support the well-being of financial professionals in an AI-driven environment.

How enterprise social media usage links to counterproductive work behavior: the mediating role of workplace loneliness and the moderating role of ICT hassle

Work context transformed. Employees increasingly interact with enterprise social media, wherein employees may feel disconnected from workplace. Drawing on social affiliation theory, we develop and examine a moderated mediation model to explore the indirect effect of enterprise social media usage on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) via workplace loneliness and the moderating role of information and communication technology hassle (ICT hassle). We test hypotheses by conducting a three-wave survey of 345 knowledge workers. Results indicate that enterprise social media usage has a positive effect on workplace loneliness, and workplace loneliness mediated the indirect effect of enterprise social media usage on CWB. The moderated mediation analysis indicated that ICT hassle positively moderates the above mediation effect. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Whom Does Remote Work Make Happy? The Digital Divide in Remote Workers' Well-Being

The global shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified scholarly attention to remote workers' well-being. Although existing studies explore the varied impacts of remote work, there is a gap in understanding remote workers' well-being through the lenses of social disparity and the digital divide. Extending digital divide scholarship to the remote work context, this study disentangles why some remote workers experience better well-being than others. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal panel study in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic (Wave 1: February 2021, Wave 2: October 2021). Among the 501 participants who participated in both waves, we found that individuals with lower education levels were less likely to have remote work opportunities. We focused our further analyses on a subset of 144 employees who had remote work opportunities within organizations with typical hierarchical structures. We found that socioeconomic status (SES) did not directly influence remote workers' well-being but indirectly influenced it by contributing to the diversity in using information and communication technologies (ICTs). Workers with higher SES or more diversity in using ICTs demonstrated lower vulnerability and more effectiveness in maintaining their well-being in virtual organizational communication situations. This study highlights social disparities in remote workers' well-being, which arise from the complex interplay of SES either indirectly influencing the diversity in ICT usage or interacting with virtual organizational communication satisfaction and duration. This study advances remote work scholarship by restructuring theoretical discussions on social stratification and the digital divide reproduced within the evolving work environment.

Overwork and the use of paid leave and flexible work policies in U.S. workplaces

Employees in today's workplace express strong desire for policies allowing for temporal flexibility (e.g., paid time off, schedule change, working from home), yet these policies are underutilized even when employees have them. We argue that an occupational norm that emphasizes long work hours is a key to understanding this puzzle. Using individual-level data from the Leave Module of the 2011 American Time Use Survey (supplemented with the 2017-2018 version), matched with occupation-level data constructed from O*NET and the American Community Surveys, we show that individuals working in occupations with higher prevalence of "overwork" (defined by working 50 or more hours per week) are less likely to use paid leave. For flexible work policies, the same pattern is found for childless men, fathers, and childless women, but mothers are more likely to use them in occupations with higher prevalence of overwork. Our decomposition analysis shows that widespread overwork in professional and managerial occupations offsets much of what makes them amenable to the use of leave and flexible work policies, relative to other occupations. These findings suggest that even when policies are available, the success of flexible work policies largely depends on how organizations tackle the overwork norm.

Buffering or boosting? The dynamic curvilinear relationship between work-related use of information and communication technologies after-hours and wok procrastination

Work-related use of information and communication technologies after-hours (W_ICTs) blurs the boundaries between work and non-work domains, representing a typical boundary-crossing behavior that affects employees' lives and organizational development. Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources theory, this study develops a dynamic curvilinear model of the impact of W_ICTs on work procrastination, considering intrinsic motivation (self-efficacy and enjoyment) and regulatory focus (prevention focus). Empirical testing of the research hypotheses is conducted through a survey involving 817 employees with standard working hours (e.g. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). The results indicate that W_ICTs can be regarded as both inhibitors and promoters, with a U-shaped impact on work procrastination and an inverted U-shaped effect on self-efficacy and enjoyment. The mediating roles of self-efficacy and enjoyment are significant. Moreover, prevention focus moderates the relationship between W_ICTs and enjoyment, whereas the moderating effect between W_ICTs and self-efficacy is insignificant. This dynamic curvilinear relationship may explain the inconsistent results of prior studies regarding the relationship between W_ICTs and employees' negative behaviors. It contributes to expanding research on the outcomes of W_ICTs and the antecedents of work procrastination. Moreover, the proposed influence mechanism between W_ICTs and work procrastination has not been established from the perspective of intrinsic motivation and prevention focus. Hence, this study responds to scholars' calls and adds to the existing research on how W_ICTs affect work procrastination. These research findings enhance the current understanding of the effects of W_ICTs and offer valuable insights for organizations to effectively manage W_ICTs and address work procrastination behavior in practice.

Association between constant connectivity to work during leisure time and insomnia: does work engagement matter?

PURPOSE

The influx of communication media to contemporary workplaces has exposed workers to be always connected to their work. Constant connectivity to work (CCW) refers to the condition in which workers are always connected to work, even during their non-work hours, and are not detached from the work situation. We investigated the association between CCW and insomnia and the moderating effect of work engagement.

METHODS

A total of 29,512 nationally representative samples of workers in Korea were used. Insomnia was assessed by the Minimal Insomnia Symptom Scale. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The additive interaction between CCW and low work engagement was estimated by calculating Relative Excess Risk due to Interaction (RERI).

RESULTS

Exposure to CCW was related to insomnia (OR [95% CI] 1.33 [1.22-1.46]). Additionally, a significant negative interaction between CCW and work engagement was observed. The effects of CCW were mitigated in those with high work engagement. The OR of the combined effect of CCW exposure and low work engagement was 2.52 (95% CI 2.22-2.87). RERI between exposure to CCW and low work engagement was 0.69 (95% CI 0.38-0.99), indicating that there is a supra-additive interaction.

