The Intensified Blurring of Boundaries Between Work and Private Life through IT Consumerisation

Consumer technologies have intensified the blurring between work and private spaces. For instance, employees increasingly use privately owned devices for work or company provided devices for private tasks. By means of a multiple case study in four organisations, we investigate the current use of consumer IT in organisations in relation to the increased blurring between work and private life. With regard to boundary theory, we are able to identify six technology-related aspects that describe the intensifying role of IT consumerisation in terms of blurring boundaries. Whether people strive for work-life integration or segmentation, they often experience conflicts in realising their individual preference. However, it seems that IT consumerisation further moved the standard for work-life blurring towards integration rather than segmentation. The number of identified conflicts suggests that there is still a lot of potential for software vendors and user companies to make the management of work and private life spaces more feasible. More specifically, there is a need for solutions that better target individual preferences towards work-life blurring. Our study sheds further light on both increasing chances and challenges that consumer technology puts on employees and organisations

Towards a Taxonomy of Concepts Describing IT Outside the IT Department

Due to technological advances, IT is increasingly introduced and managed outside of (or even hidden from) an organization\u27s IT department. Researchers and practitioners have created multiple concepts describing different facets and trends of this development. While the individual concepts typically focus on different aspects, there are overlaps between these concepts. This effect hampers research progress as it creates redundancies and separate streams of knowledge development. To close this gap, we propose a taxonomy of the concepts Lightweight IT, IT Consumerization, Bring Your Own Device, Shadow IT, and Business-Managed IT based on a structured literature review. For this purpose, we derive characterizing dimensions of each concept from existing studies and analyze literature according to the usage of terms. As a result, we can describe and delineate the concepts. Thus, we contribute a taxonomy of IT outside the IT department to improve the transfer of research results from between research streams

Do You Plead Connected? - Understanding How Lawyers Deal With Constant Connectivity

Being available and responsive has become an imperative to accomplish the complex work of knowledge workers and to adequately satisfy today’s business needs. As a consequence, individuals are required to adopt strategies to cope with increasing connectivity levels. We conducted a Q methodological study among 34 lawyers from Switzerland and Austria to examine the adoption of different strategies for dealing with constant connectivity. Our findings reveal four ICT user types, whereof three types successfully deploy a coping strategy while one type fails. We observe that specific determinants such as the work environment, the hierarchical position, the perceived autonomy as well as personality traits have substantial influence on the adoption of a coping strategy

Alter-identity work via Social Media in Professional Service Contexts

This study examines the emerging use of social media in complex social phenomenon, natural disasters. By adopting an affordance perspective, we focus on how local communities harness the power of social media in disaster response. Using an interpretive approach, we identify different affordances of social media and examine how these affordances enable local communities in performing crisis response activities and achieving social outcomes in the case of 2015 Myanmar flood. The lack of theoretical development in research on societal consequences of emerging technologies (e.g. social media) makes this study timely, relevant, and worthwhile. Our findings demonstrate that social media transformed the way citizens, organizations, emergency responders, and government think and act creatively, improvising new means of addressing the challenges posted by a disaster. The study generates theoretical and practical implications for understanding the role of social media in addressing societal challenges in developing counties

Lecturers’ Experiences of the Blurring of Work and Home Boundaries During the Covid-19 Pandemic at a South African ODeL University

The unprecedented extended Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns forced higher education institutions (HEIs) to find innovative ways to effectively deliver student tuition and support. The lockdown brought many challenges to the education sector, including increasing the blurring of the work–home boundaries. This study investigated how Covid-19 accelerated the blurring of lecturers’ work–home boundaries in the College of Education at a distance education institution in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 15 lecturers. The results showed that a lack of workspace at many lecturers’ homes forced them to work beyond normal office hours. One of the key findings was that complete segmentation and integration were impossible because these lines were continuously blurred during the pandemic. The demand for immediate feedback by students exacerbated the situation for many lecturers. There is a need for the design of fluid policies that can be readily implemented during times of emergency such as the pandemic

Is Information Technology Solely to Blame? The Influence of Work-home Conflict Dimensions on Work Exhaustion

Using information technology (IT) can blur the boundaries between work and private life and contribute to an IT-based work-home conflict (WHC). Organizations and governments treat IT usage as the main source of WHC and have implemented laws and policies to restrict access to IT to reduce WHC. In this paper, we investigate the effect of IT usage-related and work-based dimensions of WHC: time-, strain-, and behavior-based WHC. Understanding the dimensions of WHC can help organizations and governments move beyond IS usage restrictions to identify and prevent the negative consequences of each dimension for employees, such as work exhaustion. We distinguish IT- from work-based dimensions and theorize their effect on work exhaustion. The results of a study of 542 employees show that the IT-based dimension of WHC only indirectly influences work exhaustion, whereas time- and strain-based WHC contribute significantly and directly to work exhaustion. Implications for research and practice are suggested

