Vitality and learning: the impact of mobile technology use across work–nonwork boundaries on job performance

ABSTRACTThis study categorises mobile technology use into four types, taking into account two dimensions: the nature of the matters (work-related and non-work-related) and the boundaries (work and nonwork time). Furthermore, this study focuses on mobile technology use across boundaries. Drawing upon SDT, this study refines mobile technology use across work-nonwork boundaries into 2*2 categories based on the different ways in which it crosses the work-nonwork boundary, namely, work invading nonwork time (work-to-nonwork time), nonwork intruding on the realm of work time (nonwork-to-work time) as well as individual's willingness of behaviour (active and passive). Moreover, relying on COR theory, we introduce the mediating role of thriving at work (learning and vitality) in the relationship between across-boundary mobile technology use and job performance. This study shows that work-to-nonwork time active use and nonwork-to-work time active use have positive and inverted U-shaped effects on job performance separately, and both nonwork-to-work time and work-to-nonwork time passive use have negative effects on job performance. In addition, learning mediates the positive relationship between work-to-nonwork time active use and job performance, while vitality mediates the relationship between nonwork-to-work time active use and job performance, as well as between work-to-nonwork time passive use and job performance.KEYWORDS: Mobile technology usejob performancethriving at workwork-nonwork boundariesactive usepassive use AcknowledegmentsFirst and foremost, I would like to avail myself of the opportunity to express my gratitude to Mi Zhou, my tutor, who has taken her precious time off from her tight schedule, read my paper carefully, and offered me constant encouragement, valuable suggestions and enlightening instructions, which contribute to the completion of my paper. I am also grateful to all my classmates and friends who have given me generous support and helpful advice in this paper. At the same time, I wish to devote this paper to my parents. They took good care of my life and gave me a lot of encouragement when I was working at this paper. They always share my weal and woe.Credit author statmentMi Zhou: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Funding acqusition, Writing – review & editing. Wei Liu: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Formal analysis, Visualisation, Methodology, Conceptualisation. Weiguo Fan: Supervision, Writing – review & editing.Data availability statementThe data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Informed consentAll responses are anonymized, and respondents were informed about the research prior to data collection. The study was hence deemed low risk and did not require an ethical approval.Additional informationFundingFinally, the present research was supported by the Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71872142]. No financial interest in present research.