Task 14 Sarker et al. Managing Employees Use of Mobile Technologies to Minimise work life balance impacts Flashcards
WLB (Work Life-Balance)
the degree “to which an individual is simultaneously able to balance the temporal, emotional and behavioral demands of both paid work and family responsibility
Mobile workforce
(i.e., one that uses mobile technology as an integral part of accomplishing their work)
Positive effects of using mobile technologies for business
○ 24x7 uninterrupted connectivity to human and information resources
○ Increased flexibility
○ Improved coordination
○ Increased productivity through flexibility in time management
○ Pleasure and enjoyment
○ Availability of multiple media and genres of communication suited for different
scenarios.
Adverse effects on WLB may be categorized into four areas
- Constantly Raising Expectations of Availability
○ 2. Blurring Boundaries of Work and Personal Time
○ 3. Coordinating Among Co-workers Becomes More Complicated
○ 4. Feeding Knowledge Workers’ Personal Compulsions
■ Workers not setting personal boundaries feeds the problem:
“I make the mistake that I think many people [make] of checking work email at 11 pm when I am about to get ready for bed, and [find] something jarring in [an] email.
I kick myself: ‘why did I do that?’” Former CIO, healthcare organization
Adverse effects on WLB may be categorized into four areas
- Constantly Raising Expectations of Availability
○ 2. Blurring Boundaries of Work and Personal Time
○ 3. Coordinating Among Co-workers Becomes More Complicated
○ 4. Feeding Knowledge Workers’ Personal Compulsions
■ Workers not setting personal boundaries feeds the problem:
“I make the mistake that I think many people [make] of checking work email at 11 pm when I am about to get ready for bed, and [find] something jarring in [an] email.
I kick myself: ‘why did I do that?’” Former CIO, healthcare organization
Three Perspectives of Work Life Relationships
Compartmentalized Perspective, Overlapping Perspective, Encompassing Perspective
Compartmentalized Perspective
○ Total separation of work and personal life, and any spillover of work into
personal life is regarded as undesirable or even unacceptable.
○ Don’t want to be reachable all the time, often won’t have a “work phone” and
will “switch off” when at home
Overlapping Perspective
A clean separation of work and personal life domains is neither feasible nor
necessarily desirable
○ Neither prefer nor dislike being contacted but often feel “valued and needed”
when they are reached out to for help off-hours
Encompassing Perspective
○ The entirety of an individual’s life is completely encompassed within his/her
work domain, and success in the work domain equates to success in the
personal life domain
○ Individuals Live to Work and openly welcome the ability to check on work
during off hours
Interactions Between People with Different WLB Perspectives
Can often be conflicting and leave workers with mixed feelings of either resentment or guilt
Strategies for Addressing Mobile Technology Use WLB Issues
Compensation, Negociation, Inegration, Protection
Compensation (Strategie WLB Isuues)
Setting up incentives provide fair exchange to employees for allow work to spill over their personal life
Negotiation (Strategie WLB Issues)
harmonizing through consultation and participation A) demands of the job which employees are intrinsically motivated to successfully accomplish B) their personal life requirements
Integration (Strategie WLB Issues)
enabling employees to move seamlessly between work and personal life domains at all times
Protection (Strategie WLB Issues)
Isolating employees from colleges who see integration of work and life as an imperative for accomplishing work efficiently and effectively and who may choose to impose this way on other colleagues and subordinates
