Content uploaded by Katie Haejung Kim
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Katie Haejung Kim on Dec 29, 2023
Content may be subject to copyright.
When work and life boundaries
are blurred: the effect of
after-hours work communication
through communication
technology on employee outcomes
Katie Haejung Kim
University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and
Myoung-Gi Chon
School of Communication and Journalism, Auburn University,
Auburn, Alabama, USA
Abstract
Purpose –As new work environments have been created and accelerated due to technological advances, after-
hours work communication has become one of the prominent features of the technology-enabled work
environment. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to uncover the effects of after-
hours work communicationthrough communicationtechnologies on employees’burnout andextra-role behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach –The study conducted an online survey of 315 US full-time employees
from a wide range of industrial sectors.
Findings –The findings of the study show that after-hours work communication through communication
technologies increases employees’negative extra-role behaviors, specifically counterproductive work behavior
and negative word-of-mouth. Furthermore, emotional exhaustion partially mediated the relationship between
after-hours work communication and negative extra-role behaviors.
Practical implications –The studyprovides practical implications foran organization’s effective optimization
of work-related communication to overcome adverse consequences for employees and organizations. Corporate
leaders and communication professionals are encouraged to establish clear guidelines related to the use of
communication technologies after hours and exercise leadership practices to prevent after-hours communication
through communication technologies from contributing to employees’burnout.
Originality/value –The findings enhance the understanding of the role of after-hours work communication
through communication technologies in the workplace by revealing how the effects of after-hours work
communication enabled by communication technologies on employees’psychological well-being spills over to
organizational effectiveness.
Keywords After-hours work communication, COR theory, Communication technologies, CWB,
Emotional exhaustion, Negative extra-role behaviors, Negative WOM
Paper type Research paper
Today’s employees have difficulty logging off from work as their dependence on communication
technology for work increases. AccordingtoasurveyadministratedbytheAmerican
Psychological Association (2013), 53% of employees responded that they check work-related
messages at least once during the weekend, and 44% do the same while on vacation. The
pandemic has increased the burden of work-related communication during off-hours due to
flexible work situations such as remote work. Robert Half (2020) found that nearly 70% of US
employees are working remotely on the weekends since the beginning of the pandemic. While
organizations have actively adopted a variety of communication technologies to improve work
efficiency, including knowledge sharing and communication effectiveness among employees (e.g.
Bayo-Moriones et al., 2013;Stephens and Mandhana, 2017), these communication practices have
also brought unexpected results. That is, the utilization of communication technology, which has
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1363-254X.htm
Received 19 June 2022
Revised 15 August 2022
Accepted 3 October 2022
Journal of Communication
Management
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1363-254X
DOI 10.1108/JCOM-06-2022-0073
played a key role in breaking down the boundaries for work-related communication among
employees, has further contributed to blurring the boundaries between work and life of individual
employees (Boswell and Olson-Buchanan, 2007).
With this concern in mind, Portugal recently banned companies from text messaging or
emailing staff outside of work hours as part of a “right to rest”(BBC, 2021). This new policy
reflects the findings of recent studies (e.g. Lee et al., 2021;Sonnentag and Fritz, 2015;Zhang
et al., 2021) that demonstrate the adverse consequences of after-hours work communication
on employees’mental health, such as poor recovery from work. However, compared to well-
documented studies that have focused on individuals’psychological well-being, there is an
absence of discussion on whether and how after-hours work communication through
communication technologies affects organizational outcomes.
To bridge the gap between theoretical research and underexplored communication
phenomena facing organizations, our study investigates how employees engage in work-
related extra-role behaviors in situations where the boundaries between work and life are not
respected due to work communication outside work hours. Adopting the conservation of
resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989) as the core lens, we investigate how after-hours work
communication influences employee burnout by focusing on emotional exhaustion, a primary
form of burnout characterized by psychological weariness and emotional depletion (Wright and
Cropanzano, 1998). Further, we examine how employee burnout spills over to organizational
effectiveness through negative extra-role behaviors, focusing on counterproductive work
behavior (CWB) and negative word-of-mouth (WOM) toward organizations.
In light of the rapid changes in technology-fueled work environments and an increasing
expectation of organizational responsibility to manage employee burnout that follows this
shifted work situation, the findings of this study will help organizations consider their role in
helping employees prevent burnout. In particular, by focusing on work-related
communication that happens outside of regular work hours, this study provides
significant implications for corporate leaders and communication professionals regarding
the effective optimization of technology as a work-related communication tool to sustain a
healthy workforce that benefits individuals while also protecting organizations.
Theoretically, leveraging the COR theory as a main framework from a resource
management perspective, this study contributes to uncovering the underlying mechanism
by which after-hours work communication interferes with employee resource conservation
and acquisition, leading to emotional exhaustion and negative extra-role behaviors.
Literature review
Technology-enabled work environment: after-hours work communication
Organizations have adopted communication technologies such as intranet, email, mobile,
social media, and video messaging in their workplaces in order to strengthen work
effectiveness through increasing the accessibility of communication among employees. As a
result, the integration of communication technologies into the workplace has changed the
environment of organizational communication (Men, 2014). Many previous studies have
addressed the advantages that communication technologies bring to work, such as improved
work efficiency, sharing of information, sense of community, and employee engagement
(e.g. Bayo-Moriones et al., 2013;Uysal, 2016;Men et al., 2020). Especially since the beginning
of the COVID-19 pandemic, these communication technologies have been significantly used
and have come to play a large role as communication tools for the workplace in light of their
vast flexibility and accessibility (Brower, 2020).