CONCLUSION

Our study found that CCW is related to an increased risk of insomnia and that high work engagement can mitigate the effect of CCW. Our study suggests that improving work engagement and disconnecting from work outside of work hours can help protect employees' sleep quality.

Hidden work, frustration and multiple layers of occupational health in emergency situations: a longitudinal study during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic over time. Specifically, we derive from the organizational model of frustration to propose and test a model of pandemic-induced hidden work affecting employees' emotional responses of frustration along with behavioral responses and outcomes with respect to occupational health. We thereby develop a concept of multiple layers of occupational health that spans across stress, satisfaction with work-life balance (SWLB), burnout, subjective well-being, and physical health. Based on a longitudinal web-based survey of 198 working professionals conducted at seven points in time (1,143 data points, with 118 fully completed responses across all time points) for a wide range of industries in 2020, the study tests the proposed relationships using random coefficient modeling. The results show that COVID-19-situation-induced hidden work invokes emotional responses of frustration, which in turn influence outcomes referring to multiple layers of occupational health-positively affecting stress and burnout, and negatively influencing SWLB, subjective well-being, and physical health. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Analysis of the relationship between urban dynamics and prevalence of remote work based on population data generated from cellular networks

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the introduction of remote work as one way to ensure employee safety and reduce the amount of interpersonal contact while continuing business operations. Knowing the degree of prevalence of remote work and its establishment are considered to be important factors in future policies and urban planning. We applied non-negative matrix factorization to population-change data obtained from a mobile phone network to extract the component of working people, and analyzed the changes pre- and post-pandemic. Using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, we confirmed that the number of people working in office and residential districts has significantly changed at a significance level of 1% in urban areas centered around Tokyo and Osaka, the two largest cities in Japan. Time-series data show that the number of workers is decreasing in office districts and increasing in residential districts, suggesting increased prevalence of remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that it has become established. In addition, in urban areas centered around Tokyo, we confirmed that there is a moderate correlation between the changes in the number of people working in office districts and the capital size of corporations in the same area.

Workplace computerization and inequality in schedule control

I investigate how computerization increases access to schedule control and widens the class disparity in access. I combine time-varying measurements of occupational-level computerization with individual-level data from the Current Population Survey (1991-2004) and the American Time Use Survey (2018). Results confirm that computerization is positively associated with schedule control, but this association is not robust to the inclusion of other aspects of occupations. The positive association between educational attainment and schedule control is greater among employees in highly computerized occupations. The results shed light on how computerization is related to inequality in access to schedule control, and in turn, work-family conflict and well-being.

Centralization and democratization: Managing crisis communication in health care delivery

BACKGROUND

Communication is an essential organizational process for responding to adversity. Managers are often advised to communicate frequently and redundantly during crises. Nonetheless, systematic investigation of how information receivers perceive organizational communication amid crises has remained lacking.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to characterize features of effective internal crisis communication by examining how information-sharing processes unfolded during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODOLOGY

Between June and August 2020, we conducted 55 semistructured interviews with emergency department workers practicing in a variety of roles. We analyzed interview transcripts following constructivist constant comparative methods.

RESULTS

Our findings revealed that at the onset of COVID-19 pandemic response, emergency department workers struggled with immense fear and anxiety amid high uncertainty and equivocality. Frequent and redundant communication, however, resulted in information delivery and uptake problems, worsening anxiety, and interpersonal tension. These problems were ameliorated by the emergence of contextual experts who centralized and democratized communication. Centralization standardized information received across roles, work schedules, and settings while decoupling internal communication from turbulence in the environment. Democratization made information accessible in a way that all could understand. It also ensured information senders' receptiveness to feedback from information receivers. Centralization and democratization together worked to reduce sensed uncertainty and equivocality, which reduced anxiety and interpersonal tension.

CONCLUSION

Establishing frequent and redundant communication strategies does not necessarily address the anxiety and interpersonal tension produced by uncertainty and equivocality in crises.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Centralization and democratization of crisis communication can reduce anxiety, improve coordination, and promote a safer workplace and patient care environment.

Temporal Structuring as Self-Discipline: Managing time in the budgeting process

We examine how actors engage in temporal self-discipline so as to achieve entrainment of a practice to temporal norms. Temporal self-discipline is about imposing self-created temporal structures on one's future behaviour and goes along with the (re-)production of a time-conscious self. Based on our fieldwork, we show how such self-discipline materializes both in the form of a very detailed temporal plan and in spaces for coordination to ensure sticking to this plan. We demonstrate that practising temporal self-discipline provides accountants with a sense of control over the budgeting process - a way to achieve 'controlled' entrainment to the temporal norm. We also show how temporal disruptions may challenge controlled entrainment, forcing actors into a passive mode of reaction and potential deviation from their intended plan.

Longitudinal Association of Working From Home on Work Functioning Impairment in Desk Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE

This study clarifies the longitudinal association between working from home and work functioning impairment among desk workers.

METHODS

Nationwide surveys were conducted from 2020 to 2022, analyzing 3532 desk workers who never worked from home before the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESULTS

The adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence intervals) of working from home at least once a month or more with the composite result (incidence of work functioning or reduced work participation) was 1.22 (1.04-1.43). The cause-specific hazard ratios of work functioning impairment and reduced work participation were 1.30 (1.04-1.61) and 1.13 (0.86-1.47).

