Connectivity agency in telework: a qualitative analysis of facilitators and barriers
| Date | 20 February 2025 |
| Pages | 24-44 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2024-0442 |
| Published date | 20 February 2025 |
| Author | Luke Booker,Paula K Mowbray,Keith Townsend,Xi Wen Chan |
Connectivity agency in telework:
a qualitative analysis of facilitators
and barriers
Luke Booker, Paula K Mowbray, Keith Townsend and Xi Wen Chan
Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –The well-being of employees in distributed work has never been of more importance. This study aims
to investigate the factors that empower or undermine the connectivity agency of teleworkers. Connectivity
agency is an important form of autonomy for managing work–home boundaries, recuperation from work and
psychological detachment. With this in mind it becomes vital to understand how connectivity agency is shaped
by various contextual factors.
Design/methodology/approach –This qualitative study draws upon data collected from 27 teleworkers
representing a variety of industries and roles. Weemployed a semi-structured interview protocol and analysed
the data using Tracy’s (2013) iterative coding technique.
Findings –Factors that influence one’slikelihood or capacity to exercise connectivity agency exist at the individual,
group or organisational level. Our data elucidate factors such as the provision of home and technological resources,
the state of team norms and shared expectations and the level of organisational (dis)trust as having significant
influence on whether a teleworker exercises connectivity agency, or whether attempts to do so fail altogether.
Originality/value –Whilst we have a comprehensive understanding of types of connectivity agency
behaviours, it is unclear how one’s agency may be influenced by contextual factors. The originality and key
contribution of our study is in enriching our understanding of connectivity agency to appreciate it as a dynamic
phenomenon that is shaped by various contextual factors. This presents a variety of important insights for
professionals leading, implementing or partaking in distributed work.
Keywords Connectivity, Connectivity agency,Telework, Remote work
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Technological advancement and changing employee values have created a seismic shift in the
relationship between work and technology. An increasing number of individuals now
regularly engage in teleworking arrangements that are critically dependent on information and
communication technology (ICT). Whilst these arrangements offer compelling benefits for
individuals (Ameen et al., 2023), they also introduce an array of challenges that are of vital
importance to leaders, managers and policy-makers (Charalampous et al., 2018;Hill et al.,
2022). One facet of particular importance is the relationship between digital connectivity and
individual work outcomes. Recent studies show that managing connectivity is an essential
practice for modern work (Leonardi et al., 2010;Aljabr et al., 2022). Employees actively
manage their virtual, social and psychological connection to work through a variety of
strategies to escape “over-connection” and high visibility driven by omnipresent work-related
technology. Amidst global efforts to legislate a “right to disconnect” from work (Von Bergen
and Bressler, 2019), the importance of this research is highlighted and poses significant
implications for individuals and organisations alike.
Whilst research documents the types of connectivity behaviours individuals use, scholars
have yet to adequately examine the factors that empower or restrict them. Our study addresses
this critical gap by exploring how organisational, team and individual contexts influence when,
ER
47,9
24
© Luke Booker, Paula K Mowbray, Keith Townsend, Xi Wen Chan. Published by Emerald Publishing
Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone
may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and
non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full
terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 8 August 2024
Revised 14 October 2024
23 December 2024
Accepted 7 January 2025
EmployeeRelations: The International
Journal
Vol.47 No. 9, 2025
pp.24-44
EmeraldPublishing Limited
e-ISSN:1758-7069
p-ISSN:0142-5455
DOI10.1108/ER-08-2024-0442
how and why teleworkers exercise connectivity agency. Given that one’s sense of digital
connectivity fundamentally influences their well-being and other work-related outcomes
(B€
uchler et al., 2020;Leonardi et al., 2010;ten Brummelhuis et al., 2021), it becomes important
for practitioners and scholars to appreciate the importance of connectivity agency as a vital
resource for individuals and organisations. Correspondingly, scholars must understand the
complex array of factors which influence the connectivity agency of employees. Our findings
build upon recent studies (Farivar et al., 2024;Waizeneggeret al., 2023) which demonstrate the
importance of connectivity as a primary focus for contemporary organisational research.
Specifically, our study explores factors such as organisational policies, team norms, trust and
technological resources, to illustrate the factors that can influence how an employee controls
their connectivity. As such, we establish the following research question:
RQ. How do individual, group and organisational factors shape how a teleworker
exercises connectivity agency?
Answering this question illuminates why individuals make certain choices regarding their
connectivity, and why some efforts to manage connectivity may fail. Approaching research
problems using a multi-level lens can provide a comprehensive level of analysis when
investigating complex organisational phenomena. This approach enables researchers to
examine the interrelation of phenomena at different levels, from organisational dynamics to
individual characteristics. This qualitative study contributes to the literature by further
developing our understanding of connectivity agency as a complex and multi-faceted
phenomenon by examining how it is shaped. Our article provides important insights for ensuring
individuals thrive in virtual work arrangements, which has emerged as an important problem in
facilitating positive employee outcomes in a world that is connected around-the-clock.
Literature review
Telework
Technology allows work to become increasingly detached from a single place, and office,
domestic, public and cyber spaces mesh together to create an individualised “package” of
working life (Halford, 2005, p. 30). “Telework” emerged in the 1980s to describe novel work
patterns using telecommunications to facilitate organisational decentralisation (Nilles, 1988,
p. 301). Teleworking has recently been defined simply as “working outside the conventional
workplace and communicating with it by way of telecommunications or computer-based
technology” (Bailey and Kurland, 2002, p. 384).
One’s status as a teleworker is contingent upon four aspects: time, place, technology and
contractual arrangements (Sullivan, 2003). Studies may focus on employees who telework for a
minimum of 20% of the week (Haddon and Brynin, 2005). This temporal dimension has been
referred to as a teleworker’s “intensity” (Suh and Lee, 2017). The locations spent teleworking are
important to consider, and even warrant sub-categories of telework (Sullivan, 2003). The
experience of teleworking from a satellite office (e.g. see Spinks, 1991) will differ from
teleworking solely from home. Additionally, Garrett and Danziger (2007, p. 30) argue that “out-
of-office work activities [should] be supported by ICTs that provide a rich information or
communications environment enabling the performance of complex information-processing
tasks”. Finally,a teleworker must be considered an employee and telework as part of a contractual
agreement (Garrett and Danziger, 2007). As such, teleworking does not apply to those who are
self-employed, work overtime or experience role overspill (Haddon and Brynin, 2005).
As teleworking is increasingly adopted in the future, and grows in scholarly interest, a
variety of organisational phenomena emerge, especially that of wellbeing (Charalampous et al.,
2018). Many studies have considered the complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship
between the affordances and constraints of teleworking upon individuals. For example,
telework is found to facilitate a variety of positive outcomes such as autonomy, flexibility,
productivity, work–life balance, job satisfaction and positive affect (Vega et al., 2015;
Employee
Relations: The
International
Journal
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