Smartdevice use in a COVID-19 world: Exploring work–family conflict and turnover intentions

Abstract

Technology has made life more complex, and mobile working (mWork) captures the way employees’ smart-device use (e.g. smartphones, laptops etc.) can facilitate working during family time at home and what the effects of this use are. Engaging in mWork is expected to be detrimental to employee outcomes. In this study, mWork is explored as it relates to turnover intentions and work–family and family–work conflict, with conflict expected to mediate the influence on turnover. Furthermore, given the potential dynamics from gender and parental status, these are both included as moderators, and ultimately a moderated mediation model is tested. Using data from 419 New Zealand employees just after New Zealand's lockdown finished in May 2020, there is overall strong support found for the direct and mediation hypotheses. Overall, mWork influences turnover intentions by blurring the line between work and personal life (leading to higher work–family and family–work conflict), and these also influence turnover intentions.