Despite the benefits of using communication technologies in the workplace, however,
there are also challenges. It has become easier for employees to communicate with co-workers
or supervisors regardless of time and location (Boswell and Olson-Buchanan, 2007;Boswell
JCOM
et al., 2016;Xie et al., 2018). As the concept of working time and non-working time is blurred
due to the shifted work environment facilitated by communication technologies (Peters and
Ben Allouch, 2005), recent studies have primarily focused on after-hours work
communication in particular, defined as employees engaging in work-related
communication outside of regular business hours by using electronic communication
technologies such as cell phones, email, voice mail, and so forth (Boswell et al., 2016). This
technology-driven work environment has effects on employees’personal experiences. When
employees engage in work-related communication after work hours, whether it is voluntary
or not, they experience increased work-life conflict (e.g. Boswell and Olson-Buchanan, 2007;
Leung and Zhang, 2017;Ragsdale and Hoover, 2016;Wright et al., 2014), reduced
psychological detachment from work (e.g. Lee et al., 2021;Sonnentag and Fritz, 2015), burnout
(Park et al., 2020;Xie et al., 2018), and a poorer recovery experience (Zhang et al., 2021). The
effects of employees’work-related communication after work hours are not limited to
individuals’personal domains but spill over to their family system, influencing their spouses’
perceived work-life conflict and burnout (Ferguson et al., 2016;Zhang et al., 2021).
Although recent studies have examined the effects of employees’after-hours work
communication on the personal spheres of both employees and family members, to the best of
our knowledge, there has been no research on how and through what underlying mechanism
it influences employees’behaviors in work domains. This study fills this gap by leveraging
COR theory to present an integrated perspective on the effect of after-hours work
communication through communication technologies on employees’emotional exhaustion
and negative extra-role behaviors.
After-hours work communication from the COR theory perspective
COR theory (Hobfoll, 1988,2001) has served as a fundamental framework to explain how a
variety of work conditions affect employees’resource loss and resource investment as coping
mechanisms, uncovering the relationship between various work conditions and employees’
psychological and behavioral outcomes (e.g. Bolton et al., 2012;Hobfoll and Freedy, 2018;
Penney et al., 2011;Wright and Hobfoll, 2004). According to COR, “people are motivated to
protect their current resources (conservation) and acquire new resources (acquisition)”
(Halbesleben et al., 2014, p. 2). In the COR theory, the essential idea of “resources”is loosely
conceptualized as something people value (Hobfoll, 1988).
One of the critical psychological resources discussed in previous organizational literature
is respite from work (Westman and Eden, 1997). For employees to take a break from work,
they have to be mentally as well as physically away from the work situation. Leisure time
activity (Mojza et al., 2011), not working during weekends (e.g. Fritz and Sonnentag, 2006;
Sonnentag and Fritz, 2007), vacation experiences (e.g. Fritz and Sonnentag, 2006), or breaks
during workdays (e.g. Krajewski et al., 2011) are recovery experiences that help individuals
detach from work and contribute to successfully reclaiming resources. In this regard, for
example, Sonnentag and Fritz (2007) recommended not answering job-related calls at home as
an important way to separate from work and replenish resources.
Consistent with previous studies, our study argues that not engaging in work-related
communication via communication technologiesoutsideofregularworkhourscanserveasa
valuable resource, helping employees disconnect from work. Conversely, engaging in work-related
communication through communication technologies outside of regular business hours, whether
voluntary or not, poses a threat to resources, depriving employees of the opportunity to replenish
their resources. By considering “after-hours work communication”through communication
technologies as a threat of resource loss for employees, we expect that COR theory can be extended
to our context and provide insights into how after-hours work communication is associated with
employees’burnout and negative extra-role behaviors.
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication
The impact of after-hours work communication
Emotional exhaustion in response to after-hours work communication. Emotional exhaustion,
defined as a chronic feeling of being emotionally depleted and worn out (Cordes and Dougherty,
1993;Maslach and Jackson, 1981), has been considered a critical concept in the literature on the
workplace. Emotional exhaustion isthe primary component of burnout (Cordes and Dougherty,
1993) and has long been considered a common issue resulting from chronic, prolonged work-
related stress. Burnout is highly associated with employees’psychological well-being (Bakker
et al., 2014;Cordes and Dougherty, 1993). Unfortunately, burnout has been a growing challenge
during the pandemic, and researchers have put more emphasis on the role of organizations in
managing employee burnout in the workplace (Moss, 2021).
COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) is the most noted theoretical perspective to understand the
phenomenon of burnout and emotional exhaustion in particular. According to the theory,
emotional exhaustion occurs when an individual experiences work-related stress situations
over a long period (Maslach et al., 1986). Various types of work demand, such as heavy
workloads or work pressures, can tax employees’psychological resources (Baumeister et al.,
2007;Wright and Cropanzano, 1998;Wright and Hobfoll, 2004). When employees suffer from
the actual or perceived threat of resource loss, this leads to psychological imbalance,
ultimately resulting in chronic emotional exhaustion (Hobfoll and Freedy, 2018). As discussed
earlier, when employees engage in higher levels of after-hours work communication via
communication technologies, this deprives them of the opportunity to replenish their
resources by detaching from work and may even cause them to lose their remaining
resources, resulting in an emotionally exhausted state. In this regard, after-hours business
communication is expected to be a significant predictor of employee burnout, especially in
terms of emotional exhaustion. Therefore, this study posits the following hypothesis:
H1. The extent to which employees engage in after-hours work communication is
positively associated with their emotional exhaustion.
Negative extra-role behaviors in response to after-hours work communication. As employees
are key internal stakeholders who create strategic value from both internal and external
environments (Men and Stacks, 2014), much of the literature in public relations and
communication management has focused on their positive extra-role behavior, such as
organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (e.g. Walden and Kingsley Westerman, 2018)or
external positive communicative behavior (e.g. Men and Yue, 2019), and employee engagement
(e.g. Kang and Sung, 2017;Men et al., 2020). As critical antecedents that drive employees’
positive extra-role behaviors and engagement, diverse organizational factors, including the
quality of the relationship between the organization and employees, positive emotional culture,
and perceived organizational transparency, have been widely discussed (Kang and Sung, 2017;
Men et al.,2020;Men and Yue, 2019). While previous literature has heavily focused on how
organizations can foster positive employee outcomes and increase organizational effectiveness,
it is also critical to note that employees can undermine organizational effectiveness and well-
being through negative extra-role behaviors both inside and outside the organization. In this
study, therefore, two forms of employees’negative extra-role behaviors are identified:
counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and negative WOM.
