The Relationship Between Working In Non-working Time Through ICTs And Well-being

Foreign scholars have carried out a series of studies focusing on antecedents and outcomes of WN ICTs, which accumulated fruitful results of theoretical and empirical researches. However, the connotation and measurement of WN_ICTs has not been reached agreement yet. In addition, although some scholars have pointed out that WN_ICTs has both positive and negative impacts on people’s work and life; most researches are only confined to the positive or negative effect, making it still obscure to understand the mechanism. Luckily the spillover-crossover model makes it possible to study the positive and negative effects about the WN_ICTs simultaneously.Based on the analysis above, our study developed a questionnaire of the WN_ICTs according to Burton-Jones and Straub’s (2006)"system usage" theory, which includes three elements. And after analyzing the "interdependence characteristic" of China’s dual earner couples on WN_ICTs deeply, we explored the influence and mechanism of WN_ICTs on couples’ well-being based on the spillover-crossover model. The main contents and conclusions of our study are as follows:(1)Combining with the literature analysis, we interviewed6enterprise workers and8counselors to comprehend the characteristics of the WN_ICTs in our countries. Then499counselors and265managers were included in the questionnaire survey. Results showed that the new WN_ICTs scale has good psychometric properties and can be used to research and practice.(2)The discovery based on251pairs of dual earner couples is:dual earner couples’ WN_ICTs in our country is interdependence, while the characteristic of this interdependence is asymmetric. Specifically, the husband’s WN_ICTs is significantly higher than his wife’s WN_ICTs.(3) Analysis according to spillover-crossover model i s as follows:individual WN_ICTs has both positive and negative effects on the couple’s well-being. On one hand, it can aggravate the work-to-family conflict and induce the social undermining behavior between the couple, thus reducing the couple’s well-being; on the other hand, it can also promote work-to-family enrichment and reduce social undermining behavior between husband and wife, thus raising the couple’s well-being. But on the whole, wife’s WN_ICTs can significantly reduce the couple’s well-being, while husband’s WN_ICTs could not predict the couple’s well-being.