CONCLUSIONS

Working from home could be longitudinally associated with work functioning impairment, especially for workers who are in higher positions. Workers and policy makers should be aware of the potential risk of working from home regarding presenteeism.

Signaling and meaning in organizational analytics: coping with Goodhart's Law in an era of digitization and datafication

The future of work will be measured. The increasing and widespread adoption of analytics, the use of digital inputs and outputs to inform organizational decision making, makes the communication of data central to organizing. This article applies and extends signaling theory to provide a framework for the study of analytics as communication. We report three cases that offer examples of dubious, selective, and ambiguous signaling in the activities of workers seeking to shape the meaning of data within the practice of analytics. The analysis casts the future of work as a game of strategic moves between organizations, seeking to measure behaviors and quantify the performance of work, and workers, altering their behavioral signaling to meet situated goals. The framework developed offers a guide for future examinations of the asymmetric relationship between management and workers as organizations adopt metrics to monitor and evaluate work.

Transcultural Comparison of Mental Health and Work-Life Integration Blurring in the Brazilian and Spanish Populations during COVID-19

The study aimed to compare the impact of Role Blurring on mental health and Work-Life Integration in the Brazilian and Spanish populations during COVID-19. Role Blurring, which is related to resources and demands in the work context, affects coping with stressors arising from role overlapping and impacts individuals' perception of work overload and mental health. The sample consisted of 877 adults from Spain (n = 498) and Brazil (n = 372), and various statistical analyses were conducted to compare the groups. Results showed that Role Blurring is linked to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, as well as suicidal ideation. Therefore, it is essential to promote working conditions that limit expectations on availability and favor disconnection from work during leisure time. Public policies that intervene, promote, and prevent psychosocial risk factors in emergent contexts are crucial to prevent suicidal ideation and attempts. Considering the high expected influence of Blurring as a focus of interventions can be reflected in the medium term in the indicators of well-being and satisfaction of companies, institutions and organizations. This can result in the reduction of health costs aimed at cushioning post-COVID-19 impacts on mental health. The study is relevant to understand the impact of the pandemic and technology on mental health and suggests the need for interventions to promote work-life balance and prevent psychosocial risks.

Who moved my boundary? Strategies adopted by families working from home

With the increase of remote work after the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be expected that soon a great number of households will consist of more than one teleworker. This raises the question of how to manage work and nonwork boundaries for the collective of household members who work from home. To better understand the adjustment to collective work from home, we examined the experiences of 28 dual-income households with school-age children residing in five countries. In doing so, we found specific strategies that families used to manage boundaries between two or more household members' work, learning, and home domains. We identified four strategies to define boundaries in the collective (i.e., repurposing the home space, revisiting family members' responsibilities, aligning family members' schedules, and distributing technology access and use) and five strategies to apply boundaries to accommodate the collective (i.e., designating an informal boundary governor, maintaining live boundary agreements, increasing family communication, incentivizing/punishing boundary respect/violation, and outsourcing). Our findings have theoretical and practical implications for remote work and boundary management.

Does workplace telepressure get under the skin? Protocol for an ambulatory assessment study on wellbeing and health-related physiological, experiential, and behavioral concomitants of workplace telepressure

BACKGROUND

The daily working life of many employees requires the use of modern information and communication technology (ICT) devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. The double-edged nature of digital work environments has been increasingly highlighted. Benefits such as increased flexibility come at a personal cost. One of the potential downsides is workplace telepressure, i.e., the experience of urge and preoccupation to quickly reply to work-related messages and demands using ICT. There is initial - mainly survey-based-evidence that workplace telepressure may have negative effects on a variety of wellbeing and health outcomes.

AIMS AND HYPOTHESES

Adopting the Effort-Recovery Model and the concept of allostatic load as theoretical frameworks, the present study aims to investigate the hypothesis that workplace telepressure is significantly associated with increased "wear and tear", in the form of more psychosomatic complaints, worse sleep quality (self-reported and actigraphy-based), worse mood, and biological alterations (lower cardiac vagal tone, lower anabolic balance defined as the ratio of salivary dehydroepiandrosterone to salivary cortisol, and higher salivary alpha-amylase). Additionally, the study aims to investigate the hypothesis that connection to work defined as work-related workload and work-related perseverative cognition plays a significant role in the mediation of these relationships.

METHODS

To test our hypotheses, we will conduct an ambulatory assessment study with a convenience sample of 120 healthy workers regularly using ICTs for job communication. For one week, participants will be asked to complete electronic diaries assessing their level of workplace telepressure, psychosomatic complaints, sleep quality, mood, work-related workload, and work-related perseverative cognition. They will also continuously wear the Bittium Faros 180L ECG monitor, the wrist-worn actigraph MotionWatch 8, and perform saliva sampling five times per day.

DISCUSSION

This study will be the most comprehensive ambulatory investigation of workplace telepressure and its psychophysiological concomitants to date and constitutes an important step towards understanding how high levels of workplace telepressure may lead in the long term to secondary alterations (e.g., hypertension, chronic inflammation) and disease (e.g., heart disease). The findings of this study are also anticipated to contribute to guiding the development and implementation of interventions, programs, and policies relevant to employees' digital wellbeing.

Teleworking in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Teleworkers who live and work in the same space are vulnerable to conflicts between personal life and work (LWC). The Covid-19 lockdowns increased the intensity and risk of LWC and changed telework conditions, confronting teleworkers with difficult personal situations and often ill-equipped telework environments. To develop a better understanding of the effects of different LWC dimensions (e.g., time, strain, behavior) on work exhaustion, job satisfaction, routine and innovative job performance and the role of the IT telework environment among teleworkers in the Covid-19 pandemic, a research model based on a sample of 249 teleworkers was developed and validated. The findings show that LWC has adverse effects on job outcomes and that the IT telework environment moderates these effects. The study contributes to the telework and role conflict literature by revealing the essential role of the IT telework environment and by differentiating between routine and innovative job performance among teleworkers.