In the workplace literature, CWB has been considered a representative form of negative
extra-role behavior (Fox et al., 2001). CWB, defined as an act that inflicts harm on the
organization or coworkers, is generally regarded as an intended aggressive act whose target
is not limited to individuals but encompasses the organization (Spector, 2011). CWB, such as
taking longer breaks, ignoring directives, or limiting their exposure to demanding situations
within the workplace, requires exceptional efforts to violate organizational norms or actively
harm the organization without clear self-interest and arises from the desire to release or
express a strong negative attitude toward the organization as a whole (Spector, 2011).
JCOM
Counterproductive actions in the workplace have been regarded as a risk to organizational
management by threatening the well-being of the organization and hindering the
accomplishment of long-term organizational goals (Fox et al., 2001;Krischer et al., 2010;
Spector and Fox, 2005). Work stressors such as a stressful work environment (Penney et al.,
2005;Spector and Fox, 2005), negative affectivity (Fox et al., 2001), and employees’Big Five
personality traits (Spector, 2011) have been critically discussed as antecedents that trigger
individuals’counterproductive actions.
Employees’negative extra-role behaviors can extend outside of the organization through
employees’communication via word-of-mouth (Harris and Ogbonna, 2013;Lee and Kim,
2020). Since external publics (e.g. customers) view employees as having credible, in-depth
knowledge about the company (Dortok, 2006;Helm, 2011), employees’communicative
behavior has been considered critically from an organizational management perspective. In
particular, the importance of employees’informal communicative behavior via word-of-
mouth has been examined across various disciplines, including marketing, business
management, and public relations. An important topic is negative WOM, defined as
employees’voluntary information sharing about negative organization-related information
and criticizing the management to outside people (Harris and Ogbonna, 2013;Kim and Rhee,
2011), which could aggravate organizational problems and damage corporate reputation
(Kim and Rhee, 2011). In previous literature, organizational factors such as organization’s
internal communication (e.g. Kang and Sung, 2017), employees’relationship with their
organization (e.g. Kim and Rhee, 2011;Walden and Kingsley Westerman, 2018), and
leadership (e.g. Lee, 2022b) have been predominantly identified as factors that mitigate
employees’behaviors of sharing negative organization-related information and criticizing
their organization to outside publics. Recently, an individual-level antecedent, emotional
exhaustion, has been revealed as a critical factor that facilitates employees’negative words
through their social networks (Kim and Lee, 2021).
COR theory has been primarily applied to predict employees’psychological strain, such as
emotional exhaustion (Hobfoll and Freedy, 2018). Expanding the theory, recent studies have
used the theory to predict behavioral strains, such as CWB (e.g. Bolton et al.,2012;Penney et al.,
2011). As COR theory posits, when employees experience a loss of resources, they are motivated
not only to prevent further resource loss but also to obtain resources. As a means of securing
and acquiring their resources, employees engage in work-related behaviors that appear to be
counter-organizational behaviors from an organizational perspective but help reduce further
resource loss or facilitate the recovery of resources in the short term from the employees’
perspective (Penny et al.,2011). Thus, they will be more likely to engage in CWB, such as
purposely not following rules or instructions or blaming coworkers within the workplace
(Bolton et al.,2012). They will also be more likely to engage in negative WOM, disseminating
negative information about their organization outside of the workplace to release their negative
feelings that result from resource loss. The following hypotheses are proposed:
H2. The extent to which employees engage in after-hours work communication is
positively associated with their CWB.
H3. The extent to which employees engage in after-hours work communication is
positively associated with their negative WOM.
Outcomes of emotional exhaustion
COR theory also explains how individuals who experience emotional exhaustion cope with
resource loss. Emotionally exhausted individuals feel that their available resources have
already been depleted and become motivated to identify the causes of their loss of resources
and then seek ways to conserve their resources that may be further depleted (Hobfoll, 1989,
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication
2001;Hobfoll et al., 2018). These resource-deprived emotions and conditions reduce the
inhibition of their impulsive tendencies and further reduce their ability to follow standards
(Welsh et al., 2014), which is a coping mechanism to reduce their efforts and investments of
their own resources (Halbesleben and Bowler, 2007;Siegall and McDonald, 2004). They may
also identify the cause (i.e. a target of blame) of their emotional exhaustion and exhibit
negative behaviors toward the target (Leiter and Maslach, 1988;Van Jaarsveld et al., 2010).
Consistent with the COR theory, previous studies have found that an individual’s
emotionally depleted state can lead to negative behaviors toward the organization, such as
incivility, organizational deviance, negative word-of-mouth, or counterproductive actions
(e.g. Baumeister, 2001;Kim and Lee, 2021;Mulki et al., 2006;Zhao et al., 2018). In a similar vein,
this study expects that employees’emotional exhaustion will be positively associated with
CWB and negative WOM, as follows:
H4. The extent to which employees experience emotional exhaustion is positively
associated with CWB.
H5. The extent to which employees experience emotional exhaustion is positively
associated with negative WOM.
The mediating role of emotional exhaustion
This study goes a step further than the previous literature in expecting the indirect effects of
after-hours work communication on employees’negative extra-role behaviors via emotional
exhaustion. That is, employees’emotional exhaustion resulting from after-hours work
communication may lead to negative extra-role behaviors. When employees engage in
increased work-related communication outside of working hours, they will perceive that they
do not have resources left and consequently suffer from emotional fatigue. Accordingly, as a
coping mechanism to reduce the psychological strain (i.e. emotional exhaustion) associated
with resource loss, such emotionally exhausted employees will be less likely to make efforts to
suppress their negative extra-role behaviors both in (i.e. CWB) and outside the workplace
(i.e. negative WOM) in order to conserve their remaining resources and acquire new
resources. Therefore, the negative consequences of after-hours work communication on
individuals’well-being (i.e. emotional exhaustion) will extend to the well-being of the
organization in the form of employees’negative extra-role behaviors. Thus, the following
hypotheses are proposed:
H6. The extent to which employees engage in after-hours work communication is
positively associated with CWB via emotional exhaustion (indirect effect).
