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Working with connective flow: how smartphone use is evolving in practice

  • Empirical Research
  • Published:
European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

Smartphones, those handheld devices that connect us via telephone and the Internet to virtually everyone and everything in the world, are becoming an integral part of everyday life. While there are significant individual and collective benefits from being more connected, there are also concerns associated with ‘always on’ work practices. This paper reports on a two-phase case study of smartphone users in a global financial services firm comparing the use of smartphones and their impact on work over time. We found that mobile communication technology practices have evolved within a relatively short (5-year) period of time as users seek to manage connectivity across work and non-work spaces. Disconnecting from work is no longer possible, nor desirable, for many users, who exercise choice (agency), switching between work and non-work interactions to regulate the connective flow across multiple connective media.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Kristine Dery

  2. University of Auckland, New Zealand

    Darl Kolb

  3. University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia

    Judith MacCormick

Authors
  1. Kristine Dery
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  2. Darl Kolb
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  3. Judith MacCormick
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Correspondence to Kristine Dery.

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Dery, K., Kolb, D. & MacCormick, J. Working with connective flow: how smartphone use is evolving in practice. Eur J Inf Syst 23, 558–570 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2014.13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2014.13

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