Cross-domain online vigilance, boundary management and stress among knowledge workers

South African Journal of Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Cross-domain online vigilance, boundary management and stress among knowledge workers
 
Creator Conradie, Liezel le Roux, Daniel B. Parry, Douglas A.
 
Subject — online vigilance; boundary management; boundary blurring; perceived stress; knowledge workers; segmentation preferences.
Description Purpose: High levels of online media use and permanent connectedness are common features of contemporary life in the developed world. In recent studies, the concept of online vigilance has been adopted to describe individuals’ chronic attentional orientation towards and engagement with their online spheres. The present study extends this notion by investigating its role in relation to stress and boundary management.Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 299 knowledge workers completed an online survey concerning the role of cross-domain online vigilance in the blurring of work-personal boundaries and the potential impact this may have on perceived stress.Findings/results: Contrary to extant evidence, the findings of this study indicate that cross-domain online vigilance does not predict stress, neither on its own nor when interacting with individuals’ domain segmentation preferences. However, the findings indicate that younger knowledge workers, more than their older colleagues, have trouble disconnecting from their personal online spheres while working.Practical implications: Work communication policies and norms should enable workers to psychologically disconnect from work during non-working hours and should be sensitive to the differences in personal preferences for boundary segmentation. Constant psychological connection to personal online communication may impact performance among younger knowledge workers.Originality/value: The present study is the first to consider the notion of online vigilance in relation to boundary management and stress among knowledge workers. The findings are particularly relevant given the increased blurring of work-personal boundaries that results from organisations adopting work-from-anywhere policies following the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-08-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajbm.v54i1.3896
 
Source South African Journal of Business Management; Vol 54, No 1 (2023); 12 pages 2078-5976 2078-5585
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3896/2597 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3896/2598 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3896/2599 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/3896/2600
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Liezel Conradie, Daniel B. le Roux, Douglas A. Parry https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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