H7. The extent to which employees engage in after-hours work communication is
positively associated with negative WOM via emotional exhaustion (indirect effect).
Method
Participants
Upon receiving approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), the study conducted an
online survey with full-time employees working in the United States. Participants were
recruited through Qualtrics panels. Qualtrics, a specialized research firm with more than 2
million panelists who have agreed to participate in surveys, sent out an email invitation to the
survey to the appropriate panelists for the current study (e.g. full-time US employees). Before
participating in the survey, a consent form approved by the university’s IRB was provided to
each participant. In order to ensure the quality of the data, following the suggestions from
Meade and Craig (2012), this study excluded participants who provided the wrong answer to
JCOM
an attention check question (e.g. “Please indicate strongly disagree (1) for this statement”.).
After removing invalid responses (e.g. failed attention check questions), this study retained a
final sample of 315.
The final sample included 315 U.S. full-time employees, consisting of 51.1% females
(n5161) and 48.9% males (n5154). The average age of employees was 43.67 years old
(SD 514.76). A majority of the participants (59.4%, n5187) had a four-year bachelor’s
degree or higher. Participants came from a wide range of industrial sectors such as
manufacturing (16.8%, n553), healthcare (12.1%, n538), finance and insurance (12.1%,
n538), educational services (10.2%, n532), and administration (9.3%, n529). Regarding
employees’level of position, middle-level management comprised 26.3% (n583), followed by
21.9% of low-level management (n569), 21% of top-management (n566), and 30.8% of
non-management (n597).
Measures
Descriptive information of the key variables is presented in Table 1. Items about after-hours
work communication were adopted and revised from Gadeyne et al. (2018) and Wright et al.
(2014). Respondents were asked to indicate “how much they communicate with internal
members (e.g. supervisors, co-workers, etc.) outside of regular work hours for work-related
purposes via communication technologies (e.g. mobile phone, emails, social media apps, video
conferencing services, etc.)”on a continuous scale from 1 (never) to 5 (almost every day).
For emotional exhaustion, four items (
α
50.901) were adopted from Maslach and Jackson
(1981) and Maslach (2001) (e.g. “I feel emotionally drained from my work”and “I feel I am
working too hard at my job”). Items were measured using a 5-point Likert-type scale from 1
(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) in the survey. Previous literature (e.g. Ter Hoeven
et al., 2016) adopted these items to examine burnout, since emotional exhaustion is a key
subdimension of burnout.
Employees’negative extra-role behaviors were measured with a short version of the
Counterproductive Work Behavior Checklist (CWB-C; Spector et al., 2006) and this measure was
tested with a single dimension (e.g. Penney et al., 2011). Sample items among eight items
(
α
50.955) include “I purposely work slowly when things needed to get done”,“I purposely fail to
follow instructions”,“I blame someone at work for error I made”,and“I ignore someone at work”.
Participants were asked to indicate how often they perform each behavior on a continuous scale
from 1 (never) to 5 (almost every day). Regarding employee’snegativeWOM,fouritems
(
α
50.850) were adopted and revised from Kim and Rhee (2011), including a sample item such as
“I would criticize my company and management to people I know”and “When I encounter biased
or ignorant criticism of my company/unit, I would rather agree with and second the opinions”.
As control variables, demographic variables (i.e. age, gender (1 5male, 2 5female))
(e.g. Wright et al., 2014) and job-related variables (i.e. job status, organization field) that affect
employees’burnout and which have been discussed in previous literature (e.g. Lee and Kim,
2020) were controlled.
MSD 1 2 3 4
1. After-hours work communication 3.090 1.348 0.173
**
0.371
**
0.333
**
2. Emotional exhaustion 2.922 1.234 0.353
**
0.389
**
3. CWB 1.854 1.176 0.619
**
4. Negative WOM 2.629 1.162
Note(s):
*
p< 0.05,
**
p< 0.01,
***
p< 0.001
Table 1.
Descriptive statistics,
reliability, and
correlation of key
latent variables
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication
Results
Analysis
A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was first conducted with Stata IC/14 to test the
measurement model, followed by testing the structural model (Brown, 2015). The model fit
was evaluated based on Hu and Bentler’s (1999) guideline: CFI ≥0.95, RMSEA ≤0.06, and
SRMR ≤0.08, which is considered a good model. All key latent factors were allowed to covary
and the first item in each scale served as the marker indicator (Brown, 2015). The CFA model
fit was
χ
2
(164) 5459.423 (p< 0.001), RMSEA 50.076 CI: [0.067, 0.084], CFI 50.942,
SRMR 50.049. To improve the model fit, several error covariances were added based on
suggested modifications iteratively. The revised CFA model fit was
χ
2
(155) 5276.066
(p< 0.001), RMSEA 50.050 CI: [0.040, 0.059], CFI 50.976, SRMR 50.044. All factor loading
values were significant at the p< 0.001 level and higher than the value of 0.5 (Hair et al., 2006).
Next, to test the hypotheses, SEM was conducted with Stata IC/14 using the same
assumptions as for the CFA including all modifications. SEM is a statistical technique that
allows researchers to simultaneously test the relationships between multiple variables
simultaneously through a theoretically based and pre-specified model (Lei and Wu, 2007).
Based on Hu and Bentler’s guideline (1999), the model showed a good model fit overall:
χ
2
(155) 5276.066 (p< 0.001), RMSEA 50.050 CI: [0.040, 0.059], CFI 50.976, SRMR 50.044.
