| Abstract: |
Today, technologies, particularly information and communication technologies
(ICTs), such as smartphones and laptops, are ubiquitous in people’s everyday
working and private lives leading to fundamental changes. ICTs facilitate an
availability for private and work-related contacts without any temporal or
spatial constraints. This dissertation addresses on the one hand risks and
potential detrimental effects on individual’s well-being that may arise
through ICT use and have gained considerable attention in research and
practice. On the other hand and foremost, responsible ICT-based solutions with
regard to both availability and well-being-related physiological measures are
provided that emphasize the opportunities and potential improving effects of
ICTs. Thereby, the dissertation takes a pathway to responsible digitization by
focusing on the individual user perceived as a human agency. The overarching
aim of the dissertation is to provide responsible ICT-based solutions for the
assessment of employees’ well-being, in particular regarding availability and
physiological measures. To reach this overarching aim, two comprehensive
empirical studies are conducted. In particular, the ICT-based Availability
Management Study is aimed to shed light on employees’ individual aligned
availability by considering their perceptions, motives, and preferences.
Therefore, results of a qualitative (n = 59) and quantitative study (n = 589)
indicate that the availability preference vary depending on the life domain,
the current context, and type and priority of contacts. Hence, requirements
and design elements for a responsible ICT-based solution that enables the user
to align the actual availability with individual availability preferences are
derived. Following principles of the design science research approach, the
Availability-Monitor and Availability-Manager as two smartphone applications
are developed as the ICT-based solution. The applications are evaluated
regarding employees’ stress and work-life balance in a five-week field study
with 31 participants using the applications and a control group (n = 55). The
evaluation results show that participants using the applications report a
significant increase in work-life balance and significant decrease in stress.
Hence, ICTs could constitute a feasible solution enabling individuals to align
their actual availability and, thereby, supporting their well-being. Study 2
addresses the application of well-being-related physiological measures
recorded with ICTs, particularly wearables, for organizational research.
Thereby, an in-depth understanding of the opportunities but also pitfalls that
arises with the application, in particular regarding methodological properties
of the measures and potential measurement issues, are provided. Furthermore,
two guidelines for both processing and analyzing wearable-measured
physiological measures accounting for the properties and issues and the
validation of wearable-measured physiological data are given. The guidelines
serve as a rigorous standard of designing studies that record, process, and
analyze wearable-measured physiological data. The guidelines are exemplified
with real data of an experimental comparison study with 32 participants using
the Trier Social Stress Test as the experimental procedure. In this study,
physiological stress measures (i.e., heart rate, heart rate variability)
recorded with two wearables (i.e., wristband, breast strap) and an established
stationary device are compared for validation. The results indicate that the
compared wearables offer potential to record cardiovascular data and replace
the stationary device. Thus, wearables could serve as an ICT-based solution to
assess individuals’ well-being validly and reliably. Together, the
dissertation contributes to research and practice by firstly examining
responsible ICT-based solutions for the assessment of individuals’ well-being.
In particular, both empirical studies indicate the potential ICTs may provide
to assess, regulate, and finally improve employees’ well-being. Second, the
methodological insights of both studies extend the methodological toolbox of
organizational scholars, specifically with regard to developing and evaluating
smartphone applications and applying physiological measures for research
purposes. In sum, valuable methodological foundations for future research in
the emerging area of ecological momentary assessment are provided that enable
such studies to create a comprehensive understanding of the individual’s
behavior and momentary emotional states, which reflect individuals’
well-being. With illuminating the potential of responsible ICT-based solutions
for individuals’ well-being and, therefore, a pathway to responsible
digitization, this thesis goes beyond previous research and practice that only
shed light either on the detrimental or beneficial site of the double-edged
sword ICTs are referred to. Thus, valuable new insights are gained that
provide implications for employees as human agencies, employers and
organizations, and further research considering ICTs as threefold, the
research purpose, the solution, and psychophysiological measurement device in
order to improve employees’ well-being. |