Why People Engage in Supplemental Work : The Role of Technology, Response Expectations, and Communication Persistence

Abstract

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 non-work 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 multi-source and multi-level 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.