Therefore, the paths in the model were interpreted. Standardized path coefficients are
presented in Figure 1. The covariates results are depicted in Table 2.
H2: 0.347***
H4: 0.306***
H1: 0.178**
H3: 0.297***
H5: 0.386***
R2 = 0.252
R2 = 0.278
Structural model fit estimates
χ2 (155) = 276.066, p < 0.001
RMSEA = 0.050 CI: [0.040, 0.059]
CFI = 0.976
SRMR = 0.044
After-Hours
Work Communication
Emotion
Exhaustion
CWB
Negative WOM
Note(s): H6 and H7 predict the indirect effects of after-hours work communication on CWB
and negative WOM via emotional exhaustion
For covariates, the results are displayed in Table 2
Endogenous factor (path to) Covariate (path from)
Age 0.029
Gender 0.021
Organizational field 0.101
Job status 0.119
*
Note(s):
*
p< 0.05,
**
p< 0.01,
***
p< 0.001
Figure 1.
Results of SEM model
with standardized path
coefficients
Table 2.
Standardized path
coefficients from
covariates to
endogenous factor
(emotional exhaustion)
JCOM
Hypothesis testing
H1,H2,andH3 proposed the positive associations between of after-hours work
communication and employees’outcomes. The results showed that when employees
engage in work communication outside of regular work hours, they are more likely to be
emotionally exhausted (0.178, p50.005), engage in counterproductive work behaviors (0.347,
p< 0.001), and disseminate negative information about their organization through their
networks (0.297, p< 0.001). These results supported H1,H2,and H3.
H4 and H5 predicted the positive associations between employees’emotional exhaustion
and negative-extra role behaviors. The results demonstrated that emotional exhaustion is
significantly and positively related to both CWB (0.306, p< 0.001) and negative WOM
behaviors (0.386, p< 0.001), supporting H4 and H5.
Lastly, H6 and H7 proposed the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in linking after-
hours work communication and employees’negative extra-role behaviors. The results
showed that emotional exhaustion partially mediates the relationship between after-hours
work communication and CWB (Indirect effect: 0.055, p50.015) and between after-hours
work communication and negative WOM (Indirect effect: 0.045, p50.015). Therefore, H6 and
H7 were supported.
In terms of covariates, our results showed that age (0.029, p> 0.05), gender (0.021,
p> 0.05), and organizational field (0.101, p> 0.05) are not significantly related to emotional
exhaustion. However, job status (0.119, p50.045) is turned out to be significantly related to
emotional exhaustion, meaning that employees with a higher job status are less likely to
experience emotional exhaustion.
Discussion
Employees’negative extra-role behaviors as outcomes of after-hours work communication
Building on the theoretical framework of the COR theory, the current study adds another
layer to existing research by testing the direct and indirect effects of after-hours work
communication on employees’voluntary negative work-related behaviors via emotional
exhaustion. In most previous studies, the examination of the impact of work-related
communication technologies used outside of regular work hours was limited to the
context of individuals’physical and mental health, including stress, work-life conflict, or
satisfaction (e.g. Lee et al.,2021;Wright et al., 2014). Few studies have directly examined
the effects of after-hours work communication in the context of employees’organizational
behaviors. In relation to the changes in the working environment with the development of
technologies, the current study is the first attempt to elucidate how employees engage in
negative extra-role behaviors, specifically focusing on CWB and negative WOM, in
response to after-hours work communication. The findings reveal that the adverse effects
of after-hours work communication enabled by the development of communication
technologies can be extended to organizations as well as individuals.
Investigating employees’negative voluntary behavior is critical, considering that
this behavior can have a substantial impact on organizational effectiveness. The cost of
CWB in the workplace to the organization is huge (Penney et al.,2011). Beyond the
workplace, employees’negative words about their organizations are perceived as more
credible than their positive words (Lee, 2022a) and cause more damage to corporate
reputation during uncertain and challenging crises (Mazzei et al., 2012). By suggesting
after-hours work communication as a critical factor that can lead to employees’CWB and
negative WOM, the findings of this study expand our knowledge of employees’negative
extra-role behaviors and contribute to communication and business management
research.
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication
The role of emotional exhaustion
The findings indicate that emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between after-
hours work communication and employees’negative extra-role behaviors. These findings
contribute to knowledge about mediating mechanisms, explaining the underlying
mechanism between after-hours work communication and negative extra-role behaviors.
In line with the process described by COR theory, employees who experience emotionally
exhausted and depleted feelings due to after-hours work communication, in turn, withdraw
their work and generate a negative external reputation via their negative words as a coping
mechanism to protect their resource loss and gain additional resources. Given that prior
literature has underexplored how the adverse impact of after-hours work communication on
employees’individual psychological well-being can extend to their work-related outcomes,
our findings in this study contribute to the literature on after-hours work communication by
revealing that employees who are emotionally exhausted due to their use of work-related
communication technologies during off-hours may engage in negative extra-role behaviors
and undermine organizational effectiveness.
Practical implications
Employee burnout can be regarded as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that
organizations have not successfully managed (Moss, 2021). In other words, organizations are
responsible for identifying and managing factors that can cause employees to experience
burnout. Our findings help corporate leaders and communication practitioners understand how
employees can experience emotional exhaustion whenthe work and life boundaries are blurred
and how it can further impact the organization. In particular, given that after-hours work
communication can potentially threaten employees’psychological well-being, corporate leaders
and communication professionals are encouraged to formalize leadership practices
accordingly. For example, organizational leaders can establish clear guidelines or policies
about electronic work communication to train employees to understand the concept of work
boundaries and recognize the benefits of non-working hours as time to recharge. Furthermore,
employees who experience emotional exhaustion from after-hours work communication, in
turn, are motivated to engage in negative extra-role behaviors that can produce internal and
external organizational problems. To prevent the negative impact of employee burnout from
spreading to the organization, leadership practices should focus on supporting emotionally
exhausted employees and –more importantly –ensure that the organization’swork
environment does not fundamentally contributeto their burnout. By emphasizing to employees
their well-being is valued, supervisors and communication managers can make extra efforts to
help employees set work and life boundaries and be careful to avoid situations that may deplete
the resources of employees who cannot control their resource loss from having to communicate
with their supervisors and co-workers after work hours.
