Private ICT-Activities and Emotions at Work – A Swedish Diary Study

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.128552

Keywords:

Health, Working Environment & Wellbeing, Work/Life Balance, Gender, Ethnicity, Age and Diversity

Abstract

The boundaries between the work and non-work spheres have been challenged through the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT). Individuals may easily engage in non-work (family and private) matters at work and during working hours. Prior research on emotions at work tends to understand all emotions at work as work related. By studying non-work matters managed through ICT in a diary study, we suggest that emotions at work are triggered both by work and non-work matters. Our research shows that these emotions can be both positive and negative and may come from actual engagement in private matters, or as a response to a need or a demand to address a private matter. Since emotions affect work performance, for example, we suggest that HR and managers take the causes of workplace emotions into consideration when addressing issues related to emotions at work.

Author Biographies

Kristina Palm, Karolinska Institutet

Associate professor, Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics. E-mail: kristina.palm@ki.se

Ann Bergman, Karlstad University

Professor, Department of Work Science

Calle Rosengren, Lund University

Associate professor, Department of Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology

References

Anderson, D., Kelliher, C. (2011) Spatial Aspects of Professionals’ Work-Life Integration. In: Kaiser, S., Ringlstetter, M., Eikhof, D., Pina e Cunha, M. (eds) Creating Balance? Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16199-5

Anand, S., Vidyarthi, P., Singh, S., & Ryu, S. (2014) Family interference and employee dissatisfaction: Do agreeable employees better cope with stress? Human Relations 68(5): 691-708. doi: 10.1177/0018726714539714

Ashforth, B.E. & Humphrey, R.H. (1995) Emotion in the workplace: A reappraisal. Human Relations 48(2: 97-125. doi: 10.1177/001872679504800201

Ashforth, B. E., Kreiner, G. E. & Fugate, M. (2000) All in a day’s work: Boundaries and micro role transitions. Academy of Management Review 2(3): 472-491. doi: 10.5465/amr.2000.3363315

Ashkanasy, N.M. & Dorris, A.D. (2017) Emotions in the workplace, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior 4: 67–90. doi: 10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113231

Barsade, S. & O’Neill, O.A. (2016). Manage Your Emotional Culture, Business Harvard Review 94(1): 14-18.

Bergman, A., Rosengren, C., & Palm, K. (2017) Aktivitetsdagbok. Karlstads universitet: Karlstad. ISBN: 978-91-7063-769-8.

Bergman, A., Rosengren, C. & Palm, K. (2020) Digitala strategier för att hantera relationen mellan arbete och övrigt liv. In: Britt-Inger Keisu (ed) Att arbeta för lika villkor. Ett genus- och maktperspektiv på arbete och organisation: 273-291.

Buonocore, F. & Russo, M. (2013) Reducing the effects of work–family conflict on job satisfaction: the kind of commitment matters. Human Resource Management Journal 23(1): 91-108. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2011.00187

Chesley, N. (2014) Information and communication technology use, work intensification and employee strain and distress, Work Employment and Society 28(4): 589-610. doi: 10.1177/0950017013500112

Dewew, P. & Trenberth, L. (2012) Exploring the relationships between appraisals of stressful encounters and the associated emotions in a work setting, Work & Stress 26(2): 161-174. doi: 10.1080/02678373.2012.687042

Derks, D., van Duin, D., Tims M. & Bakker A.B. (2015) Smartphone use and work–home interference: The moderating role of social norms and employee work engagement, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 88(1): 155-177. doi: 10.1111/joop.12083

Edlund, J. & Öun, I. (2016) Who should work and who should care? Attitudes towards the desirable division of labour between mothers and fathers in five European countries, Acta Sociologica 59(2): 151-169. doi: 10.1177/0001699316631024

Fisher, C.D. & Ashkansay, N.M. (2000) The emerging role of emotions in work life: an introduction, Journal of Organisational Behavior 21: 123-129. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379

Fisher, C.D. (2010) Happiness at work, International Journal of Management Reviews 12: 384–412. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00270

Fleck, R., Cox, A. L., & Robison, R. A. (2015). Balancing boundaries: Using multiple devices to manage work-life balance. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 3985-3988). ACM. doi: 10.1145/2702123.2702386

Fredrickson, B.L. (2003) The Value of Positive Emotions: The emerging science of positive psychology is coming to understand why it's good to feel good, American Scientist 91(4): 330-335.

Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(5): 1045–1062. doi: 10.1037/a0013262

Frijda, N.H. (1993) Moods, emotion episodes and emotions. In M. Lewis & J.M. Haviland (Eds), Handbook of emotions (pp. 381-403), New York: Guildford Press.

Frone, M. R., Russell, M., & Cooper, M. L. (1992) Antecedents and outcomes of work-family conflict: testing a model of the work-family interface, Journal of Applied Psychology 77(1): 65-78. doi: 10.1037//0021-9010.77.1.65

Glavin, P., Schieman, S., Reid, S. (2011). Boundary-spanning work demands and their consequences for Guilt and Psychological Distress, Journal of health and Social Behavior 52(1): 43-57. doi: 10.1177/0022146510395023

Greenhaus, J. H., and N.J. Beutell (1985) Sources of conflict between work and family roles, Academy of Management Review 10: 76-88. doi: 10.5465/amr.1985.4277352

Grzywacz, J. G., Almeida, D. M., & McDonald, D. A. (2002) Work–Family Spillover and Daily Reports of Work and Family Stress in the Adult Labor Force, Family Relations 51(1): 28-36. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2002.00028

Grönlund, A. & Öun, I. (2018) In search of family-friendly careers? Professional strategies, work conditions and gender differences in work–family conflict, Community Work Family 21(1): 87-105. doi: 10.1080/13668803.2017.1375460

Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1994) Emotional Contagion, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hill, E.J., Jacob, J.I., Shannon, L.L., Brennan, R.T., Blanchard, V.L. & Martinengo, G. (2008) Exploring the relationship of workplace flexibility, gender, and life stage to family-to-work conflict, and stress and burnout, Community Work Family 11(2): 165-181. doi: 10.1080/13668800802027564

Hochschild, A.R. (1983) The managed heart – commercialization of human feeling, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Holth, L., Bergman, A., & MacKenzie, R. (2017) Gender, availability and dual emancipation in the Swedish ICT sector, Work, Employment and Society 31(2): 230-247. doi: 10.1177/0950017016651378

Ivarsson, L., & Larsson, P. (2011). Personal Internet usage at work: A source of recovery, Journal of Workplace Rights 16(1): 62-81. doi.org/10.2190/WR.16.1.e

Karasek, R. & Theorell, T. (1990) Healthy work: stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life, New York, NY: Basic Books.

Kinnunen, U., Feldt, T., Geurts, S., & Pulkkinen, L. (2006) Types of work‐family interface: Well‐being correlates of negative and positive spillover between work and family, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 47(2). doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2006.00502

Klinth, R. (2002) Göra pappa med barn: Den svenska pappapolitiken 1960 – 1995 (Making Daddy Pregnant: The Swedish Papa Politics 1960–1995). Doctoral dissertation, Boréa.

Kossek, E. E. (2016). Managing work-life boundaries in the digital age, Organizational Dynamics 45(3): 258-270. doi: 10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.07.010

Kreiner, G. E. (2006) Consequences of work-home segmentation or integration: A person-environment perspective, Journal of Organizational Behavior 27: 485-507. doi: 10.1002/job.386

Kreiner, G. E., Hollensbe, E. C., & Sheep, M. L. (2009). Balancing borders and bridges: Negotiating the work-home interface via boundary work tactics, Academy of Management Journal 52(4): 704-730. doi: 10.5465/amj.2009.43669916

Leira, A (2006) Parenthood change and policy reform in Scandinavia, 1970s-2000s. In Anne Lise Ellingsaeter and Arnlaug Leira (eds) Politicising parenthood in Scandinavia: Gender relations in welfare states. (pp. 27-36). University Press Scholarship Online.