Exploring the impact of virtual leadership on job satisfaction in the post-COVID-19 era: The mediating role of work–life balance and trust in leaders

Leadership remains a highly important role in the management of employees' psychological and physical well-being, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As various sectors adapted virtual settings to overcome the restrictions posed by the pandemic, the vitality of virtual leaders became more pivotal as they could enhance the virtual work environment for employees and steer teams toward organizational goals. This study assessed the effect of virtual leaders on employees' job satisfaction in the information technology sector as a high-performance industry. Furthermore, the mediating effects of trust in leaders and work–life balance on the virtual leadership–job satisfaction relationship were assessed in the proposed model of this research. Through a deductive quantitative approach and using purposive and convenience sampling techniques, a total of 196 respondents participated in the research. The data analysis process was deployed via Smart PLS software and the PLS-SEM technique. The results showed that virtual leaders play a major role in determining information technology (IT) employees' job satisfaction while the mediating effects of both trust in leaders and work–life balance are significant factors that can enhance the work environment for leaders to achieve better results. The statistically significant findings of this research suggest a number of positive work outcomes and pathways with scholarly and managerial implications that can be beneficial for leaders in relevant sectors.

Who Gains Mental Health Benefits from Work Autonomy? The Roles of Gender and Occupational Class

In recent years, improving work autonomy as an important priority in the UK labour market has been shown to enhance employee mental health and well-being. However, previous theories and empirical studies have paid little attention to the intersectional inequalities in the mental health benefits of work autonomy, preventing us from gaining a comprehensive understanding of the mental consequences of work autonomy. By integrating literature from occupational psychology, gender and social class, this study develops theoretical hypotheses regarding whether and how the mental health benefits of work autonomy vary alongside the intersectional axes of gender and occupational class and tests these hypotheses using long-term panel data in the UK (2010-2021). Overall, we find that those from higher occupational class and male employees acquire significantly more mental health benefits from high work autonomy compared with those from lower occupational class and female employees. Moreover, further analyses show significant intersectional inequalities of gender and occupational class. While male employees from all occupational classes gain significant mental health benefits from work autonomy, only female employees from higher (but not lower) occupational classes benefit from work autonomy. These findings contribute to the literature in the sociology of work by demonstrating the intersectional inequalities in mental health consequences of work autonomy, especially for women in the lower occupational class, highlighting the need for a more gender- and occupation-sensitive design in future labour market policies.

The spillover effect of work connectivity behaviors on employees' family: Based on the perspective of work-home resource model

With the rapid development of mobile communication technology, work connectivity behaviors are becoming increasingly pervasive, which has gradually attracted extensive attention from scholars and practitioners. According to the work-home resource model, we propose a theoretical model that proactive/passive work connectivity behaviors induce family harmony through self-efficacy and ego depletion, and we explore the moderating role of family support in this relationship. Based on survey data collected from 364 questionnaires using a three-wave time-lagged design, the results show that: (1) Proactive work connection behaviors have a negative effect on family harmony; Passive work connection behaviors have a negative effect on family harmony. (2) Self-efficacy plays a suppressing role in the relationship between proactive work connection behaviors and family harmony. (3) Ego depletion plays a mediating role in the relationship between passive work connectivity behaviors and family harmony; (4) Family support not only positively moderates the relationship between proactive work connectivity behaviors and self-efficacy, but also moderates the suppressing effect of proactive work connectivity behaviors on family harmony through self-efficacy; (5) Family support not only negatively moderates the relationship between passive work connectivity behaviors and ego depletion, but also moderates the mediating effect of passive work connectivity behaviors on family harmony through ego depletion. The above results can broaden our understanding of the effect of work connectivity behaviors and provide some inspiration for how to optimize the management strategy of employees' work connectivity behaviors.

Freedom or bondage? The double-edged sword effect of work connectivity behavior after-hours on employee occupational mental health

Purpose

This study aims to explore the double-edged sword effect of work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) on employees’ occupational mental health. Drawing on job demand-resource theory, the authors examined the double mediating mechanism of work autonomy and work-family conflict on the relationship of WCBA, work engagement and work burnout. At the same time, the authors examined the moderating role of responsiveness from superiors, hoping to clarify how WCBA brings employees positive experiences (engagement) or negative experiences (burnout).

Design/methodology/approach

Under the mediating mechanism of work autonomy and work-family conflict, the authors built a dual-path model and moderated mediation model to examine the effect of WCBA on work engagement and burnout. Two-stage paired data were collected from various industries in China by distributing questionnaires to employees. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equation model and the bootstrap test method.

Findings

The results showed that WCBA positively affects work engagement and burnout. Work autonomy plays a mediating role both in the relationship between WCBA and work engagement and in the relationship between WCBA and work burnout. In addition, work-family conflict plays a mediating role both in the relationship between WCBA and work burnout and in the relationship between WCBA and work engagement. Responsiveness from superiors not only moderated the relationship between WCBA and work autonomy and between WCBA and work-family conflict but also moderated the mediating effects of work autonomy and work-family conflict.