Limitations and future research
Although this study has scholarly and managerial contributions, it also has several
limitations that suggest future research. First, this study administered a cross-sectional
survey to investigate the impact of after-hours work communication. Future research may
perform other methods, such as open-ended questions in surveys or in-depth interviews with
employees, which may not only help address within-person variations over time but also
provide a more profound and richer context for understanding our findings.
Second, the study used self-reported CWB measurements. Given that CWB is an
intentional destructive action against the organization, participants may underreport their
CWB. However, in their meta-analysis, Berry et al. (2007) reported a vector correlation of 0.89
JCOM
between CWB using self-report and non-self-reports, and thus this study does not expect our
self-reported measures to differ significantly from non-self-report measures.
Third, the scope of CWB has been recently expanded to include cyber-deviant behaviors,
such as sending personal e-mails or illegally downloading content while on the property of an
organization (Nixon and Spector, 2014). In this regard, exploring how technology-enabled
after-hours work communication can affect the cyber-deviant behaviors of employees will
provide useful information for organizational communication professionals and broaden the
scope of research on after-hours work communication.
Lastly, as COR theory argues, when employees are provided appropriate psychological
resources, the detrimental effects of after-hours work communication can be mitigated. Given
that organizations can supply these psychological resources (Halbesleben et al., 2014),
supportive organizational practices related to these technologies can encourage employees to
gain necessary resources and reduce the adverse outcomes of after-hours work communication
on both individuals and organizations. Thus, it will be crucial to identify effective leadership
and communication practices from a managerial perspective in future studies.
References
American Psychological Association (2013), “Americans stay connected to work on weekends,
vacation and even when out sick”, [Press release], available at: https://www.apa.org/news/press/
releases/2013/09/connected-work
Bakker, A.B., Demerouti, E. and Sanz-Vergel, A.I. (2014), “Burnout and work engagement: the JD –R
approach”,Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Vol. 1
No. 1, pp. 389-411.
Baumeister, R.F., Vohs, K.D. and Tice, D.M. (2007), “The strength model of self-control”,Current
Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 351-355.
Baumeister, R.F. (2001), Ego Depletion, the Executive Function, and Self-Control, APA Book,
Washington, DC.
Bayo-Moriones, A., Bill
on, M. and Lera-L
opez, F. (2013), “Perceived performance effects of ICT in
manufacturing SMEs”,Industrial Management and Data Systems, Vol. 113 No. 1, pp. 117-135.
BBC (2021), “Portugal bans bosses texting staff after-hours”, available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/
business-59263300 (accessed 11 November 2021).
Berry, C.M., Ones, D.S. and Sackett, P.R. (2007), “Interpersonal deviance, organizational deviance, and
their common correlates: a review and meta-analysis”,Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 92
No. 2, p. 410.
Bolton, L.R., Harvey, R.D., Grawitch, M.J. and Barber, L.K. (2012), “Counterproductive work
behaviours in response to emotional exhaustion: a moderated mediational approach”,Stress
and Health, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 222-233.
Boswell, W.R. and Olson-Buchanan, J.B. (2007), “The use of communication technologies after hours: the
role of work attitudes and work-life conflict”,Journal of Management, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 592-610.
Boswell, W.R., Olson-Buchanan, J.B., Butts, M.M. and Becker, W.J. (2016), “Managing ‘after hours’
electronic work communication”,Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 45 No. 4, pp. 291-297.
Brower, T. (2020), “5 predictions about how coronavirus will change the future of work”, available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2020/04/06/how-the-post-covid-future-will -be-
different-5-positive-predictions-about-the-future-of-work-to-help-your-mood-and-your- sanity/
#92e6193e227f (accessed 11 August 2021).
Brown, T.A. (2015), Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Applied Research, Guilford Publications,
New York.
Cordes, C.L. and Dougherty, T.W. (1993), “A review and an integration of research on job burnout”,
Academy of Management Review, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 621-656.
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication
Dortok, A. (2006), “A managerial look at the interaction between internal communication and
corporate reputation”,Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 322-338.
Ferguson, M., Carlson, D., Boswell, W., Whitten, D., Butts, M.M. and Kacmar, K.M. (2016), “Tethered to
work: a family systems approach linking mobile device use to turnover intentions”,Journal of
Applied Psychology, Vol. 101 No. 4, p. 520.
Fox, S., Spector, P.E. and Miles, D. (2001), “Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) in response to job
stressors and organizational justice: some mediator and moderator tests for autonomy and
emotions”,Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 59 No. 3, pp. 291-309.
Fritz, C. and Sonnentag, S. (2006), “Recovery, well-being, and performance-related outcomes: the role
of workload and vacation experiences”,Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 91 No. 4, pp. 936-945.
Gadeyne, N., Verbruggen, M., Delanoeije, J. and De Cooman, R. (2018), “All wired, all tired? Work-related ICT-
use outside work hours and work-to-home conflict: the role of integration preference, integration norms
and work demands”,Journal of Vocational Behavior,Vol.107,pp.86-99.
Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E. and Tatham, R.L. (2006), “SEM: confirmatory factor
analysis”, in Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E. and Tatham, R.L. (Eds),
Multivariate Data Analysis: A Global Perspective, Pearson, New York.
Halbesleben, J.R. and Bowler, W.M. (2007), “Emotional exhaustion and job performance: the mediating
role of motivation”,Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 92 No. 1, p. 93.
