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

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

“…Today, employees can have access to their private lives from their workplaces to a greater extent than ever before. This possibility of combining work and non-work responsibilities is reported by employees as one major advantage of the increased flexibility facilitated by ICT [13][14][15][16]. However, research on smartphone and ICT use has also consistently shown that the boundaries between work and family life have become permeable [17], which may increase the risk of experiencing imbalance between work and family life [18].…”

Work-Family Segmentation Preferences and Work-Family Conflict: Mediating Effect of Work-Related ICT Use at Home and the Multilevel Moderating Effect of Group Segmentation Norms

“…First, our research detects a cross-level moderation effect of group segmentation norms in connection with the relationship among segmentation preference, work-related ICT use and work-family conflict. It attempts to explain the inconsistent findings on the influence of ICT use on work-family interference from a cross-level perspective, which extend prior related research that have not distinguished between individual- and group-level variables (Gadeyne et al, 2018). Second, this study highlights the mediating mechanism of ICT use based on boundary theory concerning how boundary creation regulates work-family conflict from a work-family segregation perspective, which deepens our understanding of boundary theory.…”

“…Under these circumstances, employees with either segmentation or integration preference are more autonomous to ICT use (Kossek et al, 2006). Gadeyne et al (2018) found that the relationship of work-related PC/laptop use and work-to-home conflict was moderated by individual integration preference and working environment (organizational integration norms and work demands). However, one limitation of this study was that it neglected individual integration preference and working environment were at different levels, which resulted in ecological fallacy.…”

“…However, most studies have found that although ICT use at home can improve sense of control over work or family roles, it also makes boundaries between work and family become more and more permeable, which leads to the boundaries becoming increasingly blurred (Kreiner, 2006). Blurred boundaries hinder individuals’ perception of domain roles and make them experience higher work-family conflict (Park et al, 2011; Gadeyne et al, 2018). Moreover, they also have impact on individuals’ work domain to some extent, resulting in high job burnout, and even turnover intentions among employees (Ferguson et al, 2016; Carlson et al, 2017).…”

“…Prior research have focused on the effect of organizational policies on the use of ICT. Recently, researchers began to pay more attention to the effect of working environment (Gadeyne et al, 2018). According to Kossek and Lautsch (2012), effective work-family boundary management should occur “ in situ ,” and is affected by individual and organizational factors and also their interaction.…”