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Why people engage in supplemental work: The role of technology, response expectations, and communication persistence
Author(s) -
Zoonen Ward,
Sivunen Anu,
Treem Jeffrey W.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of organizational behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.938
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1099-1379
pISSN - 0894-3796
DOI - 10.1002/job.2538
Subject(s) - clarity , work (physics) , context (archaeology) , persistence (discontinuity) , multilevel model , psychology , knowledge management , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , geotechnical engineering , machine learning , biology
Summary Supported by various collaboration technologies that allow communication from any place or time, employees increasingly engage in technology‐assisted supplemental work (TASW). Challenges associated with managing work and nonwork time have been further complicated by a global pandemic that has altered traditional work patterns and locations. To date, studies applying a TASW framework have focused mainly on individual uses of technology or connectivity behaviors and not considered the potential team and social pressures underlying these processes. This study provides clarity on the differences between technology use and TASW and sheds light on the drivers of TASW in a work environment characterized by high connectivity and diverse team structures. Specifically, we demonstrate how individual, social, and material pressures concomitantly impact individual work practices in a team context. Drawing on multisource and multilevel data provided by 443 employees nested in 122 teams, this study shows that individual collaboration technology use and team‐level response expectations are independently contributing to TASW. Though the persistence of communication afforded by collaboration technologies mitigates the impact of collaboration technology use on TASW, this persistence is not found to impact the relationship between team‐level response expectations and TASW. We discuss how these findings inform our understanding of TASW.