Halbesleben, J.R., Neveu, J.P., Paustian-Underdahl, S.C. and Westman, M. (2014), “Getting to the “COR”
understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory”,Journal of
Management, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 1334-1364.
Harris, L.C. and Ogbonna, E. (2013), “Forms of employee negative word-of-mouth: a study of front-line
workers”,Employee Relations, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 39-60.
Helm, S. (2011), “Employees’awareness of their impact on corporate reputation”,Journal of Business
Research, Vol. 64 No. 7, pp. 657-663.
Hobfoll, S.E. (1988), The Ecology of Stress, Taylor & Francis.
Hobfoll, S.E. and Freedy, J. (2018), “Conservation of resources: a general stress theory applied to burnout”,
in Professional Burnout: Recent Developments in Theory and Research, CRC Press, pp. 115-129.
Hobfoll, S.E., Halbesleben, J., Neveu, J.P. and Westman, M. (2018), “Conservation of resources in the
organizational context: the reality of resources and their consequences”,Annual Review of
Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Vol. 5, pp. 103-128.
Hobfoll, S.E. (1989), “Conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress”,American
Psychologist, Vol. 44, pp. 513-524.
Hobfoll, S.E. (2001), “The influence of culture, community, and the nested self in the stress process:
advancing conservation of resources theory”,Applied Psychology: An International Review,
Vol. 50, pp. 337-370.
Hu, L.T. and Bentler, P.M. (1999), “Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis:
conventional criteria versus new alternatives”,Structural Equation Modeling:
A Multidisciplinary Journal, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 1-55.
Kang, M. and Sung, M. (2017), “How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee
engagement and positive employee communication behaviors: the mediation of employee-
organization relationships”,Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 82-102.
Kim, K.H. and Lee, Y. (2021), “Employees’communicative behaviors in response to emotional
exhaustion: the moderating role of transparent communication”,International Journal of
Strategic Communication, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 410-424.
Kim, J.N. and Rhee, Y. (2011), “Strategic thinking about employee communication behavior (ECB) in
public relations: testing the models of megaphoning and scouting effects in Korea”,Journal of
Public Relations Research, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 243-268.
JCOM
Krajewski, J., Sauerland, M. and Wieland, R. (2011), “Relaxation-induced cortisol changes within lunch
breaks–an experimental longitudinal worksite field study”,Journal of Occupational and
Organizational Psychology, Vol. 84 No. 2, pp. 382-394.
Krischer, M.M., Penney, L.M. and Hunter, E.M. (2010), “Can counterproductive work behaviors be
productive? CWB as emotion-focused coping”,Journal of Occupational Health Psychology,
Vol. 15 No. 2, p. 154.
Lee, Y. and Kim, K.H. (2020), “De-motivating employees’negative communication behaviors on
anonymous social media: the role of public relations”,Public Relations Review, Vol. 46 No. 46,
101955.
Lee, S., Zhou, Z.E., Xie, J. and Guo, H. (2021), “Work-related use of information and communication
technologies after hours and employee fatigue: the exacerbating effect of affective
commitment”,Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 477-490.
Lee, Y. (2022a), “An examination of the effects of employee words in organizational crisis: public forgiveness
and behavioral intentions”,International Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 59 No. 4,
pp. 598-620.
Lee, Y. (2022b), “Dynamics of millennial employees’communicative behaviors in the workplace: the
role of inclusive leadership and symmetrical organizational communication”,Personnel Review,
Vol. 51 No. 6, pp. 1629-1650.
Lei, P.W. and Wu, Q. (2007), “Introduction to structural equation modeling: issues and practical
considerations”,Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Vol. 26, pp. 33-43.
Leiter, M.P. and Maslach, C. (1988), “The impact of interpersonal environment on burnout and
organizational commitment”,Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 297-308.
Leung, L. and Zhang, R. (2017), “Mapping ICT use at home and telecommuting practices: a perspective
from work/family border theory”,Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 385-396.
Maslach, C. and Jackson, S.E. (1981), “The measurement of experienced burnout”,Journal of
Organizational Behavior, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 99-113.
Maslach, C., Jackson, S.E., Leiter, M.P., Schaufeli, W.B. and Schwab, R.L. (1986), Maslach Burnout
Inventory, Vol. 21, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA, pp. 3463-3464.
Maslach, C. (2001), “What have we learned about burnout and health?”,Psychology and Health, Vol. 16
No. 5, pp. 607-611.
Mazzei, A., Kim, J.N. and Dell’Oro, C. (2012), “Strategic value of employee relationships and
communicative actions: overcoming corporate crisis with quality internal communication”,
International Journal of Strategic Communication, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 31-44.
Meade, A.W. and Craig, S.B. (2012), “Identifying careless responses in survey data”,Psychological
Methods, Vol. 17 No. 3, p. 437.
Men, L.R. and Stacks, D. (2014), “The effects of authentic leadership on strategic internal
communication and employee-organization relationships”,Journal of Public Relations
Research, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 301-324.
Men, L.R. and Yue, C.A. (2019), “Creating a positive emotional culture: effect of internal communication
and impact on employee supportive behaviors”,Public Relations Review, Vol. 45 No. 3, 101764.
Men, L.R., O’Neil, J. and Ewing, M. (2020), “Examining the effects of internal social media usage on
employee engagement”,Public Relations Review, Vol. 46 No. 2, 101880.
Men, L.R. (2014), “Strategic internal communication: transformational leadership, communication channels,
and employee satisfaction”,Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 264-284.
Mojza, E.J., Sonnentag, S. and Bornemann, C. (2011), “Volunteer work as a valuable leisure-time
activity: a day-level study on volunteer work, non-work experiences, and well-being at work”,
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 84 No. 1, pp. 123-152.
Moss, J. (2021), “Beyond burned out”, available at: https://hbr.org/2021/02/beyond-burned-out
(accessed 1 August 2021).
