Home-based teleworkers: the effect of work demands, personality and ICT use on work>nonwork boundary interruptions

The use of mobile ICT’s such as smartphones have been found to blur the boundaries between the work and non-work spheres as their portability and flexibility makes them easy to use at any place or time. However, different types of mobile ICT’s may play a different role in boundary blurring due to the differences in their uses. The home-based working context is of particular importance because ICT use is paramount to role performance in this context. Similarly, trait activation theory might suggest that personality traits could be salient in such a context where individuals are left to manage their own work>nonwork boundary. This paper examines these issues using data from an online survey involving 391 respondents. Three models were tested using regression analysis and found that the use of smartphones, tablet computers and laptops contributed to work>nonwork interruptions in a stepped effect, with smaller and lighter technology playing a bigger role. In terms of personality, the traits of conscientiousness (negatively) and neuroticism (positively) contributed to work>nonwork interruptions, but there was no relationship between extroversion and work-non-work interruptions. Interestingly, work demands contributed more of the variance than the tested personality traits, suggesting that these may be more influential in work>nonwork boundary interruptions.