Meeussen, L., Veldman, J. & Van Laar, C. (2016) Combining Gender, Work, and Family Identities: The Cross-Over and Spill-Over of Gender Norms into Young Adults’ Work and Family Aspirations, Frontiers in Psychology 7:1781. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01781

Mellner, C., Aronsson, G., & Kecklund, G. (2015) Boundary management preferences, boundary control, and work-life balance among full-time employed professionals in knowledge-intensive, flexible work, Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 4(4): 7-23. doi: 10.19154/njwls.v4i4.4705

Nippert-Eng, C. (1996) Home and work: Negotiating the boundaries through everyday life, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Ojala, S., Nätti, J. & Anttila, T. (2014). Informal overtime at home instead of telework: increase in negative work-family interface, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 34: 69–87. doi: 10.1108/IJSSP-03-2013-0037

Palm, K., Bergman, A. & Rosengren, C. (2020) Towards more proactive sustainable human resource management practices? A study on stress due to the ICT-mediated integration of work and private life. Sustainability 12(20): 8303

Perry, S.J., Lorinkova, N.M., Hunter, E.M., Hubbard, A., & McMahon, T.J. (2016) When Does Virtuality Really “Work”? Examining the Role of Work–Family and Virtuality in Social Loafing, Journal of Management 42(2): 449–479. doi: 10.1177/0149206313475814

Pindek, S., Arvan, M.L. & Spector, P.E. (2019) The stressor-strain relationship in diary studies: A meta-analysis of the within and between levels, Work & Stress 33(1): 1-21. doi: 10.1080/02678373.2018.1445672

Rose, E. (2013) Access denied: employee control of personal communications at work. Work, Employment & Society 27(4): 694 –710. doi: 10.1177/0950017012460329

Rosengren, C., Bergman, A. & Palm, K. (Accepted 2021) “ICT Enforced Boundary Work: Availability as a Sociomaterial Practice”. In Mascha C. Will-Zocholl and Caroline Roth-Ebner (eds) Topologies of Digital Work. How Digitisation and Virtualisation Shape Working Spaces and Places. Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan.

Russell, J.A., Carroll, J.M. (1999) On the bipolarity of positive and negative affect, Psychological Bulletin 125(1): 3-30.

Sanz-Vergel, A.I., Rodriguez-Muñoz, A. & Nielsen. K. (2015) The thin line between work and home: The spillover and crossover of daily conflicts, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 88:1–18. doi: 10.1111/joop.12075

Salovey, P. & Mayer, J.D. (1990) Emotional intelligence, Baywood Pub1ishlnl Co., Inc.

Schieman, S., McBrier, D.B. & Van Gundy, K. (2003) Home-to-Work Conflict, Work Qualities and Emotional Distress, Sociological Forum 18(1): 137-164. doi: 10.1023/A:1022658929709

ter Hoeven, C.L. & van Zoonen, W. (2015). Flexible work designs and employee well-being: Examining the effects of resources and demands, New Technology, Work and Employment 30: 237–255. doi: 10.1111/ntwe.12052

Thulin, E., Vilhelmson, B. & Johansson, M. (2019) New telework, time pressure, and time use control in everyday life, Sustainability (Switzerland) 11:3067. doi: 10.3390/su11113067

Watson, D., & Tellegen, A. (1985). Toward a consensual structure of mood, Psychological Bulletin 98(2): 219–235. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.219

Weiss, H.M. & Cropanzano, R. (1996) Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work, Research in Organizational Behavior 18: 1-74.

Xanthopoulou, D, Bakker, A.B. & Ilies, R. (2012) Everyday working life: Explaining within-person fluctuations in employee well-being, Human Relations 65(9): 1051–1069. doi: 10.1177/0018726712451283

Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker A.B., Demerouti, E. & Schaufeli, W.B. (2009) Work engagement and financial returns: A diary study on the role of job and personal resources, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 82: 183–200. doi: 10.1348/096317908X285633

Öun, I. (2012) Work-family conflict in the Nordic Countries: A comparative analysis, Journal of Comparative Family Studies 43(2): 165-184. Doi: 10.3138/jcfs.43.2.165

Downloads

Published

2022-03-22

How to Cite

Palm, K., Bergman, A., & Rosengren, C. (2022). Private ICT-Activities and Emotions at Work – A Swedish Diary Study. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.128552

Issue

Section

Articles