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Work-From-Home Performance During the Pandemic: How Technology Availability Moderates Job Role, Stress and Family-Work Conflict

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Co-creating for Context in the Transfer and Diffusion of IT (TDIT 2022)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 660))

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Abstract

Employees working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic turned to an array of information and communications technologies (ICT) to support at-home job performance. This study documents the role of ICT in enabling these workers and managers to abruptly transition to WFH and explores the barriers and challenges they faced in working remotely. The goal of the study is to address the research question: How did ICT availability affect the relationship between personal work environment factors (i.e., job role, stress, and family-work conflict) and job performance while WFH due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic? We also report on how workers adjusted their ICT usage (hardware, software and Internet access) when moving to remote work. We then compare workers’ ICT usage, job performance, and personal stressors across manager and non-manager roles. Our findings from survey responses from 545 workers in 36 countries record a range of personal and professional challenges employees faced when forced to WFH, including whether employer ICT support has successfully met their needs. Our findings will inform employer efforts to establish new WFH policies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bentley University, Waltham, MA, USA

    Jane Fedorowicz

  2. An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine

    Safa’a AbuJarour

  3. Elon University, Elon, NC, USA

    Haya Ajjan

  4. University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Dawn Owens

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  1. Jane Fedorowicz
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  2. Safa’a AbuJarour
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  3. Haya Ajjan
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  4. Dawn Owens
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Correspondence to Safa’a AbuJarour .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Holloway University of London, London, UK

    Amany Elbanna

  2. University of Maynooth, Maynooth, Ireland

    Shane McLoughlin

  3. Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    Yogesh K. Dwivedi

  4. University of Maynooth, Maynooth, Kildare, Ireland

    Brian Donnellan

  5. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    David Wastell

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Fedorowicz, J., AbuJarour, S., Ajjan, H., Owens, D. (2022). Work-From-Home Performance During the Pandemic: How Technology Availability Moderates Job Role, Stress and Family-Work Conflict. In: Elbanna, A., McLoughlin, S., Dwivedi, Y.K., Donnellan, B., Wastell, D. (eds) Co-creating for Context in the Transfer and Diffusion of IT. TDIT 2022. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 660. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17968-6_18

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