Niki Panteli, Royal Holloway University of London & NTNU, Norway, niki.panteli@rhul.ac.uk

Fay Giaver, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, Fay.Giaver@ntnu.no

Jostein Engesmo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, Jostein.engesmo@ntnu.no

Emotions, defined as  a transient state constructed on the spot based on bodily sensations, events and situations in the environment (Barrett, 2016) with an inherent action tendency (Frijda, 2007), are functional and critical for individuals for interpreting and navigating their surroundings (Lazarus, 1991). Emotions are seen as highly contextual, triggered, fuelled and shaped by the situation in which individuals find themselves with important implications for the digitalised workplace.

The link between emotions and digitalisation was first recognised by Fineman, Maitlis and Panteli (2007) who called for research to explore how emotions are constructed, modified or supressed within the virtual environment. Our recent literature review on emotions within digitalised workplaces has shown that researchers’ interests in these types of workplaces are varied and diverse. Studies have focused on different aspects of these workplaces, with some giving emphasis on the role of ICTs in the functioning of the workplace, different types of IT professionals and IT-dependent workers such as cybersecurity professionals (D’Arcy et al.2014 ), IT staff (Wang et al. 2020) or gig workers (Pignot, 2021),  the implications of the digitalised workplaces and/or specific IT use on employees’ anxiety and technostress (Elie-Dit-Cosaque et al 2012), feelings of violation (Lin et al, 2018)  and wellbeing (Abelsen, et al, 2021). Collectively, these studies  confirm that digitalised workplaces which constitute of different digital technologies and applications across diverse settings, provide plethora of opportunities to researchers to examine the processes and mechanisms through which these workplaces function, the interactions within them as well as the impact they have on individuals and organisations alike. Despite these, existing literature has remained limited.

Further, the majority of studies adopted a quantitative method, and  emotions have typically  been seen as an antecedent or moderator variable; in some studies emotions emerged as a result of data analysis,  rather than being the driving conceptual lens.

Accordingly, despite the growth of digitalisation, the relevant literature appears to be limited and though digitalised workplaces are broadly defined, there tends to be a narrow perspective taken on emotions. Our Special Issue on ‘Emotions in the Digitalised Workplace’ adds to the limited literature by bringing together research studies covering some of the research gaps that exist in this area. We argue that this topic is vital for developing insights into the impact of digitalisation on employees and other organisational members. Nevertheless, several research opportunities remain and in our editorial we identify specific areas of research that have been omitted and which deserve investigation, with implications for theory and research in the study of emotions and their relation to digitalisation and work. In particular, the new work practices made possible with technology (e.g. hybrid work, remote work, digital meetings etc.) provide autonomy and flexibility, but may also lead to a sense of isolation and loneliness (e.g. Abelsen et al. 2021). It is our position that the study of emotions in the digitalized workplace is a fruitful avenue for research.

For further information, please refer to:

Panteli, N., Giæver, F., & Engesmo, J. (2022). Guest editorial: Emotions in the digitalised workplace. Information Technology & People, 35(6), 1677-1692.

Link: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ITP-06-2022-907/full/html

References

Abelsen, S. N., Vatne, S. H., Mikalef, P., & Choudrie, J. (2021). Digital working during the COVID-19 pandemic: how task–technology fit improves work performance and lessens feelings of loneliness. Information Technology and People. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-12-2020-0870

Agogo, D., & Hess, T. J. (2018). “How does tech make you feel?” a review and examination of negative affective responses to technology use. European Journal of Information Systems, 27(5), 570–599.

Barrett, L. F. (2016). The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of

interoception and categorization. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(1), 1-23. doi:10.1093/scan/nsw154

D’Arcy, J., Herath, T., & Shoss, M. K. (2014). Understanding Employee Responses to Stressful Information Security Requirements: A Coping Perspective. Journal of Management Information Systems, 31(2), 285–318.

Elie-Dit-Cosaque, C., Pallud, J., & Kalika, M. (2011). The influence of individual, contextual, and social factors on perceived behavioral control of information technology: A field theory approach. In Journal of Management Information Systems (Vol. 28, Issue 3, pp. 201–234). https://doi.org/10.2753/MIS0742-1222280306

Fineman, S., Maitlis, S., and Panteli, N. 2007. Virtuality and emotion. Human Relations, 60: 555-560.

