IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i11p3067-d235862.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New Telework, Time Pressure, and Time Use Control in Everyday Life

Author

Listed:
  • Eva Thulin

    (Unit for Human Geography, Department of Economy and Society, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden)

  • Bertil Vilhelmson

    (Unit for Human Geography, Department of Economy and Society, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden)

  • Martina Johansson

    (Unit for Human Geography, Department of Economy and Society, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden)

Abstract

This study explores how changing conditions for home-based telework affect the quality of life and social sustainability of workers in terms of time pressure and time use control in everyday life. Changing conditions concern the spread of telework to new types of jobs of a more routine character, involving new practices of unregulated work and anytime smartphone access. Empirically, we draw on survey data from a sample of 456 home-based teleworkers employed by six governmental agencies in Sweden. Results indicate that subjective time pressure is not associated with job type in terms of distinguishing between bounded case work and more independent analytical work. Time pressure is intensified by family-related factors, telework performed outside of working hours, and part-time work, and is moderated by the private use of smartphones. We find no significant associations between subjective time use control, job qualifications, and teleworking practice. Family situation and having small children at home reduce time use control. Also, high levels of smartphone use for work-related purposes are associated with reduced control.

Suggested Citation

  • Eva Thulin & Bertil Vilhelmson & Martina Johansson, 2019. "New Telework, Time Pressure, and Time Use Control in Everyday Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-17, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3067-:d:235862
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3067/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3067/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Bittman & Judith E. Brown & Judy Wajcman, 2009. "The mobile phone, perpetual contact and time pressure," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(4), pages 673-691, December.
    2. Bertil Vilhelmson & Eva Thulin, 2001. "Is Regular Work at Fixed Places Fading Away? The Development of ICT-Based and Travel-Based Modes of Work in Sweden," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(6), pages 1015-1029, June.
    3. Joar Vittersø & Sigmund Akselsen & Bente Evjemo & Tom Julsrud & Birgitte Yttri & Svein Bergvik, 2003. "Impacts of Home-Based Telework on Quality of Life for Employees and Their Partners. Quantitative and Qualitative Results From a European Survey," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 201-233, June.
    4. Eleftherios Giovanis, 2018. "Are Women Happier When Their Spouse is Teleworker?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 719-754, March.
    5. Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Michael N. Bagley & Ilan Salomon, 1998. "The impact of gender, occupation, and presence of children on telecommuting motivations and constraints," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 49(12), pages 1115-1134.
    6. Frey, Carl Benedikt & Osborne, Michael A., 2017. "The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 254-280.
    7. Alexander, Bayarma & Ettema, Dick & Dijst, Martin, 2010. "Fragmentation of work activity as a multi-dimensional construct and its association with ICT, employment and sociodemographic characteristics," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 55-64.
    8. Wilton, Robert D. & Páez, Antonio & Scott, Darren M., 2011. "Why do you care what other people think? A qualitative investigation of social influence and telecommuting," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 269-282, May.
    9. Pascale Peters & Cécile Wetzels & Kea Tijdens, 2008. "Telework: Timesaving or Time-Consuming? An Investigation into Actual Working Hours," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 19(4), pages 421-442, April.
    10. Darren M Scott & Ivy Dam & Antonio Páez & Robert D Wilton, 2012. "Investigating the Effects of Social Influence on the Choice to Telework," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(5), pages 1016-1031, May.
    11. Melissa Mazmanian & Wanda J. Orlikowski & JoAnne Yates, 2013. "The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(5), pages 1337-1357, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Purificación López-Igual & Paula Rodríguez-Modroño, 2020. "Who is Teleworking and Where from? Exploring the Main Determinants of Telework in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-15, October.
    2. Erik Elldér, 2019. "Who Is Eligible for Telework? Exploring the Fast-Growing Acceptance of and Ability to Telework in Sweden, 2005–2006 to 2011–2014," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Armanda Cetrulo & Dario Guarascio & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2020. "Anatomy of the Italian occupational structure: concentrated power and distributed knowledge," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(6), pages 1345-1379.
    4. Ben-Elia, Eran & Alexander, Bayarma & Hubers, Christa & Ettema, Dick, 2014. "Activity fragmentation, ICT and travel: An exploratory Path Analysis of spatiotemporal interrelationships," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 56-74.
    5. Becky P. Y. Loo & Bo Wang, 2018. "Factors associated with home-based e-working and e-shopping in Nanjing, China," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 365-384, March.
    6. Thomas de Graaff & Piet Rietveld, 2004. "ICT and Substitution Between Out-of-Home and at-Home Work: The Importance of Timing," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(5), pages 879-896, May.
    7. Maness, Michael & Cirillo, Cinzia & Dugundji, Elenna R., 2015. "Generalized behavioral framework for choice models of social influence: Behavioral and data concerns in travel behavior," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 137-150.
    8. Pike, Susan & Lubell, Mark, 2018. "The conditional effects of social influence in transportation mode choice," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 2-10.
    9. José María Ortiz-Lozano & Pedro César Martínez-Morán & Iván Fernández-Muñoz, 2021. "Difficulties for Teleworking of Public Employees in the Spanish Public Administration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Paula Rodríguez-Modroño & Purificación López-Igual, 2021. "Job Quality and Work—Life Balance of Teleworkers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Paolo Gubitta, 2018. "I lavori ibridi e la gestione del lavoro," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 70-82.
    12. Kazunori Minetaki, 2023. "An Empirical Study of the Effects of Telework During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan Using Panel Data," The Review of Socionetwork Strategies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 3-23, April.
    13. Killian Mullan & Judy Wajcman, 2019. "Have Mobile Devices Changed Working Patterns in the 21st Century? A Time-diary Analysis of Work Extension in the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(1), pages 3-20, February.
    14. Thomas Bolli & Filippo Pusterla, 2022. "Decomposing the effects of digitalization on workers’ job satisfaction," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 263-300, June.
    15. Minh Hieu Nguyen, 2021. "Factors influencing home-based telework in Hanoi (Vietnam) during and after the COVID-19 era," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3207-3238, December.
    16. Debashish Sengupta & Dwa Al-Khalifa, 2022. "Pandemic Imposed Remote Work Arrangements and Resultant Work-Life Integration, Future of Work and Role of Leaders—A Qualitative Study of Indian Millennial Workers," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, November.
    17. Miller, Harvey J., 2013. "Beyond sharing: cultivating cooperative transportation systems through geographic information science," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 296-308.
    18. Pike, Susan & Lubell, Mark, 2016. "Geography and social networks in transportation mode choice," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 184-193.
    19. Ribeiro, Barbara & Meckin, Robert & Balmer, Andrew & Shapira, Philip, 2023. "The digitalisation paradox of everyday scientific labour: How mundane knowledge work is amplified and diversified in the biosciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    20. Aguilera, Anne & Lethiais, Virginie & Rallet, Alain & Proulhac, Laurent, 2016. "Home-based telework in France: Characteristics, barriers and perspectives," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1-11.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3067-:d:235862. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.