Understanding constant connectivity to work: How and for whom is constant connectivity related to employee well-being?

Over the past few decades, the widespread use of mobile work devices (MWDs: e.g., laptops and smartphones) has enabled constant connectivity to work. This study advances previous work on the effects of constant connectivity for employees by focusing on how and for whom constant connectivity might be related to employee well-being. Additionally, organizational-level antecedents of constant connectivity are investigated. This paper reports on two survey studies that a) operationalize constant connectivity and its organizational antecedents and b) investigate the relationship between constant connectivity and employee well-being. The findings demonstrate that constant connectivity is negatively related to employees' well-being due to the inability to disengage from work. Moreover, this negative association exists independently of

An analysis of fear factors predicting enterprise social media use in an era of communication visibility

Purpose The benefits associated with visibility in organizations depend on employees' willingness to engage with technologies that utilize visible communication and make communication visible to others. Without the participation of workers, enterprise social media have limited value. This study develops a framework to assess what deters and drives employees' use of enterprise social media. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 753 employees of a global company using an online survey. The response rate was 24.5%. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized framework. Findings The results show that various fears by workers may deter or motivate enterprise social media use. This offers an alternative viewpoint for examining the consequences of communication visibility in organizations. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that the fear of accountability and the fear of losing uniqueness reduce enterprise social media use through increased codification efforts. The fear of missing out is directly and positively related to collecting behaviors on enterprise social media. Research limitations/implications Expectations about participation in visible organizational communication environments are rising. However, as individuals may experience anxiety in such settings, the authors need to direct more analytical focus to the ways individuals manage communication visibility in organizing contexts and develop a deeper understanding of the consequences of fear in workplace communication. Originality/value The analysis recognizes that fear can play a key role in deterring or motivating workers' specific choices in navigating the challenges that occur when technology can make communication broadly visible. This study uses theorizing on communication visibility to bring together different fear mechanisms to predict enterprise social media use.yrityksetpeerReviewe

Disruptions and General Distress for Essential and Nonessential Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and outbreak response represent a global crisis that has affected various aspects of people’s lives, including work. Speculation is rife about the impact of the crisis on employees. Countries and organizations worldwide have categorized some work as essential and, by extension, other work as nonessential. This study aims to investigate the impact of the pandemic by examining the relationship between work disruptions (at time 1) and general distress (at time 2) through various work stressors, contrasting the experiences of employees in essential versus nonessential work. For employees with essential jobs, there is a significant indirect effect of work disruptions on general distress through hindrance stressors. This relationship is not found for employees with nonessential jobs. The general distress of these employees is more strongly affected by disruptions through social stressors (here, social isolation). Hence, this study demonstrates how general distress is affected in different ways for employees conducting essential work and those conducting nonessential work. We further highlight the importance of considering social stressors in this relationship, especially for nonessential work. Organizational change communication quality mitigates the relationship between isolation and general distress for employees with nonessential jobs, but not for those with essential jobs

Algorithmic management of crowdworkers: Implications for workers’ identity, belonging, and meaningfulness of work

Online labor platforms function as meta-organizations, blending elements of an open market and hierarchical structure by algorithmically governing goals and objectives. This study investigates how this algorithmic management approach influences the perceived meaningfulness of work among crowdworkers, with a particular focus on its effects through identity and belonging. Drawing on survey data collected from 1291 crowdworkers, our findings highlight that algorithmic control and algorithmic matching are differently associated with the meaningfulness of work. Algorithmic control, characterized by directive oversight, exhibits a negative association with perceived meaningfulness. In contrast, algorithmic matching, which pairs workers with online tasks, fosters a positive perception of meaningfulness. We demonstrate that these associations are (partially) mediated by identity and belonging mechanisms. Specifically, we demonstrate that crowdworkers tend to selforganize support and social confirmation using online communities, which provides a sense of meaningfulness. This research advances our understanding of the experiences of crowdworkers within online labor platforms, shedding light on the multifaceted implications of algorithmic management. It emphasizes the importance of fostering supportive and communicative environments in work settings characterized by algorithmic governance mechanisms.peerReviewe

Staying connected and feeling less exhausted : The autonomy benefits of after‐hour connectivity