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication
Mulki, J.P., Jaramillo, F. and Locander, W.B. (2006), “Emotional exhaustion and organizational
deviance: can the right job and a leader’s style make a difference?”,Journal of Business
Research, Vol. 59 No. 12, pp. 1222-1230.
Nixon, A.E. and Spector, P.E. (2014), The Impact of Technology on Employee Stress, Health, and Well-
Being, Routledge, New York, NY, pp. 238-260.
Park, J.C., Kim, S. and Lee, H. (2020), “Effect of work-related smartphone use after work on job
burnout: moderating effect of social support and organizational politics”,Computers in Human
Behavior, Vol. 105, 106194.
Peters, O. and Ben Allouch, S. (2005), “Always connected: a longitudinal field study of mobile
communication”,Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 239-256.
Penney, L.M. and Spector, P.E. (2005), “Job stress, incivility, and counterproductive work behavior
(CWB): the moderating role of negative affectivity”,Journal of Organizational Behavior: The
International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior,
Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 777-796.
Penney, L.M., Hunter, E.M. and Perry, S.J. (2011), “Personality and counterproductive work behaviour:
using conservation of resources theory to narrow the profile of deviant employees”,Journal of
Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 84 No. 1, pp. 58-77.
Ragsdale, J.M. and Hoover, C.S. (2016), “Cell phones during nonwork time: a source of job demands
and resources”,Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 57, pp. 54-60.
Robert Half (2020), “Working weekends a reality for nearly 7 in 10 remote professionals, Robert Half
research shows”, [Press release], available at: https://press.roberthalf.com/2020-11-23-Working-
Weekends-a-Reality-for-Nearly-7-in-10-Remote-Professionals-Robert-Half-Research-Shows
Siegall, M. and McDonald, T. (2004), “Person–organization congruence, burnout, and diversion of
resources”,Personnel Review, Vol. 33, pp. 291-301.
Sonnentag, S. and Fritz, C. (2007), “The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: development and
validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work”,Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 12 No. 3, p. 204.
Sonnentag, S. and Fritz, C. (2015), “Recovery from job stress: the stressor-detachment model as an
integrative framework”,Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 36 No. S1, pp. S72-S103.
Spector, P.E. and Fox, S. (2005), “The stressor-emotion model of counterproductive work behavior”,in
Fox, S. and Spector, P.E. (Eds), Counterproductive Work Behavior: Investigations of Actors and
Targets, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 151-174.
Spector, P.E., Fox, S., Penney, L.M., Bruursema, K., Goh, A. and Kessler, S. (2006), “The dimensionality
of counterproductivity: are all counterproductive behaviors created equal?”,Journal of
Vocational Behavior, Vol. 68 No. 3, pp. 446-460.
Spector, P.E. (2011), “The relationship of personality to counterproductive work behavior (CWB): an
integration of perspectives”,Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 342-352.
Stephens, K.K. and Mandhana, D.M. (2017), “Media richness and choice theories in organizations”,in
Scott, C.R. and Lewis, L.K. (Eds), The International Encyclopedia of Organizational
Communication, Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, NY, pp. 1506-1519.
Ter Hoeven, C.L., van Zoonen, W. and Fonner, K.L. (2016), “The practical paradox of technology: the
influence of communication technology use on employee burnout and engagement”,
Communication Monographs, Vol. 83 No. 2, pp. 239-263.
Uysal, N. (2016), “Social collaboration in intranets: the impact of social exchange and group norms on
internal communication”,International Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 53 No. 2,
pp. 181-199.
Van Jaarsveld, D.D., Walker, D.D. and Skarlicki, D.P. (2010), “The role of job demands and emotional
exhaustion in the relationship between customer and employee incivility”,Journal of
Management, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 1486-1504.
JCOM
Walden, J.A. and Kingsley Westerman, C.Y. (2018), “Strengthening the tie: creating exchange
relationships that encourage employee advocacy as an organizational citizenship behavior”,
Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 593-611.
Welsh, D.T., Ellis, A.P., Christian, M.S. and Mai, K.M. (2014), “Building a self-regulatory model of sleep
deprivation and deception: the role of caffeine and social influence”,Journal of Applied
Psychology, Vol. 99 No. 6, p. 1268.
Westman, M. and Eden, D. (1997), “Effects of a respite from work on burnout: vacation relief and fade-
out”,Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 82 No. 4, pp. 516-527.
Wright, T.A. and Cropanzano, R. (1998), “Emotional exhaustion as a predictor of job performance and
voluntary turnover”,Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 83 No. 3, p. 486.
Wright, T.A. and Hobfoll, S.E. (2004), “Commitment, psychological well-being and job performance: an
examination of conservation of resources (COR) theory and job burnout”,Journal of Business
and Management, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 389-406.
Wright, K.B., Abendschein, B., Wombacher, K., O’Connor, M., Hoffman, M., Dempsey, M., Krull, C.,
Dewes, A. and Shelton, A. (2014), “Work-related communication technology use outside of
regular work hours and work life conflict: the influence of communication technologies on
perceived work life conflict, burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions”,Management
Communication Quarterly, Vol. 28 No. 4, pp. 507-530.
Xie, J., Ma, H., Zhou, Z.E. and Tang, H. (2018), “Work-related use of information and communication
technologies after hours (W_ICTs) and emotional exhaustion: a mediated moderation model”,
Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 79, pp. 94-104.
Zhang, N., Shi, Y., Tang, H., Ma, H., Zhang, L. and Zhang, J. (2021), “Does work-related ICT use after
hours (WICT) exhaust both you and your spouse? The spillover-crossover mechanism from
WICT to emotional exhaustion”,Current Psychology, pp. 1-16.
Zhao, J., Xiao, S., Mao, J. and Liu, W. (2018), “The buffering effect of Machiavellianism on the
relationship between role conflict and counterproductive work behavior”,Frontiers in
Psychology, Vol. 9, p. 1776.
Corresponding author
Katie Haejung Kim can be contacted at: kim01229@umn.edu
For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
The impact of
after-hours
work
communication