Non-work-related instant messaging in the workplace and daily task performance: complementarity between social and cognitive resources
Journal of Managerial Psychology
ISSN: 0268-3946
Article publication date: 24 November 2021
Issue publication date: 8 April 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The ubiquity of smartphones has changed how people communicate, work and entertain. In view of conservation of resources theory and the positive spillover effect, this study explores the effect of non-work-related instant messaging (IM) in the workplace on daily task performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the experience sampling method to collect day-level data from 75 employees over a period of 10 workdays. Multilevel path analysis is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Non-work-related IM exerts a significant negative indirect effect on daily task performance through diminished cognitive engagement. This negative indirect effect disappears when social support is high, thereby showing the function of social support as a neutralizer of the detriment of non-work-related IM on daily task performance.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that organizations can neutralize the harm of non-work-related IM in the workplace by promoting social support perceived by employees.
Originality/value
This study advances the technology and management literature by developing and testing a balanced perspective on the ambivalent effect of workplace smartphone use that considers social and cognitive resource implications.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Institute of Management Research, Seoul National University and the research grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 71972149).
Citation
Du, J., Fan, W. and Choi, J.N. (2022), "Non-work-related instant messaging in the workplace and daily task performance: complementarity between social and cognitive resources", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 305-318. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-01-2021-0014
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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