Originality/value

This study examined the double-edged sword effect of WCBA on employees’ occupational mental health, the dual mediation of work autonomy and work-family conflict and the moderating effect of responsiveness from superiors. This study can enrich the understanding of the effects of WCBA as well as the influential factors and boundary conditions related to employees’ occupational mental health. Organizations (represented by superiors) and individuals were integrated into one model, providing a new perspective for studying WCBA. The research will help managers and individuals gain a comprehensive understanding of WCBA, and how to enhance its positive effects and circumvent its negative effects.

Qualitative examination of collaboration in team-based primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to describe Ontario primary care teams' experiences with collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive qualitative methods using focus groups conducted virtually for data collection.

SETTING

Primary care teams located in Ontario, Canada.

PARTICIPANTS

Our study conducted 11 focus groups with 10 primary care teams, with a total of 48 participants reflecting a diverse range of interprofessional healthcare providers and administrators working in primary care.

RESULTS

Three themes were identified using thematic analysis: (1) prepandemic team functioning facilitated adaptation, (2) new processes of team interactions and collaboration, and (3) team as a foundation of support.

CONCLUSIONS

Results revealed the importance of collaboration for provider well-being, and the challenges of providing collaborative team-based primary care in the pandemic context. Caution against converting primary care collaboration to predominantly virtual modalities postpandemic is recommended. Further research on team functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic in other healthcare organisations will offer additional insight regarding how primary care teams can work collaboratively in a postpandemic environment.

The double-edged sword of online access to work tools outside work: The relationship with flexible working, work interrupting nonwork behaviors and job satisfaction

Introduction

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide employees with online access to work tools outside work (OAWT), which can be seen as a double-edged sword fostering positive as well as negative aspects of flexibility. In our study, we investigated how OAWT relates to different forms of flexible working, work interrupting nonwork behaviors and job satisfaction.

Method

We used a randomized sample of 758 Austrian employees from a broad range of organizations and tested the hypotheses by means of structural equation modeling.

Results

Our findings revealed that OAWT is associated with available flexibility which relates positively to job satisfaction. However, at the same time, it is associated with required flexibility which relates negatively to job satisfaction and positively to work interrupting nonwork behaviors. OAWT has also been found to strengthen the positive relationship between required temporal flexibility and work interrupting nonwork behaviors, and attenuated the negative relationship between required temporal flexibility and job satisfaction.

Implications

We discuss the practical implications and develop recommendations on how organizations should deal with OAWT.

Work Un(Interrupted): How Non-territorial Space Shapes Worker Control over Social Interaction

Organizational research has long emphasized the importance of physical space in structuring opportunities for social interaction among workers. Using 14 months of field research during an office redesign at a large team-based sales company, I find that the adoption of non-territorial space—a change from assigned cubicles to an unassigned mix of spaces—substantially increased worker control over social interaction. Whereas the old territorial space rendered workers constantly accessible to others, the new non-territorial space altered information about workers’ location and availability preferences, enabling new strategies for hiding in the space and signaling availability to others through workspace selection. This led to greater reliance on virtual or asynchronous communication technologies, and less unwanted interruption in the new non-territorial space. The findings identify how the non-territorial dimension of office space affects worker control over social interaction. They also reveal the social practices through which individuals actively use material and symbolic resources in the physical environment to avoid cognitive and temporal costs of unwanted interruption. The study complements dominant structural accounts with a richer theorization of individual agency—while physical spaces certainly structure opportunities for social interaction, they also structure the strategies that individuals can use to actively manage social interaction.

To be or not to be stressed: Designing autonomy to reduce stress at work

BACKGROUND

Many organizations are undertaking efforts to reduce the stress of (oftentimes overworked) employees. Information Technology (IT) (e.g., smartphones) has the potential to be a key instrument for reducing stress. One design-relevant factor considered to reduce stress is the concept of autonomy. Unfortunately, little research exists using autonomy as a characteristic of technology design.

OBJECTIVE

Against this background, this study aimed to investigate specific autonomy-related design options with the potential to prevent stress.

METHODS

In a factorial survey, this experimental study tested three design options in an overwork scenario: 1) autonomy (no intervention by design), 2) nudge ("nudging" by design), and 3) enforcement (hard stop by design). 51 participants (mean age 38 years, 50% women, mean work experience 18 years) from the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Germany participated in the experiment for 330 seconds on average. To test our hypothesis, we used a two-step approach. First, a multiple linear regression was applied. Second, we carried out a one-way ANCOVA comparing the effects of our design options.

RESULTS

Our results indicate that autonomy can be manipulated through technology design and is negatively correlated with stress. Additionally, the design options autonomy and nudge were associated with lower levels of perceived stress than was enforcement.

CONCLUSION

The study proposes a careful use of IT and policies that limit the perceived autonomy of employees. Overall, this study offers a set of design recommendations arguing that organizations should implement technology that helps employees prevent overwork and maintain their autonomy.

"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.

