Paper Number

1211

Abstract

Digitized knowledge workers are exposed to various technology-, individual- and work-related factors resulting in multiple paradoxes that may promote or hinder their capacity to work. This paper elaborates on how emerging paradoxes of IT usage impact the flow experience for daily planning tasks of knowledge workers. To study the impact beyond effective use of IT on flow, we conducted a survey study with 336 participants in a mixed-method approach combining PLS-SEM and fsQCA. Our results show that the digital working method could positively influence the flow experience overall. A full mediation of perceived behavioral control, representing the paradox control and chaos, and representational fidelity, representing clarity and ambiguity, on flow, was confirmed. Our fsQCA results support the conclusion that increasing IT penetration alone is insufficient to experience work flow. It depends on how knowledge workers interact with the IT in their specific task environment, balancing the dialectical tensions at work, with some differences between genders and within specific industries. We discuss the study's implications for research and practice.

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