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This study aims to explore the double-edged sword effect of work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) on employees’ occupational mental health. Drawing on job demand-resource theory, the authors examined the double mediating mechanism of work autonomy and work-family conflict on the relationship of WCBA, work engagement and work burnout. At the same time, the authors examined the moderating role of responsiveness from superiors, hoping to clarify how WCBA brings employees positive experiences (engagement) or negative experiences (burnout).

Under the mediating mechanism of work autonomy and work-family conflict, the authors built a dual-path model and moderated mediation model to examine the effect of WCBA on work engagement and burnout. Two-stage paired data were collected from various industries in China by distributing questionnaires to employees. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equation model and the bootstrap test method.

The results showed that WCBA positively affects work engagement and burnout. Work autonomy plays a mediating role both in the relationship between WCBA and work engagement and in the relationship between WCBA and work burnout. In addition, work-family conflict plays a mediating role both in the relationship between WCBA and work burnout and in the relationship between WCBA and work engagement. Responsiveness from superiors not only moderated the relationship between WCBA and work autonomy and between WCBA and work-family conflict but also moderated the mediating effects of work autonomy and work-family conflict.

This study examined the double-edged sword effect of WCBA on employees’ occupational mental health, the dual mediation of work autonomy and work-family conflict and the moderating effect of responsiveness from superiors. This study can enrich the understanding of the effects of WCBA as well as the influential factors and boundary conditions related to employees’ occupational mental health. Organizations (represented by superiors) and individuals were integrated into one model, providing a new perspective for studying WCBA. The research will help managers and individuals gain a comprehensive understanding of WCBA, and how to enhance its positive effects and circumvent its negative effects.

Existing research on how professionals manage after-hours connectivity to work has been dominated by studies on the strategies/practices individuals develop. In these studies, mobile technology is perceived as a tool or an enabler that supports otherwise human-centric connectivity decisions. This view sees technology as separate or external to the organisation, missing out on its nuanced role in shaping connectivity decisions. Our study aims to bring technology back into the sociomaterially imbricated context of connectivity and to unpack its parameters.

Drawing on data collected from documents and semi-structured interviews, we adopt the framework of “sociomaterial imbrications” (Leonardi, 2011) to understand the social and material parameters that influence connectivity management practices at two different academic institutions in Saudi Arabia.

The study identifies a set of social and material parameters (organisational, individual, technological and situational) that imbricate to shape, collectively and not individually, professionals’ connectivity management practices. Connectivity decisions to change practice (such as decisions of where, when or why to connect) or technology (how to connect) are not as distinct as they appear but originate from, and are founded on, imbricated sociomaterial parameters. Our study further suggests that connectivity decisions are shaped by individuals’ perceptions of sociomaterial imbrications, but decisions are not solely idiosyncratic. The context within which connectivity decisions are taken influences the type of decisions made.

Connectivity management emerged from sociomaterial imbrications within a context constitutive of four interacting parameters: organisational, technological, situational and individual. Decisions around the “how” and the “what” of connectivity – i.e. the practice of connectivity and its underpinning technology – originate from how people perceive sociomaterial imbrications as enabling or constraining within a context. Individual perceptions account for changes in practice and in technology, but the context they find themselves in is also important. For instance, we show that professionals may perceive a certain technology as affording, but eventually they may use another technology for communications due to social norms.

The authors investigated how and when work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) spilled over to cyberloafing, considering ego depletion as a mediator and motivations and workaholism as moderators. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

In Study 1, 380 employees participated in a scenario experiment with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design. Studies 2 and 3 involved 483 and 406 employees, respectively in two two-wave surveys.

WCBA was indirectly linked to cyberloafing via ego depletion. However, when WCBA was driven by high autonomous and low controlled motivation, it exerted less influence on ego depletion, thus weakening the mediating effect of ego depletion. Moreover, the association between WCBA and ego depletion was not significant among employees accustomed to excessive work. The indirect effect of ego depletion also operated contingently on the level of excessive work.

The findings shed light on the spillover effects of WCBA, suggesting that WCBA may lead to cyberloafing by depleting resources. However, the influence of WCBA on ego depletion is concealed when employees engage in WCBA autonomously or are habituated to excessive work.

This study aims to examine the moderating effects of psychological entitlement and perceived organizational support (POS) on the relationship between work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) and job satisfaction.

Data were collected from 217 full-time employees of an Internet company in China at two points in time separated by about one month. Hierarchical regression and simple slope analyses were conducted to test hypotheses.

The results showed that WCBA was negatively related to job satisfaction and that this relationship could be mitigated by POS. Moreover, psychological entitlement aggravated this relationship, and this aggravating effect was stronger when POS was at low levels.

Managers should avoid intervening employees' nonwork domains too much. If this is unavoidable, managers should provide adequate organizational support to help employees cope with the challenges brought by WCBA. Besides, managers need to pay close attention to highly entitled employees and take measures to modify their expectations.

First, this study enriches the understanding of what WCBA is and how WCBA works by investigating the influencing mechanism of WCBA from the perspectives of effort–reward imbalance and job demands–resources. Second, by verifying the moderating effects of psychological entitlement and POS, this study provides insights into the boundaries of the WCBA–job satisfaction relationship. Third, this study contributes to the literature on psychological entitlement by identifying its one applicable condition.

