The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals
Our research examines how knowledge professionals use mobile email devices to get their work done and the implications of such use for their autonomy to control the location, timing, and performance of work. We found that knowledge professionals using mobile email devices to manage their communicati...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112333 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7313-9466 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-9256 |
| _version_ | 1826210814538809344 |
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| author | Mazmanian, Melissa Orlikowski, Wanda J Yates, JoAnne |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Mazmanian, Melissa Orlikowski, Wanda J Yates, JoAnne |
| author_sort | Mazmanian, Melissa |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Our research examines how knowledge professionals use mobile email devices to get their work done and the implications of such use for their autonomy to control the location, timing, and performance of work. We found that knowledge professionals using mobile email devices to manage their communication were enacting a norm of continual connectivity and accessibility that produced a number of contradictory outcomes. Although individual use of mobile email devices offered these professionals flexibility, peace of mind, and control over interactions in the short term, it also intensified collective expectations of their availability, escalating their engagement and thus reducing their ability to disconnect from work. Choosing to use their mobile email devices to work anywhere/anytime—actions they framed as evidence of their personal autonomy—the professionals were ending up using it everywhere/all the time, thus diminishing their autonomy in practice. This autonomy paradox reflected professionals’ ongoing navigation of the tension between their interests in personal autonomy on the one hand and their professional commitment to colleagues and clients on the other. We further found that this dynamic has important unintended consequences—reaffirming and challenging workers’ sense of themselves as autonomous and responsible professionals while also collectively shifting the norms of how work is and should be performed in the contemporary workplace. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:55:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/112333 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:55:49Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1123332022-10-01T23:26:50Z The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals Mazmanian, Melissa Orlikowski, Wanda J Yates, JoAnne Sloan School of Management Orlikowski, Wanda J Yates, JoAnne Our research examines how knowledge professionals use mobile email devices to get their work done and the implications of such use for their autonomy to control the location, timing, and performance of work. We found that knowledge professionals using mobile email devices to manage their communication were enacting a norm of continual connectivity and accessibility that produced a number of contradictory outcomes. Although individual use of mobile email devices offered these professionals flexibility, peace of mind, and control over interactions in the short term, it also intensified collective expectations of their availability, escalating their engagement and thus reducing their ability to disconnect from work. Choosing to use their mobile email devices to work anywhere/anytime—actions they framed as evidence of their personal autonomy—the professionals were ending up using it everywhere/all the time, thus diminishing their autonomy in practice. This autonomy paradox reflected professionals’ ongoing navigation of the tension between their interests in personal autonomy on the one hand and their professional commitment to colleagues and clients on the other. We further found that this dynamic has important unintended consequences—reaffirming and challenging workers’ sense of themselves as autonomous and responsible professionals while also collectively shifting the norms of how work is and should be performed in the contemporary workplace. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant IIS-0085725) 2017-12-01T15:01:04Z 2017-12-01T15:01:04Z 2013-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1047-7039 1526-5455 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112333 Mazmanian, Melissa et al. “The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals.” Organization Science 24, 5 (October 2013): 1337–1357 © 2013 Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7313-9466 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-9256 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1120.0806 Organization Science Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Informs |
| spellingShingle | Mazmanian, Melissa Orlikowski, Wanda J Yates, JoAnne The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals |
| title | The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals |
| title_full | The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals |
| title_fullStr | The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals |
| title_short | The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals |
| title_sort | autonomy paradox the implications of mobile email devices for knowledge professionals |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112333 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7313-9466 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-9256 |
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