Elizabeth M. Boyd, Sarah E. Chatfield, and Beth A. Livingston
Managing Invisible Boundaries: How “Smart” Is Smartphone Use as a Boundary Management Tactic? Coles Working Paper Series, SPRING15-05, March 2015
Smartphones and other types of communication technology have changed the way people manage the work-home boundary. Past research has shown that smartphones blur the boundaries between these roles by allowing interruptions (e.g., email messages, phone calls) from one role to infringe upon time spent in the other role. However, not much research has studied why people allow these interruptions to occur, or what the consequences of these interruptions are for work-family conflict and other outcomes. In this two-wave study, we tested a theoretical model of the way in which smartphones serve to permeate the boundaries between the work and family domains, and how these permeations enact consequences for the work and family roles. What we found is that although interruptions from work into family via smartphone are harmful in that they increase work-to-family conflict and negative outcomes in the family role, family interruptions via smartphone do not have the same negative consequences. That is, allowing one’s family to permeate the work boundary via smartphone did not increase family-to-work conflict or negative outcomes in the work domain. Our findings have interesting implications for organizational policies regarding smartphone use, as well as for individuals attempting to manage their own smartphone usage between the work and family roles.
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