A Sociomaterial approach to the enactment of work/non-work boundaries: a case study of academics in the UK Higher Education

Editors: Wallace, C.

Conference: University of Aberdeen, Business School, Business Management Department

Abstract:

The rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) and its embeddedness in everyday academic practices have challenged the assumed separatedness between the work and the non-work domains of life. This PhD research aims to comprehend how organisational ICT practices and policies shape the enactment of academics’ work/non-work boundaries (WNwB) by addressing the entanglements between social and material entities in the performativity of work practices. Additionally, it shows the interconnectedness between university management and policies, work practices, and academics’ engagement with ICT in configuring academics’ WNwB, which became more evident with the changes in work arrangements triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The data for this research was collected through semi-structured interviews with academics and members of the IT management team of a UK university, as well as through analysing organisational policies. The empirical study revealed that the ongoing transformations in work practices, policies, and academics’ engagement with ICT continually shape and are shaped by the entanglements between social and material entities (re)configuring, deconstructing, and (re)creating WNwB in practice according to five main variables, namely (1) the environment, (2) work arrangements, (3) ICT availability, (4) individuals’ needs and (5) individuals’ agency, either supporting the separation of WNwB in practice or facilitating their blurring. The findings also indicate that the development of policies that guide academics to manage workload, work patterns, and WNwB supports the (re)construction of academics’ WNwB in a time when work from home has intensified its porosity. It also recognises the importance of the policy enactment process in the development and implementation of policies within universities and provides theoretical and practical insights to policy-makers, managers and academics to better manage their work, assisting them to reconcile not only the spatial, temporal and behavioural dimensions of WNwB but also their technological aspects, in ways that minimise work/non-work (WNw) conflict.

Source: Manual