Frijda, N. H. (2007). The laws of emotion. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. Oxford University Press.

Lin, T. C., Huang, S. L., & Chiang, S. C. (2018). User resistance to the implementation of information systems: A psychological contract breach perspective. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 19(4), 306–332

Wang, N. (Tina), Carte, T. A., & Bisel, R. S. (2020). Negativity decontaminating: Communication media affordances for emotion regulation strategies. Information and Organization, 30(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2020.100299

Authors:

Niki Panteli is a Professor of Digital Business at Royal Holloway University of London, School of Business and Management and an Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Scienve and Technology. She is currently the co-director of the Digital Organisations and Society (DOS) research centre at the School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway UoL and the President for the UK Academy for Information systems (ukais.org). She is a Senior Editor for Information Systems Journal and Information Technology & People. Her research has appeared in numerous top-ranked academic journals including Work, Employment and Society, the Journal of the Association of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Human Relations, Information Technology and People, Decision Support Systems, Communications of the ACM and New Technology, Work and Employment among others.

Fay Giaver is an Associate Professor at NTNU (The Norwegian University of Science and Technology) at the Department of Psychology. She has a PhD in Psychology from NTNU. Her research interests revolve around the role of emotions at work and she has been involved in research projects on organisational change, artistic interventions at work, sickness presence/absence, and work adjustment for employees with mental health issues. Recently she has been particularly interested in how organisations concerned with environmentally responsible business practices and values can be enabled and supported. She is leading the “Greening Organizations” research group:  https://www.ntnu.edu/psychology/greening-organisations. She is currently also involved in a research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council on sustainable meat-use in Norwegian food practices for climate mitigation (MEATigation) focusing particularly on the organisational perspective.

Jostein Engesmo is an Associate professor at NTNU, Department of Computer Science. He has a PhD in organisation change from Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management from the same university. For several years he worked as a management consultant and project manager for various companies. His research interest now is within the topics of digital transformation and adoption of digital solutions. Currently, he is involved in research projects looking at digital leaders in digital transformation, and adoption of AI-based solutions.

Vera Hoelscher, Royal Holloway, University of London
Daniela Pirani, University of Liverpool
Ratna Khanijou, Goldsmiths, University of London 

When Carl and Juliet left their wooden cabin to go on a hike of the Norwegian summer scenery, little did Carl know that his girlfriend was about to propose. As they headed through the woodlands to a nearby lake, Juliet kept falling behind. Carl thought that this was odd as her steady step would usually pace their hikes. Juliet, however, was tirelessly searching the forest floor for lichen to fashion into a ring. When the couple finally reached the lake, Juliet’s palms were sweaty and her knees weak. She seized the moment, got down on one knee, and ask him to marry her. Back at the cabin, the freshly engaged couple were buzzing to share the news with their families. Juliet’s mother was astonished that her daughter had asked her future husband for his hand in marriage rather than waited for a more traditional proposal. 

As marketing researchers, we are interested in how wedding rituals are changing in times of broader fights for gender equality. Stories like Juliet’s show how women are now re-shaping wedding rituals, by proposing to their partners. In doing so, they overstep a gendered line which made us wonder: What makes women pop THE question and how are reverse proposal changing wedding rituals? We collected data from social media conversations, forums, and from 22 interviews with women who proposed to understand what does it feel like to conquer one of the last bastions of dominant masculinity. With the help of animation artists Stacy Bias and Clarissa Hanekom, their stories were made into two short films, one about proposal equality and one about whether stealing the thunder creates a storm. Our recent paper published in Gender Work and Organization speaks of how reverse proposals introduce new standards and norms into a highly traditional institution and yet serve it to remain relevant and appear progressive. Further, we discuss the double bind this presents for women who are encouraged by society to formalize their heteronormative relationships through marriage and yet often chastised for initiating this themselves. 

One might wonder about the link between marketing and wedding rituals. Diamond rings have become a common feature of proposals thanks to marketing efforts, and they still dominate popular culture and fantasies around proposals, providing men with a plethora of information on how to choose the perfect ring. However, wedding rituals are changing. On one hand, marriage have become more accessible, with same-sex marriages becoming legal in several countries. On the other, marriage has lost its importance for many heterosexual couples, whose intimate life does not rely on being wedded. Proposals are emblematic of this shift. While the business of proposals is expanding, many jewelleries have catered to male same-sex couples, offering equivalent jewellery such as rainbow diamond rings. However, women wanting to propose find themselves without a script to follow, or a material prop to validate their actions.  