Há Tanta Vida Lá Fora! Work-life Conflict, Mulheres e Pós-Graduação em Contabilidade

RESUMO Objetivo: o presente artigo busca problematizar as experiências na pós-graduação e o work-life conflict na vida de doutorandas em ciências contábeis no Brasil. Marco teórico: o presente trabalho se apoia em teorias feministas que discutem o papel social imposto à mulher por meio da divisão sexual do trabalho e como tal papel social se relaciona na busca do equilíbrio entre vida pessoal e profissional. Método: foi adotado o construcionismo, como vertente epistemológica, e o pós-estruturalismo feminista como perspectiva teórica. Para construção do corpus de pesquisa foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade, analisadas pela técnica de template analysis, com a construção de códigos ordenados, de acordo com as características da pesquisa e a intenção das pesquisadoras. Resultados: devido ao fato de a estrutura acadêmica replicar a divisão sexual do trabalho encontrada na sociedade, foram encontradas dicotomias impostas como ‘abandono ou adiamento’ da vida pessoal em detrimento da vida acadêmica, principalmente por questões relacionadas à maternidade e às altas cobranças dos programas de pós-graduação. Conclusões: como resultado, conclui-se que as doutorandas desempenham diversos papéis sociais tradicionalmente atribuídos às mulheres. Para tanto, relegam a vida pessoal, tomando a decisão de postergar casamento e maternidade ou a entrada no doutorado. Assim, consideradas tanto as relações pessoais construídas com pares e professores quanto o ambiente institucional acadêmico, a academia ainda precisa avançar para contemplar a trajetória de mulheres, de forma que as difíceis escolhas não recaiam sobre elas. O presente trabalho contribui para a literatura ao lançar olhares e reflexões específicas da academia contábil do Brasil.

There’s so Much life out there! Work-life Conflict, Women and Accounting Graduate programs

ABSTRACT Objective: this article discusses women’s experiences during their doctoral education in accounting, focusing on the work-life conflict. Theoretical framework: we adopted feminist theories to discuss the imposed social role on women through the sexual division of labor and how this social role relates to the search for balance between personal and professional life. Method: we adopted constructionism as the epistemological strand and feminist post-structuralism as a theoretical perspective. We conducted in-depth interviews to construct the research corpus. We analyzed the evidence through template analysis and ordered codes according to the research characteristics and purpose. Results: due to the fact that the academic structure replicates the sexual division of labor found in society, imposed dichotomies were found as ‘abandonment or postponement’ of personal life to the detriment of academic life, mainly by issues related to motherhood and the high demands of graduate programs. Conclusions: as a result, we conclude that female doctoral students play several social roles traditionally attributed to women. Therefore, they relegate their personal lives, deciding to postpone marriage and maternity or entering doctoral studies. Thus, considering both the personal relationships built with peers and teachers and the academic institutional environment, the academy still needs to advance to contemplate the trajectory of women so that the difficult choices do not fall on them. The paper contributes to the literature by offering insights and reflections specific to the accounting Brazilian academia.

A Work Time Control Tradeoff in Flexible Work: Competitive Pathways to Need for Recovery

Work time control may offer opportunities, but also implies risks for employee recovery, influenced by increased work-related ICT use and overtime work. However, this risk-opportunity tradeoff remains understudied. This study aimed to test two different models of associations between work time control, work-related ICT use, overtime work, and the need for recovery. These models were constructed based on data on office workers with flexible work arrangements. Cross-sectional data were obtained with questionnaires (n = 2582) from employees in a Swedish multi-site organization. Regression models treated the three determinants of the need for recovery either as independent, or as linked in a causal sequence. The test of independent determinants confirmed that more work time control was associated with less need for recovery, whereas more ICT use and overtime work were associated with a higher need for recovery. In a test of serial mediation, more work time control contributed to a greater need for recovery through more ICT use and then more overtime work. Work time control also had a competitive, indirect effect through a negative association with overtime work. Our results suggest that work time control is beneficial for employee recovery, but may for some be associated with more work-related ICT use after regular working hours, thus increasing recovery needs. Policies that support work time control can promote recovery, but employers must attend to the risk of excessive use of ICT outside of regular working hours.

Exploring Managerial Job Demands and Resources in Transition to Distance Management: A Qualitative Danish Case Study

Organizations worldwide have shifted to working from home, requiring managers to engage in distance management using information and communication technologies (ICT). Studies show that managers experience high job demands and inadequate guidance during COVID-19; therefore, the transition to distance management raises questions about the increase in managerial job demands and the impact on managers' well-being. This study aims to explore first-line managers' perceptions of job demands and available resources during the first year of the pandemic and understand the implications for first-line managers' well-being. First-line managers face complex and conflicting demands, making them more challenged in their management task than other management levels. We used the job demands-resources model in this qualitative, longitudinal empirical study. The study draws on 49 semi-structured interviews with seven first-line managers from a large pharmaceutical company in Denmark, whom we followed throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, from May 2020 to May 2021. Our findings suggest that the first-line managers perceived increased emotional and practical demands. While the managers appreciated the initial guidance provided by the organization, they perceived the organizational support as outdated and superficial. As a result, to cope with the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the shift to distance management, the managers relied on work engagement enablers such as social support. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic portrays unique circumstances in transitioning to distance management that require further exploration outside the COVID-19 context, the insights from this study can assist organizations in developing awareness about transitions to better support first-line management to embrace changes in the future.

Are library staff autonomous? The influence of routines and the development of workarounds

As knowledge workers, library staff are assumed to be highly autonomous, meaning that they are in control of how work is done. Yet, this work is heavily influenced by the expectations of others, and the expectation to take control can pressure staff to overwork. In this qualitative study, 13 public library staff members engaged in think-alouds (TAs) and semi-structured interviews (SSIs) aimed at uncovering potential misalignments between a staff member’s own prescriptive expectations for library work and the expectations of management, customers, colleagues, and technological and material artifacts. Findings suggest that public library staff have several expectations for how work will be done and, at times, want the freedom to control work in ways that match these expectations. They devise and implement defiance workarounds aimed at reinforcing their own expectations in the face of conflicting expectations from other system actors. Yet, autonomy is a multifaceted concept that goes beyond the mere need for control and, sometimes, giving up control meant that other needs were fulfilled. This study advances research on the nature of workplace autonomy and the active role of workers in its expression. This study also has implications for library management, as it suggests important considerations for shared autonomy and workplace relationships, as well as the need to engage in efforts aimed at shifting problematic expectations in the library work system.

