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

• Published date: 01 July 2014
• Author: Ildikó Dén‐Nagy
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12031
• Date: 01 July 2014

A double-edged sword?: a critical

evaluation of the mobile phone in creating

work–life balance

Ildikó Dén-Nagy

This article provides a critical review of the literature on the

impact of mobile telephony on work–life balance (WLB). In

particular, it focuses on their theoretical frameworks, the

nature of the research questions, the methodological choices

adopted and the research findings of empirical articles pub-

lished internationally between 1998 and 2014. This research

field is at the crossroads of two theoretical and empirical tra-

ditions, and can be characterised by diversity in terms of

conceptualisation and operationalisation of measures, which

burdens comparisons between findings. Four problems arise

with the literature: (1) the consistency and transparency of

the theoretical bases they employ; (2) a tendency to techno-

logical determinism and to diminish the impact of human

choices; (3) difficulty with handling the complexity of factors;

and (4) issues with finding sampling strategies that do not

restrict the ability to generalise and/or result in omission of

specific populations.

Keywords: work–life balance, work and family conflict, work

and family border, mobile telephony, information and

communication technologies.

Introduction

According to the statistics from the United Nations, out of the world’s estimated 7

billion people, 6 billion have access to cell phones, which represent a rate of pen-

etration of eighty-five percent of the population of the planet as a whole. Considering

that only 4.5 billion people have access to working toilets (U.N., 2013), we can con-

clude that the hygiene-related situation of many people is worse than their oppor-

tunity to communicate. Within just 40 years, mobile telephony has spread across and

networked the world and become an important part of our everyday life, almost

invisibly. Technology allows people to extend communication in terms of time and

space, or—using the expressions of Manuel Castells—materially supports ‘timeless

time’ and the ‘space of flows’ (Castells, 2009). With a single smartphone, one can use

‘dead time’ spent commuting by calling a family member or check emails during a

Ildikó Dén-Nagy (dennagy.Ildiko@uni-corvinus.nu) is an economist and sociologist and PhD

student at Corvinus University of Budapest. Her research interests are in the areas of Science and

Technology Studies with special focus on the social aspects of information and communication tech-

nologies. This paper was written as part of a Hungarian Scientific Research Fund project (OTKA

K104707).

New Technology, Work and Employment 29:2

ISSN 0268-1072

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Impact of mobile phone use on WLB 193

holiday. The strict barriers between working time, family time and leisure time as

defined elements of our days and the physical and mental borderlines between

working place and home are fading away. Just how individuals balance the require-

ments of their careers and their private sphere is in itself an old area of academic

enquiry, the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in work–life

balancing strategies has only started receiving scrutiny in the past few years.

This literature review provides a structured summary of those empirical studies

that seek to unveil the relationship between the use of mobile technologies and

the creation of the work–life balance (WLB). These articles question what kinds

of cause–effect mechanisms prevail, and whether they have positive or negative

consequences on individuals. Although there are literature reviews available about

the field of general WLB, these systematic analyses do not take a technological per-

spective. Casper and her colleagues (2007) reviewed empirical research published

within industrial–organisational psychology and organisational behaviour journals

between 1980 and 2003, while Chang et al. (2010) provide a critical study of 245

empirical articles published in a wider range of discipline-based, peer-reviewed jour-

nals from 1987 to 2006. Neither of these reviews separately discusses the role of

mobile telephony from the perspective of WLB. This essay maintains a narrower

focus and does not aspire to provide a widespread quantitative analysis of the lit-

erature. Without aiming to provide an exhaustive summary, this literature review

concentrates on the most relevant sociological articles published in the last 15 years

and is designed to reveal consistencies and contradictions in the literature. This

review essay offers detailed introspection into a specific research field and not only

synthesises the key findings but offers a critical outline of the most important

discrepancies with the applied theoretical concepts, and identifies methodological

problems.

The drivers and potential human consequences of WLB and the relationship

between ICT use and social changes typically represent two distinct issues and have

their own theoretical constructs, research questions and operationalisation, resulting

in two large groups of empirical literature. The matter in question straddles these

research domains. This literature review summarises how the theoretical bases are

conceptualised, what the methodological choices are, how the research questions are

formulated, what kind of variables are defined, how these are operationalised, what

the sampling strategies are and finally, describes the main findings of selected articles

published internationally between 1998 and 2014. It covers those articles that have

described research into a larger group of ICT tools, including mobile phones, but

does not cover articles that deal with ICT usage in general (i.e. those that do not take

the WLB perspective), those that deal with the non-WLB-related content of ICT or

mobile phone usage, and those that deal with the role of ICT and mobile telephony

in maintaining family relationships or social capital, with parental control, with edu-

cation or with work-related practices. The wide range of literature that discusses the

social aspects of telework has also intentionally been left out of consideration.

Because this review essay aims to provide social researchers with a critical lens

through which they can utilise current empirical WLB–ICT literature, its findings have

been structured in accordance with the logic followed by most empirical studies. After

introducing the methodology for performing this review, an overview follows about

the applied theoretical frameworks that contain basic preconceptions for the empirical

research. ICT-related theories determine how we handle the complex interrelation

between technology and society, whether pessimistic or optimistic hypotheses are

drawn up,and define the variables we take into consideration. WLB-related constructs

guide our interpretations of phenomenalike conflicts between work and private life, or

the blurring boundaries between the life domains of work and nonwork. After intro-

ducing the middle-range theoretical constructs applied by the articles, the forthcom-

ing section discusses how they conceptualise and operationalise these concepts and

what the main problems are in connection with the measures employed. The next

chapter summarises concrete research questions grouped according to empirical tra-

ditions. Four basic categories emerge: domestication- and user-oriented, organisation-

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd194 New Technology, Work and Employment