Social media, work and nonwork interface: a qualitative inquiry
Social media, work and nonwork interface: a qualitative inquiry
Flourishing social media, easy access to smartphones and tablets, and ready availability of the internet in the past decade have made it possible for people to be connected to social media almost anywhere at any time. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 41 individuals in multiple professions in the United Kingdom to examine the role of social media in how they navigate their personal and professional lives. We find social media to be a virtual domain that has boundaries with nonvirtual personal and professional domains. Focusing on spatial and temporal boundaries, our findings revealed four boundary transition modes employees used to switch between the social media domain and their work and nonwork domains: boundary switch avoidance; disciplined boundary switch; integrated boundary switch; and boundary switch addiction. We also describe 15 mechanisms through which engaging with social media platforms enriches or conflicts with individuals’ personal and professional lives. Our findings extend work‐nonwork scholarship and boundary theory to include virtual as well as nonvirtual domains.
Beigi, Mina
2986037e-5bb3-4ec0-be55-bf291ac17e24
Otaye-Ebede, Lilian
39f30e6b-c44d-4040-8362-315dd56c76b0
Beigi, Mina
2986037e-5bb3-4ec0-be55-bf291ac17e24
Otaye-Ebede, Lilian
39f30e6b-c44d-4040-8362-315dd56c76b0
Beigi, Mina and Otaye-Ebede, Lilian
(2020)
Social media, work and nonwork interface: a qualitative inquiry.
Applied Psychology.
(doi:10.1111/apps.12289).
Abstract
Flourishing social media, easy access to smartphones and tablets, and ready availability of the internet in the past decade have made it possible for people to be connected to social media almost anywhere at any time. In this qualitative study, we interviewed 41 individuals in multiple professions in the United Kingdom to examine the role of social media in how they navigate their personal and professional lives. We find social media to be a virtual domain that has boundaries with nonvirtual personal and professional domains. Focusing on spatial and temporal boundaries, our findings revealed four boundary transition modes employees used to switch between the social media domain and their work and nonwork domains: boundary switch avoidance; disciplined boundary switch; integrated boundary switch; and boundary switch addiction. We also describe 15 mechanisms through which engaging with social media platforms enriches or conflicts with individuals’ personal and professional lives. Our findings extend work‐nonwork scholarship and boundary theory to include virtual as well as nonvirtual domains.
Text
APIR-2020-0006-OA.R2_Proof_hi
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 5 October 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 31 October 2020
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© 2020 International Association of Applied Psychology
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Local EPrints ID: 444892
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444892
ISSN: 0269-994X
PURE UUID: 235414e4-7cf1-49d4-9c9c-904d4b3a06b3
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Date deposited: 10 Nov 2020 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:58
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Author:
Lilian Otaye-Ebede
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