Development and validation of a scale to measure team communication behaviors

Introduction

With the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work was increased all over the globe. As a consequence, workers had to adapt their communication behaviors to smoothly coordinate work in their flexible teams (i.e., when team members divide work between the office and their homes). Drawing on relational coordination theory, we constructed and validated a scale to capture the most relevant team communication behaviors.

Methods

We employed interviews and focus groups to construct the scale, refined the scale based on three samples with employees working flexibly and finally validated the scale with 130 teams from diverse organizations.

Results

Our scale comprises three dimensions: focused communication, knowledge sharing and spontaneous communication. All three dimensions showed convergent validity with team planning and discriminant validity with time-spatial flexibility. Also, predictive validity with collective efficacy and team viability was achieved for focused communication and knowledge sharing. Spontaneous communication only predicted collective efficacy, but not team viability.

Discussion

We conclude that the TCS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing team communication and contribute by focusing on behaviors.

Study of working from home: the impact of ICT anxiety and smartphone addiction on lecturers at NIPA School of Administration on job performance

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted on the working system, shifting working from office (WFO) into working from home (WFH) practice that requires employees to be skillful in using technology to support their work activities. However, this condition can affect job performance. This study aims to analyze the impact of ICT anxiety and smartphone addiction on job performance of all lecturers at NIPA School of Administration (Jakarta, Bandung, and Makassar). This study applied a quantitative method with a total sampling technique and conducted a survey on 135 respondents using an online questionnaire. Furthermore, this study employed job demands and resources theory as well as PLS-SEM to analyze five variables (ICT anxiety, smartphone addiction, interruption, job efficacy, and job performance) and to test seven hypotheses. The findings show that there is a positive relationship between ICT anxiety and interruption while interruption has negative influences on job efficacy and job performance. Therefore, this study recommends the facilitation of knowledge sharing related to ICT competence or literacy. In addition, NIPA should improve the security guarantees of the intellectual rights of the lecturers in relation to the choice of technology and integrate the demands of ICT needs with administrative-technical procedures.

Nomophobia in today’s overlapping work and family domains: The influences on organizational identification

Drawing on attentional control theory, this study addresses the influences of nomophobia (no-mobile-phone-phobia) on organizational identification and work-family conflict. It also examines the mediation role of work-family conflict in the relationship between nomophobia and organizational identification. Its hypotheses were tested using data from 398 teachers employed in public and private schools. The results revealed that by disrupting cognitive and perceptual processes, nomophobia contributes to conflicts between employees’ roles in their work and family domains, and eventually prevents them from identifying with organizational goals and values. The results also confirmed the mediation role of work-family conflict. By adopting a pure psychological approach (i.e., attentional control theory), as a new and different perspective for the organizational behavior and work-family conflict literatures, the findings are expected to contribute to increasing the awareness of organizations about negative attitudes and behaviors of nomophobic employees and highlight the needs of nomophobic employees for appropriate social and psychological supports.

Criteria and Guidelines for Human-Centered Work Design in a Digitally Transformed World of Work: Findings from a Formal Consensus Process

With the increasing digital transformation, work tasks are changing-in some cases, significantly. Our study addresses the question of whether the established criteria for work design are still sufficient or if they should get updated and additional criteria become necessary in the context of digitalization. In a multistage consensus process involving interdisciplinary groups of experts, we have identified specific criteria for the humane design of work in a world increasingly permeated by digitalized work tools. Starting with an expert workshop using a combined nominal group/focus group technique, followed by a real-time Delphi study, a content analysis and a five-stage peer comment process, we detected 13 criteria and 38 design guidelines for human-centered work in digital transformation. Mapping these with established criteria, it became apparent that some established criteria have experienced a new dynamic because of the digital transformation. For other criteria, a need for digitization-sensitive design is discernible. In addition, criteria have emerged whose necessity is rooted in the digital transformation. A diffusion and stronger interconnection of the various levels of the work system in connection with the digital transformation of work is apparent.

Exploring employee well-being during the COVID-19 remote work: evidence from South Africa

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated a shift to remote working for previously office-based employees in South Africa, impacting employee outcomes such as well-being. The remote work trend is expected to continue even post the pandemic, necessitating for organizational understanding of the factors impacting employee well-being. Using the Job Demands–Resources model as the theoretical framework, this study aims to understand the role of job demands and resources as predictors of employee well-being in the pandemic context.

Design/methodology/approach

A self-administered online survey questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data about remote workers’ (n = 204) perceptions of specifically identified demands, resources and employee well-being. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and moderated hierarchical regression were used to analyse the data.

Findings

This study found that job demands in the form of work–home conflict were associated with reduced employee well-being. Resources, namely, job autonomy, effective communication and social support were associated with increased employee well-being. Job autonomy was positively correlated to remote work frequency, and gender had a significant positive association to work–home conflict. Social support was found to moderate the relationship between work–home conflict and employee well-being. Findings suggest that organizations looking to enhance the well-being of their remote workforce should implement policies and practices that reduce the demands and increase the resources of their employees. The significant association of gender to work–home conflict suggests that greater interventions are required particularly for women. This study advances knowledge on the role of demands and resources as predictors of employee well-being of remote workforces during COVID-19 and beyond.

