WANDA
J.
ORLIKOWSKI
JoANNE YATES
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Crackberry! Sucking Up Our Free Time
There’s
no question the BlackBerry and other so-called “smart
phones” have had a tremendous impact on how, when,
and where we do work. But the “CrackBerry” phenomenon
(a nickname spawned out of the addictive pull of the constant
communication such devices allow) is having an equally
large impact on the workplace landscape, affecting expectations
of work turnaround, employee availability, personal interactions,
and the increasingly rare notion of free time.
Our recent research study conducted with the help of MIT
Sloan doctoral student Melissa Mazmanian, sought to look
beyond the incredible popularity of the BlackBerry and
examine just how the device is used in people’s communication practices,
as well as the individual and organizational implications of such usage.
By spending several months studying BlackBerry usage at a small,
prestigious private equity firm in the U.S., our MIT Sloan
team was able to discern the unwritten rules and expectations
that go hand-in-hand with using such a device. |
No wasted moments
Four years ago, Plymouth Investments [a fictitious name to protect
the privacy of the company] provided BlackBerrys to all its employees.
While Plymouth is committed to the idea of work-life balance, the
nature of its work in financial services is fast paced, requiring
a great deal of autonomous, mobile work and extensive interactions
via e-mail.
Ideally, the availability of the device would help
employees to work more efficiently by allowing them constant access
to e-mail and other forms of communication.
And there’s the added bonus of being able to do such work
during “wasted” moments, like waiting for clients,
traveling in cars or elevators, standing in line at the supermarket,
or sitting in a church pew, to name just a few. By taking advantage
of such previously “unproductive” times, more work
is getting done quicker, and, in theory, designated free time can
truly be free.
 But as the researchers discovered, the attraction of constant connection
is very strong, and once people are plugged in, they often find
it hard to tune out. In addition to staying connected to the office
while on the road during business hours, most members of the firm
admitted to carrying their device with them on evenings and weekends
and checking them regularly.
Ninety percent of the firm’s employees described their behavior
with the device as something akin to compulsion, confessing to
an inability to refrain from checking the device. What results
is a gradual blurring of the lines between “work time” and “personal
time.”
Peer pressure
While individual personalities and work habits certainly play
a role in how people interact with their BlackBerrys, the effect
of the group dynamic in a firm such as Plymouth cannot be underestimated.
All Plymouth employees know that their colleagues have the device. Although
constant e-mail monitoring is not mandated by the firm, the usage
norm has become for all employees to check e-mail frequently. This
has created an environment in which checking e-mail at night and
over the weekends has become the rule rather than the exception.
According to one employee, “I think we’ve all gotten
used to answering each other instantly because of the ease of using
it, but it’s not expected.”
Another states, “I think people begin to build expectations
... of what your response time is going to be.”
And then there is the nature of e-mail itself. Perceived as far
less obtrusive than other forms of communication, it is utilized
with increasing frequency. Combine that with the ease of sending
and receiving messages through the device and the firm members’ willingness
to be in regular communication, and e-mail activity can easily
intensify and bleed into off-hours.
Says one Plymouth employee, “It brings responsiveness on
nights and weekends to the level of responsiveness generally during
work time.”
According to the research findings, the perceived difficulty of
disconnecting from such group communication relates directly to
the shared knowledge of who uses it..
Where are you?
When it comes to the BlackBerry phenomenon, the old adage “you
can’t be two places at once” should be amended to include, “you
can’t focus on two things at once very well either.”
In part due to its addictive pull, users often engage more with
their BlackBerrys than with people in the same room. The frequent
outcome is a withdrawal from the present, resulting in compromised
interactions and the potential for missing important information.
In an effort to temper such device-induced distractions, Plymouth,
like many firms, has sought to limit or prohibit use of it during
meetings. However, its pervasive attraction of yielded only a temporary
hiatus before full-blown usage crept back in.
Happy addicts
This study focused on a specific firm in a particularly fast-paced
industry, but the overall usage patterns and resultant expectations
can be found in businesses of varying sizes and focus.
While clearly allowing for increased mobility and flexibility during
work hours, its usage also creates expectations of responsiveness
that spill over into non-work time.
While interviewees in this study described their “compulsion
to check messages” as a matter of individual choice, our
team found “their statements reveal underlying expectations
of one another.”
“After some probing, [interviewees] recognize the relationship between
shared expectations, unobtrusive e-mail, and the lack of temporal/physical
boundaries on messages with stress, burnout, and difficulties in changing.”
Yet even after recognizing the downsides of usage, the group
at Plymouth perceives the benefits as outweighing the costs, and
after four years of Blackberry usage, the overall reaction is very
positive.
Says one senior support staff member, “It’s a double-edged
sword, but the benefits, for me at any rate, far outweigh anything
that I might every once in a while think to myself ‘Just
go away; just shush and go away.’ ”
Wanda J. Orlikowski - Eaton Peabody Chair of Communication
Sciences & Professor
of Information Technologies and Organization Studies at MITactively
investigates the ongoing relationship between information technologies
and organizations with particular emphasis on structures, cultures,
work practices, and change.
JoAnne Yates - Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management
examines communication and information as they shape and are
shaped by technologies and policies over time. Her
research encompasses both historical and contemporary organizations,
with a focus on changing communication and information technologies
and the related work practices.
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