A Daily Field Investigation of Technology-Driven Spillovers from Work to Home

Abstract

Although recent theoretical developments and empirical studies indicate that technology-related stress may have negative and positive consequences for employees across life domains, the majority of previous IS research on technostress has focused on its downsides at work and has neglected to study how and why technology-related stress may spill over from work to home. Furthermore, while much of our knowledge of technology-related stress and its effects derives from cross-sectional studies examining between-person differences, there is a need for longitudinal, daily investigations that take a within-person view. Integrating the challenge–hindrance stressor framework with affective events theory and work–home spillover literature, we propose a broader conceptualization of technology-related stressors, referred to as technology-driven (TD) stressors, which comprise technology-driven challenge (TCS) and hindrance (THS) stressors, and examine how and why daily TCS and THS experienced at work affect the relationship between employees and their partners at home. In an experience sampling study of 115 employees who responded to daily surveys both at work and at home over a two-week period, we found that while THS are negatively related to partnership satisfaction via negative affect, TCS are positively related to partnership satisfaction via positive affect. We also investigated the moderating effect of work–home role integration (WHI) and perceived organizational support in work–home boundary management (POS) on the strength of the within-individual spillover processes. Our results show that WHI acts as a double-edged sword for letting TCS- and THS-triggered positive and negative affect spill over to partnership satisfaction, whereas POS serves as a facilitator of positive affect and as a buffer against negative affect. Broadly, our study shows that understanding daily TD work stressors is important because their negative and positive downstream effects often do not stop at employees’ workplace boundaries but actually penetrate and shape their everyday lives at home.