Our findings show that women who propose are overstepping a gendered line. While the majority of our interviewees shared positive experiences, women who propose still run the risk of being labelled as desperate, hopeless and emasculating their partners. Social embarrassment, exclusion, and estrangement for families are some of the backlash faced by women who decide to pop the question. To create new shared imageries, women rely on social media conversations, horizontal support from other women, sharing tips and references to representations of other women proposing in movies and TV series (yes, Monica in Friends). Reverse proposals require a degree of creativity and craftiness, borrowing elements from the more conventional script, such as going down on a knee or asking parents for permission. However, women also reported of how proposals could be occasions to discuss the future rather than surprise their partner, without the need of grand gestures. Proposing women perceived themselves as being equals in relationships characterised by open communication and respect.  

Women proposing are assembling market opportunities and crafting their own scrips, combining more traditional elements with unconventional ones. In doing so, we observe how reverse proposals provide new material to the hetero-romantic script of wedding rituals, rather than overturning them. With women becoming more proactive, the institution of marriage gets a refresh rather than a reboot, as more structural issues on the privileges and inequalities connected to marriage are not considered.  

*This blog is based on our paper published in the Information Technology and People journal.

Dr Xinying Yu | Senior Lecturer | School of Business Management, Royal Holloway, University of London
Prof Yuwen Liu | Professor | Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

With the advancement of technology in recent years, researchers have raised great interests in remote working in the business and management fields. Known also as teleworking, telecommuting, e-working, or flexible work arrangements (Morgan, 2004), remote working is defined as a flexible work arrangement in which employees work remotely from their offices or production facilities, employees have no direct contact with colleagues but can connect with them via technology (Di Martino and Wirth, 1990).

During COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become a popular work arrangement for organisations. The increasing number of remote workers who interact with colleagues and customers using different technologies has exerted physical and psychological demands. Although technology enables work collaboration through video and teleconferencing via web applications and technologies, lack of social contact and face-to-face communication among employees in the virtual environment has been reported to cause feeling of professional isolation (e.g., Chamakiotis et al., 2013). Professional isolation is a situation when a remote worker experiences the perception of being ignored, which could negatively impact upon their well-being and performance, increase loneliness, reduce job satisfaction and may result in social and emotional distress (Marshall et al., 2007; Mulki and Jaramillo, 2011).

Empirical studies investigated the antecedents and outcomes of remote working have drawn mixed results. Some researchers have claimed that remote working with more flexibility, job autonomy and better work-life balance enhances workers’ wellbeing, job performance, job satisfaction and reduces turnover (e.g., Kelliher and Anderson, 2010; ter Hoeven and van Zoonen, 2015). Others, however, have argued that professional isolation may disproportionately leave remote workers out of the loop in office interactions (e.g., Grant et al., 2013; Vega and Brennan, 2000), consequently causing psychological and physical stress and hindering their job engagement and performance (Collins et al., 2016; Xanthopoulou et al., 2009).

Although the isolated remote working condition can be detrimental for employee’s attitudes and behaviors, how employees respond to this may vary greatly. A number of studies have identified that psychological hardiness protect employees against stress (Bartone, 2000; Hystad, 2011). The way that psychological hardiness is more effective in isolated working situation is because it is proved to influence how employees interact with their environment and promote effective coping for stressful situations with individual effort (Maddi, 2005).

This study used web-based questionnaires to collect data from 497 remote workers in financial industry in China during pandemic lockdowns, and aims to examine how remote workers perform. We conclude that perceived professional isolation among remote workers triggers their cynicism attitudes toward the meaningfulness of the job and the value of the organization, and in turn results in decreased task performance. Results of the moderation role of psychological hardiness in the relationship between professional isolation and task performance through cynicism support the propositions that although cynicism is expected to emerge from worker perceptions of isolated work environment characteristics and social interactions, these perceptions are filtered through the lens of personality, namely psychological hardiness, to affect individual work performance.

