E-Resilience Conference 21 April 2016 Virtual interactions at - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

E-Resilience Conference 21 April 2016

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Virtual interactions at work, wellbeing and performance

The importance of person-environment 'fit’ Jean-François STICH – Lancaster University

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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The tools of the trade

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Personal preferences regarding virtual interactions

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The case of email load

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Personal preferences: the case of email overload

Email overload

• Causes: lots of emails sent/received, time spent

managing emails, email interruptions…

(Sumecki et al., 2011; Soucek & Moser, 2010; Barley et al., 2011)

• Consequences: workplace isolation, decreased job

control, longer and faster paced workdays, stress, burnout, absenteeism, loss of productivity…

(McMurtry, 2014; Barley et al., 2011; Barber & Santuzzi, 2015; Mano & Mesch, 2010)

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Personal preferences: the case of email overload

But how many emails to feel overloaded?

• 200, 50, 100, 10… It depends…

(Karr-Wisniewski & Lu, 2010; Ingham, 2003)

Because email overload is individual/subjective

• Users’ perceptions that their email use has got out
• f control (Dabbish and Kraut, 2006)
• Mitigated by positive attitudes (Sumecki et al., 2011)

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Personal preferences: Expanding the case

Strong attitudes towards Virtual / Face-to-face ICT outside working hours:

• Some individuals ask for this remote access, feel empowered,

more satisfied, more productive, more “professional” (Diaz et al., 2012)

• Aware of the trade-offs (Matusik and Mickel, 2011)
• Less work-life conflict for individuals who have a positive view
• n this connectivity (Wright et al., 2014).

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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So what?

• Personal preferences and appraisal regarding

virtual interactions matter

• But how do they impact wellbeing?
• Moderating the use – wellbeing relationship
• Guiding use
• …
• My hypothesis:

Personal preferences have to match actual use

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My hypothesis

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Personal preferences have to match actual use A Person-Environment Fit approach to wellbeing and virtual interactions at work

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Person-Environment Fit

“Satisfactory use” (fit) -> more wellbeing “Unsatisfactory use” (misfit) -> less wellbeing

Actual use

Actual extent of communication (e.g., using email)

Desired use

Desired extent of communication (e.g., using email) Fit Misfit

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My studies

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Pilot study

Cross-sectional survey (N=118)

Interviews (N=23)

Main study

Cross-sectional survey (N=504)

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Quantitative study: method

• Sample: 118 U.S. workers from a Qualtrics panel
• Questions:
• Actual and desired use of virtual interactions
• Wellbeing (ASSET by Robertston Cooper Ltd)

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Quantitative study: results

Impact of the amount of emails alone on relationship stress

None!

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Quantitative study: results

Actual AND desired amounts

Stress when both too many and too few emails Less stress when interacting the way we want

Low Medium High 8 13 18 23 28 33 38 43 48 Low Medium High

Desired volume of emails Relationship stress Actual volume of emails

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Quantitative study: other results

Same fit relationships for:

• Email load & Work relationships stressor
• Email load & Job conditions stressor
• Email load & Job control stressor

No fit relationships for the other media

• Only actual volume impacted wellbeing

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Qualitative study: methods

• Sample: 23 employees from a French IT company
• Questions:
• Use of virtual interactions
• Perceptions of virtual interactions
• Perceived impact of virtual interactions on wellbeing

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Qualitative study: results

Other types of ‘fit’

• Desired and actual volume
• Desired and imposed virtual interactions
• Desired and available media
• One’s desired virtual interactions and those of others

‘I am not an e-mail person very much, so I don’t even like when there are few of them [laughs].’

“I limit my phone calls a lot. I never call. I don’t like the phone, I don’t know why [laughs]. I don’t like it, and I don’t like it either when I am called.” “I am more of a phone person. […] I send an instant message with ‘hey, do you have a minute?” and if they say yes, I call them straight away.” “It is good here that people are using instant messaging and face-to-face

• interactions. This is quite efficient to avoid having a substantial volume of e-mail .”

‘After two hours, I log into the instant messaging system and I send a message ‘so have you seen my e-mail?’ I think it puts a bit of pressure [laughs]’.

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Virtual interactions and wellbeing

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Implications

• 1. Identify fit or misfit
• 2. Tackle misfit

Actual use

• Adjust volume
• Policies
• Training…
• Adjust available media
• Adjust teams

Preferences

• Adjust preferences
• Empathy coaching
• No email week
• Share preferences

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Thank you

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www.jfstich.com