This thesis examines strategies for minimising the potential negative impact of out of hours mobile
ICT demands. It provides two studies in this area.
The first study is a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). This followed recognised SLR methodology,
and sought to identify the interventions and strategies that are effective for managing the negative
impact of out of hours work-related mobile ICT demands. The study also reviewed the negative
impacts that the interventions and strategies were seeking to reduce, and the factors which
influenced their success. The 13 studies identified through the review showed that the evidence
base is currently at the initial to promising stage. While a number of strategies and interventions
have been identified, the degree to which these have been systematically evaluated is currently
limited.
To address the limitations identified in the SLR, the second study used an established approach for
intervention development (co-design - Leask et al., 2019) to assemble a prototype toolkit to mitigate
the negative impact of out of hours mobile ICT demands. A total of 24 participants were involved in
the co-design process, which included focus groups and interviews at two time points. Reflexive
thematic analysis identified eight themes key to mitigating the impact of out of hours demands.
Using behavioural change principles (Michie et al., 2011), these were formulated into a prototype
toolkit, which was critically evaluated by the co-design team and a subsequent review by an
independent research consortium. The findings showed that the toolkit was received positively, and
was seen by participants as being an important tool in raising self-awareness and enabling goal oriented behavioural change amongst users.
A number of potential success factor and barriers were identified for future interventions in this
area. These, along with the findings of Studies 1 and 2, have been included within an integrated
framework model for mitigating the negative impact of out of hours mobile ICT demands