Policy Press
Fourteen Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan
Abstract
This chapter examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the permeability of work/home boundaries in Japan, and consequently on work–family conflicts over childcare. Using data derived from a web questionnaire survey conducted in February 2013 with a sample of 20–49-year-old working parents residing in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, the chapter considers how intensive use of ICTs is exacerbating work–family conflicts. After providing an overview of the childcare stage in Japan, as well as the growing adoption of teleworking due to an increasingly widespread use of ICTs, the chapter reviews the literature on the effect of ICTs and telework on work–family life balance. It then explains the study’s theoretical framework and hypotheses, along with the methodology used and the results. One major finding is that work–family conflict increases as the permeability of borders increases, and decreases with more frequent border-crossing communication with family.
Abstract
This chapter examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the permeability of work/home boundaries in Japan, and consequently on work–family conflicts over childcare. Using data derived from a web questionnaire survey conducted in February 2013 with a sample of 20–49-year-old working parents residing in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, the chapter considers how intensive use of ICTs is exacerbating work–family conflicts. After providing an overview of the childcare stage in Japan, as well as the growing adoption of teleworking due to an increasingly widespread use of ICTs, the chapter reviews the literature on the effect of ICTs and telework on work–family life balance. It then explains the study’s theoretical framework and hypotheses, along with the methodology used and the results. One major finding is that work–family conflict increases as the permeability of borders increases, and decreases with more frequent border-crossing communication with family.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- The family has become a network xv
- Connecting families? An introduction 1
-
Theoretical and methodological approaches
- Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life 21
- Recursive approaches to technology adoption, families, and the life course: actor network theory and strong structuration theory 41
- Weaving family connections on and offline: the turn to networked individualism 59
- Oversharing in the time of selfies: an aesthetics of disappearance? 81
- The application of digital methods in a life course approach to family studies 97
- Cross-disciplinary research methods to study technology use, family, and life course dynamics: lessons from an action research project on social isolation and loneliness in later life 113
- From object to instrument: technologies as tools for family relations and family research 133
-
Empirical approaches
- Use of communication technology to maintain intergenerational contact: toward an understanding of ‘digital solidarity’ 159
- Careful families and care as ‘kinwork’: an intergenerational study of families and digital media use in Melbourne, Australia 181
- Floating narratives: transnational families and digital storytelling 201
- Rescue chains and care talk among immigrants and their left-behind parents 219
- ‘Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you ... connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations 237
- Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan 255
- Digital connections and family practices 273
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables v
- Notes on contributors vi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- The family has become a network xv
- Connecting families? An introduction 1
-
Theoretical and methodological approaches
- Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life 21
- Recursive approaches to technology adoption, families, and the life course: actor network theory and strong structuration theory 41
- Weaving family connections on and offline: the turn to networked individualism 59
- Oversharing in the time of selfies: an aesthetics of disappearance? 81
- The application of digital methods in a life course approach to family studies 97
- Cross-disciplinary research methods to study technology use, family, and life course dynamics: lessons from an action research project on social isolation and loneliness in later life 113
- From object to instrument: technologies as tools for family relations and family research 133
-
Empirical approaches
- Use of communication technology to maintain intergenerational contact: toward an understanding of ‘digital solidarity’ 159
- Careful families and care as ‘kinwork’: an intergenerational study of families and digital media use in Melbourne, Australia 181
- Floating narratives: transnational families and digital storytelling 201
- Rescue chains and care talk among immigrants and their left-behind parents 219
- ‘Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you ... connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations 237
- Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan 255
- Digital connections and family practices 273
- Index 295
