Idiosyncratic distances: Impact of mobile technology practices on role segmentation and integration

Nicolas Battard and Vincent Mangematin
Additional contact information
Nicolas Battard: Dublin Institute of Technology - Dublin Institute of Technology

Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL

Abstract: Mobile technologies have brought convenience, flexibility and connectedness in our lives by enabling us to be reachable anywhere and anytime. All our environments such as work and home converge through a single device and we can private calls at work and professional calls during the weekend. Mobile technologies have transformed geographical distances and allow unplanned interruptions. While boundary theory suggests individuals create, maintain and modify their boundaries in order to classify and simplify their environments, we focus here on how people use their devices and manage the boundaries that have been erased by mobile technologies. Based on an original qualitative research of twenty three mini-case studies, we identify three practices by which individuals resocialize the distance: construction of a meta-role, delegation of role separation to technological devices and 'sedentarization' of mobile technologies by multiplying technological devices.

Keywords: mobile technology; boundary approach; role boundary; segmentation; transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: http://hal.grenoble-em.com/hal-00657978
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2013, 80 (2), pp.231-242. ⟨10.1016/j.techfore.2011.11.007⟩

Downloads: (external link)
http://hal.grenoble-em.com/hal-00657978/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00657978

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2011.11.007

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().