The plugged-in employee: all risks and no benefits? Extending our knowledge on work-related ICT-use outside work hours through a behavioral fit and a self-determination perspective.

The many ICT-evolutions of the past few decades (e.g., internet access everywhere) have made our lives easier in many respect, but they have also blurred the boundaries between work and home, which has made it harder for people to disconnect and recover from work after hours. This trend has been linked to several risks, like increased work-to-life conflict, stress and mental illness. Stimulated by an increased awareness of these risks, several policy makers and organizations have installed measures to limit work-related ICT-use after hours. In this project, we argue that as long as we do not well understand when and for whom these risks are likely to occur and what the potential positive effects of ICT-use outside work hours are, these limiting one-size-fits-all measures are arguably immature. The aim of this project is therefore to examine both risks and benefits of workrelated ICT-use outside work hours and to explore when and for whom these risks and benefits are most likely to occur. To address this aim, we will apply two novel perspectives to this topic, i.e., a “behavioral fit” and a self-determination perspective. We will test predictions based on these perspectives through a three-wave longitudinal study, an intervention study and a multiple-source experience sampling study. The results of this project will be 2 PhDs and 6 papers.