This study offers some practical implications for managers. First, to handle employees’ feeling of professional isolation and cynical attitude, the fundamental principle for managers is to help employees stay connected and maintain good interpersonal and work relationships while working remotely to limit their feelings of isolation. Online interpersonal and workplace activities can be promoted to effectively collaborate and communicate remote workers. Employee engagement programs can be introduced via online platforms, weekly news roundups, fun competition events and staff support surveys, etc. Social support networks among employees could reduce their perceptions of isolation and increase their confidence in conducting tasks by working through challenges, addressing problems, and building team cohesion.

Second, managers could consider reducing the impact of cynicism to improve job performance by introducing clear HR policy and practice to balance job demands (e.g., work pressure and emotional demands) on employees with job resources needed to deal with these demands (e.g., supervisory and organizational support). For instance, organizations could provide mental and well-being training to alleviate employees’ emotional and psychological distress caused by remote. Supportive managers could allocate manageable workloads, clarify task expectations, grant flexibility and autonomy, and provide timely and constructive performance feedback. Avoiding micromanagement could convey a sense of trust in remote working environments which might contribute to greater job performance.

Furthermore, given that psychological hardiness could be developed rather than inborn and hardy employees are more likely to cope with stressful and uncertain situations than unhardy ones, managers could design hardiness training programs to improve employees’ resilience and reduce burnout levels induced by cynicism. In addition, managers could cultivate an appropriate organizational culture to foster employee hardiness. Employee engagement programs could be used as a useful mechanism to build a hardy organizational culture. Managers should set up an example to develop their own hardiness and encourage a hardy workplace to respond to crises more effectively. Employees should be made aware that change is inevitable in a crisis, rising to the challenge and increasing their hardiness could help them cope with difficult situations.

Despite the limited data from financial industry in China and only individual level variables are included, we believe that this study adds value to the research on remote working in a crisis situation by examining the impact of professional isolation and cynicism on task performance and suggesting psychological hardiness as an important characteristic for employees to face challenging situation with courage and motivation.

References

Bartone, P.T. (2000), “Hardiness as a resiliency factor for United States forces in the Gulf War”, In J. M. Violanti, D. Paton, and C. Dunning (Eds.), Posttraumatic stress intervention: Challenges, issues and perspectives, Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, pp. 115–133.

Chamakiotis, P., Dekoninck, E. A., and Panteli, N. (2013), “Factors influencing creativity in virtual design teams: An interplay between technology, teams and individuals”, Creativity and Innovation Management, Vol.22 No.3, pp.265-279.

Collins, A. M., Hislop, D., and Cartwright, S. (2016), “Social support in the workplace between teleworkers, office-based colleagues and supervisors”, New Technology, Work and Employment, Vol.31 No.2, pp.161-175.

Di Martino, V., & Wirth, L. (1990), “Telework: A new way of working and living”, International Labour Review, Vol.129 No.5, pp. 529–554.

Grant, C. A., Wallace, L. M., and Spurgeon, P. C. (2013), “An exploration of the psychological factors affecting remote e-worker’s job effectiveness, well-being and work-life balance”, Employee Relations, Vol.35, pp.527–546.

Hystad, S. W., Eid, J., and Brevik, J. I. (2011), “Effects of psychological hardiness, job demands, and job control on sickness absence: A prospective study”, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol.16 No.3, pp.265-278.

Kelliher, C., and Anderson, D. (2010), “Doing more with less? Flexible working practices and the intensification of work”, Human Relations, Vol.63 No.1, pp.83-106.

Maddi, S. R. (2005), “On hardiness and other pathways to resilience”, American Psychologist, Vol.60, pp.261–262.

Marshall, G. W., Michaels, C. E., and Mulki, J. P. (2007), “Workplace isolation: Exploring the construct and its measurement”, Psychology and Marketing, Vol.24 No.3, pp.195-223.

Morgan, R.E. (2004), “Teleworking: an assessment of the benefits and challenges”, European Business Review, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 344-357.

Mulki, J.P., and Jaramillo, F. (2011), “Workplace isolation: salespeople and supervisors in USA”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 22 No. 04, pp. 902-923

ter Hoeven, C. L., and van Zoonen, W. (2015), “Flexible work designs and employee well-being: examining the effects of resources and demands”, New Technology, Work and Employment, Vol.30 No.3, pp.237-255.

Vega, R. P., Anderson, A. J., and Kaplan, S. A. (2015), “A within-person examination of the effects of telework”, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol.30 No.2, pp.313-323.

Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., and Schaufeli, W. B. (2009), “Reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol.74 No.3, pp.235-244.