Idiosyncratic distances: Impact of mobile technology practices on role segmentation and integration

Abstract

Abstract:Mobile technologies have brought convenience, flexibility and connectedness in our lives by enabling us to be reachable anywhere and anytime. All of our environments such as work and home converge through a single device and we can now receive private calls at work and professional calls during the weekend. Mobile technologies have transformed geographical distances and allow unplanned interruptions. While boundary theory suggests that individuals create, maintain and modify their boundaries in order to classify and simplify their environments, we focus here on how people use their devices and manage the boundaries that have been erased by mobile technologies. Based on an original qualitative research of twenty three mini-case studies, we identify three practices by which individuals resocialize the distance: construction of a meta-role, delegation of role separation to technological devices and 'sedentarization' of mobile technologies by multiplying technological devices.

Discovering Magic of Mobile Technology in Business: Strategic Marketing Perspective

“…This is in line with a large number of studies (Axtell et al 2008;Kietzmann et al 2013), which explore the working on the go phenomenon. Mobility extends the possibilities of taking work beyond physical premises and allows employees to complete workrelated tasks and maintain communication whilst on the move (Battard and Mangematin 2013). This is found to be true for firms interviewed in this study.…”

Beware of side effects on quality! Investigating the implications of home working on work-life balance in educational services

“…On the one hand, telecommuting from home impaired the individual perception of OM. These negative Side effects of home-based telecommuting effects may be the result of a decontextualization of organizational tasks and interpersonal relationships (Battard and Mangematin, 2013), whichin turnimpoverish the perceived sense of significance of work (Bailey et al, 2019). On the other hand, people working from home were likely to experience falls in their well-being.…”

Boundary control and controlled boundaries: Organizational expectations for technology use at the work-family interface

“…Future research should thus include family demands and family‐work technology use as variables of interest. Another factor is the information technology identity (Carter & Grover, ), which may affect the extent to which an employee generally uses technology to cross or bridge role domains in both directions or is able to use technology creatively to segment work and family (Battard & Mangematin, ). An individual's information technology identity may affect the extent to which technology can be considered a “neutral tool” as described above and may further interact with boundary management preferences.…”

“…Second, the study shows that integrators are better equipped to handle after‐hours electronic communications expectations than segmenters. Technology arguably provides many more opportunities to integrate work and family role domains than to segment them (Battard & Mangematin, ) and those who prefer integration will generally be better off in organizations that expect work–family technology use. Still, integrators experience higher emotional exhaustion when these expectations are high.…”