Originality/value

This paper provides insight on employee well-being during COVID-19 remote work. Further, the findings suggest that organizations looking to enhance the well-being of their remote workforce should implement policies and practices that reduce the demands and increase the resources of their employees. The significant association of gender to work–home conflict suggests that greater interventions are required particularly for women. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study carried out to explore the employee well-being during COVID-19 pandemic and will be beneficial to stakeholders for understanding the factors impacting employee well-being.

Pandemic Imposed Remote Work Arrangements and Resultant Work-Life Integration, Future of Work and Role of Leaders—A Qualitative Study of Indian Millennial Workers

The unprecedented nature and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in mass lockdowns around the world, and millions of people were forced to work remotely for months, confined in their homes. Our study was aimed at understanding how pandemic-imposed remote work arrangements affected millennial workers in India. With signs of the pandemic slowing down, but with the likelihood of organizations retaining some of these work arrangements, the paper also explores how these are likely to affect the future of work, and the role that organizations and leaders have in managing the workforce in the ‘new normal’. The study follows an interpretivist paradigm and qualitative research approach using the narrative method as a key research strategy. The data was collected using in-depth interviews from Indian millennial respondents employed in both private and government sectors. The findings show a kind of work-life integration for the workers as a result of the pandemic-imposed remote work arrangements. This integration has been caused by four different types of issues that have also emerged as four major themes which have resulted in a further 10 sub-themes. The four major themes identified in this research are Managerial Issues, Work Issues, Logistical Issues, and Psychological Issues.

Working Time Control and Variability in Europe Revisited: Correlations with Health, Sleep, and Well-Being

Working time control (WTC) and working time variability (WTV) are two important dimensions of working times, especially with regard to the dynamics of irregular working hours in a changing world of work. Both dimensions are closely related, and the terms are sometimes used synonymously. However, a high degree of WTC does not automatically lead to variable or irregular working hours. On the contrary, WTV is often imposed by the employer and does not necessarily occur in conjunction with high WTC. This article gives an overview of different European WTC and WTV regimes using a typological approach. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey 2015 (EWCS, n = 27,607), four employee groups are compared: those with (1) high WTC and high WTV, (2) high WTC and low WTV, (3) low WTC and high WTV, and (4) low WTC and low WTV. Firstly, the analyses aim to assess whether WTC and WTV vary across European countries due to different working time regimes and in different occupational sectors, i.e., hospitality, retail, and health and social work. Secondly, multi-level analyses are used to describe correlations with health (self-rated health, psychosomatic complaints), sleep (sleep problems), and well-being (WHO-5-Scale). The analyses suggest that WTC and WTV differ between European countries: in the northern countries, high WTC/high WTV is most prevalent, whereas low WTV/low WTC is more common in the other countries. As far as employee health and sleep are concerned, high WTV is associated with poor health, i.e., a greater number of psychosomatic health complaints, worse self-rated health status, and more sleep problems. However, the correlation appears to be weaker for psychosomatic health complaints when employees have high WTC. Significant correlations could not be found for WTC. Low WTC and high WTV is more common in occupational sectors in hospitality, retail, and health and social care; however, these occupational sectors show the same correlations regarding health, sleep, and well-being. The analyses indicate that it is crucial to consider WTV and WTC together in order to understand the dynamics of irregular working hours and health.

What Is on Your Gig Radar? Toward a Hierarchical Structure of Coping

Digitalized independent workers, known as gig workers, have been shown to work under high-pressure, with a lack of autonomy, a lack of feedback and perceived competence, and a high level of isolation. We conducted a literature review to investigate how gig workers cope with these sources of stress. We identified primary sources of psychological stress in gig work and the main strategies used by workers for coping with them. We show that focusing solely on identifying coping strategies depicts a fragmented literature, making it impossible to compare, link, or aggregate findings. We suggest a radar classification of coping based on the motivational action theory of coping and self-determination theory that defines coping as a process to adapt to the environment and maintain well-being. We argue that this framework is both relevant and necessary for developing research on gig-worker coping.

Role of digitalization, digital competence, and parental support on performance of sports education in low-income college students

Educational institutions have failed to achieve desired goals due to the lack of technology adoption, and this situation needs researchers' emphasis. Hence, the current study examines the impact of digitalization and digital competencies among students on the educational performance of low-income college students in China. The article also investigates the moderating impact of parental support at the nexus of digitalization, digital competencies among students, and educational performance in low-income college students in China. The questionnaires were used by the researchers to gather the data from the selected respondents. The article has applied the smart-PLS to check the linkage among understudy constructs and test the hypotheses. The results revealed that digitalization and digital competencies among students positively link educational performance. The results also exposed that parental support significantly moderates digitalization, digital competencies, and educational performance in low-income college students in China. This article helps policymakers develop policies to improve educational performance using technology adoption.

A Virtual Net Locks Me In: How and When Information and Communication Technology Use Intensity Leads to Knowledge Hiding

The research explores a novel phenomenon in which information and communication technology (ICT), which is originally designed for knowledge transferring, may result in employees' knowledge hiding due to increasing use intensity. Specifically, drawing upon the appraisal theory of empathy, we develop a moderated mediation model of empathy linking ICT use intensity and knowledge hiding. The hypothesized model is tested by conducting a scenario-based experimental study (Study 1, N = 194) and a multi-wave field study (Study 2, N = 350). Results show that ICT use intensity is positively related to employees' knowledge hiding through the mediating role of their empathy. Moreover, competitive goal interdependence strengthens the negative relationship between ICT use intensity and employees' empathy, and the indirect positive effect between ICT use intensity and employees' knowledge hiding. Overall, the research answers the questions of how and when ICT use intensity may influence employees' knowledge hiding. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10551-022-05245-4.