This study investigates the longitudinal relationship between after-hour connectivity, autonomy and exhaustion. In doing so, we seek to illuminate the role of individuals' connectivity to work in relation to their autonomy and well-being. We juxtapose different effective directions of the relationship between connectivity and autonomy to shed light on whether and how connectivity and autonomy are related to employees' well-being. This is important because research has both often problematized after-hour connectivity and suggested that connectivity is an inherent feature of contemporary workplaces that may benefit employees. In this study, we hypothesize that after-hour connectivity increases autonomy and that the autonomy to work anywhere and anytime leads to working everywhere all the time, thus increasing after-hour connectivity. We further shed light on whether this behaviour has negative consequences for employees' well-being or not. The three-wave survey study (N = 192) demonstrates that after-hour connectivity may operate as a resource that potentially empowers employees (increases autonomy). The freedom to work anytime, anywhere, does not itself increase after-hour connectivity. Notably, we demonstrate that connectivity is negatively related to emotional exhaustion, through increased autonomy.peerReviewe

Examining the Implications of Negativity Perceptions for Enterprise Social Media Use

Many organizations fail to optimally benefit from voluntary communication and collaboration tools – e.g. enterprise social media (ESM) – where use depends on workers’ discretionary behaviors. This study explores how ESM use is informed by employees’ perceptions of the content these media convey. Specifically, this paper reports on a survey study (N = 619) to examine the relationship between negativity perceptions and ESM use, through pro-sharing norms and knowledge-sharing intentions. The findings indicate that negativity perceptions of online communication are met with avoidance responses by organizational members and are associated with low platform usage. This relationship is partially mediated by pro-sharing norms and knowledge-sharing intentions, such that negativity perceptions undermine pro-sharing norms and lower knowledge-sharing intention, ultimately reducing ESM use. The findings highlight a potential difference in the underlying psychological mechanisms related to negative media content in organizational environments compared to public and mass media environments. This study integrates media selection literature and media psychology perspectives to study technology adoption and expands our understanding of the potential barriers and drivers of platform use in organizational contexts.peerReviewe

Examining the longitudinal relationship between visibility and persistence on stress and technology-assisted supplemental work

This study examines the longitudinal relationship between two affordances of organizational information and communication technologies (ICTs)—that is, visibility and persistence—and individuals’ subjective stress and technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW). We propose that visibility and persistence associated with organizational ICTs are often more aptly construed as probabilities for action, rather than merely possibilities for action. The hypotheses are tested using latent change structural equation modeling drawing on two-wave survey data from 437 employees of a global industrial logistics company headquartered in a Nordic country. The findings highlight that visibility is associated with increases in TASW, but not in subjective stress, while persistence is associated with decreases in TASW and subjective stress. We suggest that visibility may pressure workers into extending their workdays, while persistence may operate as an important resource for employees reducing subjective TASW and stress as well as intra-individual changes in TASW and stress over time.peerReviewe

A tool and a tyrant: Social media and well-being in organizational contexts

Social media technologies have the potential to be helpful and harmful to employees. We seek to move beyond this broad dichotomy by providing a concise review of current research on the relationship between social media use in organizational contexts and employee well-being. Our review comprises 51 articles which are grouped by theoretical focus: personal behavior theories, social behavior theories, and communication theories. The review illustrates that the negative implications of social media use can be ascribed to excessive usage patterns, the context, and personal circumstances of use. Alternatively, the positive implications of social media relate to the ways in which these technologies satisfy personal needs. The findings help contextualize the negative and positive implications of social media use for employee well-being

Organizational Information and Communication Technologies and Their Influence on Communication Visibility and Perceived Proximity

This study investigates the relationships between the use of various organizational ICTs, communication visibility, and perceived proximity to distant colleagues. In addition, this study examines the interplay between visibility and proximity, to determine whether visibility improves proximity, or vice versa. These relationships are tested in a global company using two waves of panel survey data. ESM use increases communication visibility and perceived proximity, while controlling for prior levels of visibility, proximity, and the use of other organizational ICTs. The influence of ESM on network translucence and perceived proximity is generally stronger than the impact of other technologies on these outcomes. These results highlight the importance of considering various aspects of the technological landscape conjointly, as well as distinguishing the two dimensions of communication visibility. Finally, the results indicate that perceived proximity has causal priority over communication visibility, indicating that communication visibility exists partly as an attribution of perceived proximity to distant colleagues, and is not solely inferred from the use of organizational ICTs.peerReviewe