A core concept of work–home interface research is boundary permeability – the frequency with which elements from one domain cross, or permeate, the boundary of another domain. Yet, there remains ambiguity as to what these elements are and how these permeations impact important outcomes such as role satisfaction and role performance. The authors introduce a multidimensional perspective of work–home boundary permeability, identifying five forms of boundary permeation: task, psychological, role referencing, object, and people. Furthermore, based on the notion that employee control over boundary permeability behavior is the key to achieving role satisfaction and role performance, the authors examine how organizations’ HR practices, leadership, and norms impact employee control over boundary permeability in the work and home domains. The authors conclude with an agenda for future research.

To analyze the relationship between technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW) and well-being in the workplace – burnout and engagement. Furthermore, this study aims to test the relationship between TASW and burnout, mediated by work-to-family conflict (WFC) and the relationship between TASW and engagement mediated by work-to-family enrichment (WFE).

The data was collected from a service company operating in Portugal. A total of 338 responses from a services company in Portugal were analyzed. Two statistical programs were used for the data analysis: IBM statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS 25.0) and SPSS analysis of moment structures (AMOS 25.0).

The results highlight the positive relationship between TASW and engagement and the relationship between TASW and burnout, which only exists when WFC is present. Moreover, the relationship between TASW and engagement is stronger through WFE.

Using the conservation of resources theory as a framework, the results contribute to the literature by shedding further light upon the positive effects of TASW on employees’ well-being and the work and family relationship.

This study explores the impact of workplace tele pressure on innovative work performance. The study also tests the mediating effect of the work-family conflict and the moderating influence of job burnout between the work-family conflict and innovative work performance.

Data for the present study were collected through structured questionnaires from 285 employees working in the public and private sector universities. Data were analysed through SPSS and Smart-PLS.

Results confirmed the relationship between workplace tele pressure and innovative work performance, the mediating effect of work-family conflict between workplace tele pressure and innovative work performance and the moderating influence of job burnout between work-family conflicts and innovative work performance.

This study model is supported by the job demands-control model and effort-recovery theory, which is being tested for the first time to support the relationship between workplace tele pressure and innovative work performance. Further, the model “workplace tele pressure → work-family conflicts → job burnout → innovative work performance” was developed and tested for the first time to study the technology-based pressure in the education sector.

The information and communication technologies have made it progressively practical for employees to remain associated with work, even when they are not in the workplace. However, prior studies have provided very little understanding of the implications for the deviant behavior aspect. The current study aims to investigate the association between after-hours work-related technology usage and interpersonal, organizational and nonwork deviance through psychological transition, interruption overload and task closure. The authors draw upon the theory of conservation of resource (COR) to examine the research model.

The primary data for the study has been collected in two waves from the sample of 318 employees who were working in diverse organizations in the Anhui province of the People's Republic of China for empirical testing of the authors’ research model.

This study's findings have revealed the positive association of after-hour work-related technology use with individuals' deviance in its entire three forms through psychological transition and interruption overload and have negative associations with all forms of deviance through task closure.

The significant contribution of this study is in the literature on technology use and employee outcomes, by identifying the consequences of technology use in both work (interpersonal deviance and organizational deviance) and outside work domain (nonwork deviance) and exploring the underlying mechanisms for these relationships in detail. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that investigates a relationship between after-hours technology use and all three kinds of deviance while exploring both the positive and negative perspectives in one study.

This study aims to explore how and why employees perceive technology-mediated interruptions differently and the role of sociocultural factors in this process using sociomaterial analysis.

Data were gathered from 34 Sri Lankan knowledge workers using a series of workshop-based activities. The concept of sociomateriality is employed to understand how sociocultural elements are entangled with technology in work-life boundary experiences.

The findings of the thematic analyses suggest how culture is intertwined in the way employees perceive technology-mediated interruptions and how they manage information communication technologies (ICTs) to balance their work and nonwork demands. Participants have been unable to avoid technology-mediated boundary interruptions from work, as organisations have created norms to keep employees connected to organisations using information communication technologies. Traditional gender roles are specifically found to be entangled in employees' boundary management practices, disadvantaging women more.

The findings highlight how national culture and gender norms create challenging work-life experiences for female employees than males. This could create a disadvantageous position for female employees in their career progression. It is crucial to consider factors such as boundary preferences and family concerns when deciding on family-friendly work policies. Also, organisations have to consider the development of explicit guidelines on after-hours communication expectations.

Using the lens of sociomateriality, researchers can understand the contextual entanglement of ICTs with national culture and gender norms in creating different work-life boundary experiences. It seems ICTs are creating a disadvantage for female employees when managing work–nonwork boundaries, especially in power distant and collectivist cultures where traditional gender norms are highly valued and largely upheld. This study also contributes to the current discourse on work-life boundaries by providing insights from non-western perspectives.

This study aims to focus on the dual outcomes and consequences of gritty leadership, including how it encourages followers to engage proactively and, as a result, succeed in their careers. On the other hand, the way it causes job stress in employees affects the overall work-life balance.

The snowball sampling method was used to gather data to test the dual outcomes of gritty leadership. Mid-level project employees in Rawalpindi and Islamabad provided the data.

The findings of the study indicate that gritty leadership comes with both advantages and disadvantages and adds to the development of individuals. Positive spillover effects (career success) may be created by grit leaders, and vice versa (poor work-life balance). On the bright side, gritty leadership promotes career success favorably through a proactive personality. Contrarily, gritty leadership causes job stress, which has a detrimental impact on work-life balance.

Thus, this study offers the explanatory mechanism by which the advantages and disadvantages of gritty leadership are manifested. The study is unique because it examines the results of gritty leadership and gives practitioners a realistic notion of the direction they should go.