A Conflict between Professional vs. Domestic Life? Understanding the Use of ICT in Teleworking for Balance in Work and Family Units

Abstract

The advancement of information and communication technologies such as personal computers, the Internet and mobile phones has enabled people to work any time and anywhere. Teleworking, the practice of setting up home offices for employees with appropriate resources for computing and communication, is one example of this new flexibility. Teleworking brings new challenges as well as benefits, and a variety of studies have examined the impact of teleworking in terms of costs and benefits. A major attraction for teleworkers is the control it allows them over the way they structure their work and lives. However, the intrusion of work into the home blurs the boundaries between work and home life and may result in conflict between work and family. This work-family conflict is a direct result of the mutual incompatibility between the demands of work and family roles (Akdere, 2006). The aim of this research is to study the work-family balance of Malaysian teleworkers by exploring the nature of interactions between work and family activities, in order to get a better understanding of the experience of teleworkers in balancing their work and family life. This study will use the work-family border theory (Clark, 2000) to describe the phenomenon, and to explain how individuals manage and negotiate the work and family spheres and the borders between them in order to attain balance.

A double‐edged sword?: a critical evaluation of the mobile phone in creating work–life balance

“…The wide range of studies about the WLB strategies of teleworkers [and the role of telecommunication therein (e.g. Othman et al, 2009;Gold and Mustafa, 2013))] may be a suitable subject for a dedicated empirical literature review.…”

The effect of gender, age and academic rank on work-life balance

“…Thus, the work-life balance is in a broader sense; the work-life balance could be described as the satisfactory involvement or adaptation between several roles in an individual's life (Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014). Different people will value the work-life balance differently, according to their values and circumstances (Othman, Yusof and Osman, 2009).…”

Technology in families and the clinical encounter: results of a cross‐national survey

“…The blurring of work and family life as a result of ICT has also been the subject of analysis. Adults working from home may experience a reduction in their family interaction and they may find themselves coordinating family affairs during working hours (Chesley, ; Othman et al., ).…”

“…The blurring of work and family life as a result of ICT has also been the subject of analysis. Adults working from home may experience a reduction in their family interaction and they may find themselves coordinating family affairs during working hours (Chesley, 2005;Othman et al, 2009). In sum, there is a wealth of scholarly and clinical evidence underpinning alarmist and threatening public discourse on the effects of ICT and the deleterious impact of technology on families (David-Ferdon and Hertz, 2007;O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011;Punamäki et al, 2009) and a dearth of inquiries that investigate its potential to strengthen families.…”