Antecedents for Cyberloafing – A Literature Review

The private use of the Internet via desktop and smartphones during working time, also known as cyberloafing, has become a common practice at many workplaces. While critical voices expect performance losses through such behavior, their opponents perceive of the interruptions created by cyberloafing as an opportunity to recover and continue working with increased productivity afterwards. Given the growing body of research on Internet-related employees’ opportunism, this paper presents a systematic literature review of 69 studies to identify the factors behind cyberloafing. The classification includes personality traits as well as antecedents related to the job, organization and personal life. The paper concludes with a clear picture of the kind of circumstances which tend to increase cyberloafing and which factors statistically do not seem to have any impact on the abuse of Internet during working time

Determinants of consumerisation of information technology and its effect on employee performance

The ubiquitous nature of personally technological advanced devices and applications has engendered various predictions for the current employee at the workplace. With the introduction and adoption of mobile phones, tablets, laptops and even software, organisations are gradually allowing employees to utilise their personal mobile devices at the office to accomplish their tasks. This has led to the term Consumerisation of Information Technology (CIT) or IT consumerisation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of consumerisation of IT and its effect on job performance of staff at an institution of higher learning. This study used a theoretical framework - The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Usage of Technology – to find out if indeed consumerisation of IT has an effect on job performance. An online questionnaire was sent to the university’s staff email and a total of 230 responses were recorded. The study used a quantitative research approach. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used for data analysis to test the hypotheses. Tests such as the multiple linear regression, factor analysis, correlations, ANOVA and t-tests were used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study showed that there is a relationship between the determinants of consumerisation of IT and their effect on job performance at the workplace. These determinants are performance expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. Effort expectancy was the only factor that did not have an effect on consumerisation of IT. As such the study suggested that institutions and organisations to take note of the technological development of devices that can help employees improve their productivity. However, this should be treated with caution as there are also negative effects such as technostress and cyberloafing which may be associated with the advent of consumerisation of IT, therefore it should be a gradual process in order to see the benefits

Knowledge Management without Management -- Shadow IT in Knowledge-intensive Manufacturing Practices

The voluntary use of private device by employees without formal approval of the IT department, commonly termed Shadow IT, is an increasingly widespread phenomenon. In this paper, we study the role of private smartphones (and related applications like WhatsApp) in knowledge-intensive practices in the manufacturing domain. With an in-depth case study based on data gained from observations and interviews, we are able to empirically illustrate why workers use their private smartphones (contrary to company guidelines) and how they find significant gains of productivity by using the ‘forbidden’ applications. Our study contributes to knowledge management research by showing how private IT use can change existing knowledge management practices. At the same time, we are able to give rich insights into the rise of Shadow IT in a manufacturing context which takes place in a self-organised way without knowledge of the management. This enables us to take a step towards a knowledge management strategy perspective on Shadow IT

Vom Wald in die Stadt. Die Auswirkungen des ITAS-Umzugs in die Karlsruher Innenstadt auf die Mobilität der Mitarbeitenden

Im März 2012 zog das Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse (ITAS) des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) in die Karlsruher Innenstadt um. Bis dahin war es auf einem Gelände im suburbanen Raum inmitten des Hardtwaldes untergebracht. Dieser garantierte eine gute Pkw-Anbindung und ausreichend kostenlose Parkplätze. Die Anbindung an den öffentlichen Verkehr (ÖV) war hingegen durchschnittlich. Mit dem Umzug in die Innenstadt haben sich einige entscheidende Rahmenbedingungen verändert, zugunsten der Anbindung an den ÖV und zulasten des Stellplatzangebotes. Der vorliegende Beitrag betrachtet die Verhaltensadaption der ITAS-Mitarbeitenden in einem Zeitraum von 2,5 Jahren und nimmt dabei sowohl den Arbeitsweg der Mitarbeitenden selbst als auch Veränderungen ihrer Haushaltsorganisation in den Blick. Die Untersuchung belegt insbesondere einen Wechsel vom Pkw zum Fahrrad, eine höhere Zufriedenheit der Mitarbeitenden und eine Veränderung der Haushaltsorganisation durch die Einkaufsmöglichkeiten am neuen Standort