Start Date
10-12-2017 12:00 AM
Description
ICT-enabled availability has both beneficial and detrimental outcomes for users. To limit detrimental effects, employers and providers of ICT-based services offer solutions focusing on restricting the extent of availability. Yet, such approaches might hinder users from benefiting from advantages of availability. Following principles of design science research, we develop a technological solution that more accurately reflects the complexity of individuals’ availability preferences. Results of a qualitative and quantitative study provide requirements on the technological solution. In three iterations we develop two smartphone applications: Availability-Manager and Availability-Monitor. We evaluate the applications in a five-week field study with 31 participants using the applications and a control group (N = 55). Results indicate that the applications may contribute to increases in users’ life balance and reductions in exhaustion and stress levels. Implications for a more fine-grained, individual-customized availability management that allows greater alignment between individual availability preferences and actual availability are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Schneider, Katharina; Reinke, Kathrin; Gerlach, Gisela; Anderson, Christoph; Wojtek, Sebastian; Neitzel, Svenja; Dwarakanath, Rahul; Boehnstedt, Doreen; and Stock, Ruth Maria, "Aligning ICT-enabled Availability and Individual Availability Preferences: Design and Evaluation of Availability Management Applications" (2017). ICIS 2017 Proceedings. 19.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2017/HumanBehavior/Presentations/19
Aligning ICT-enabled Availability and Individual Availability Preferences: Design and Evaluation of Availability Management Applications
ICT-enabled availability has both beneficial and detrimental outcomes for users. To limit detrimental effects, employers and providers of ICT-based services offer solutions focusing on restricting the extent of availability. Yet, such approaches might hinder users from benefiting from advantages of availability. Following principles of design science research, we develop a technological solution that more accurately reflects the complexity of individuals’ availability preferences. Results of a qualitative and quantitative study provide requirements on the technological solution. In three iterations we develop two smartphone applications: Availability-Manager and Availability-Monitor. We evaluate the applications in a five-week field study with 31 participants using the applications and a control group (N = 55). Results indicate that the applications may contribute to increases in users’ life balance and reductions in exhaustion and stress levels. Implications for a more fine-grained, individual-customized availability management that allows greater alignment between individual availability preferences and actual availability are discussed.