Page 3 - Journal of Management Inquiry, July 2018

Morandin et al. 353

To some extent, the future dreamed by telecommunica- Indeed, it is no longer rare to observe people before business
tions corporations is now a reality, as we live in an era in meetings not talking to each other at all or, even worse, par-
which we no longer have spatial or temporal barriers that ticipating in meetings, lectures, boards, and other social
limit our egos, creativity, or relationships. We can now live in gatherings only physically, as they are mentally connected to
one country and work in another, running our businesses from what occurs on their phone screens.
the couch, developing business ideas with people we have Long ago, Durkheim (1893/1984) warned about the
met online, cultivating daily relationships with friends and adverse consequences of the division of labor on workers’
relatives in different locales, working by day and taking an social interactions, arguing that “the individual, bent low
online degree to pursue our dream career by night, and so over his task, will isolate himself in his own special activity.
forth. People at work are thus more connected and can easily He will no longer be aware of the collaborators who work at
collaborate with friends in different locations. For example, his side on the same task; he has even no longer any idea at
engineers from the Italian race car manufacturer Dallara work all of what that common task consists” (p. 294). Similar con-
on the development and testing of components for their sequences occur in the presence of indiscriminate and exces-
IndyCar Series vehicles in Parma, Italy, helping their col- sive use of modern communication technologies, because
leagues in Indianapolis, USA, to assemble the whole chassis individuals are bent over their smartphones, isolated, and
the night before a race. Information at work has become much less aware of who is working at their side, no longer feeling
more intelligent and accessible. Companies’ financial perfor- a part of a common opera. Smartphones can generate an
mance that had usually been communicated through endless “autonomy paradox” (Mazmanian, Orlikowski, & Yates,
complicated reports can be now communicated with tweets or 2013), whereby people, believing that the use of mobile
short messages, as demonstrated by Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s devices enhances their freedom, actually escalate forms of
CEO who communicates the quarterly results of the company compulsory engagement that unduly limit their autonomy
and highlights its strategic initiatives to 200 executive manag- and force them to be constantly present.
ers just before the opening of the stock exchange using a self- This scenario even extends to the family domain. Although
recorded WhatsApp message. Smartphone technologies, we have been promised that smartphones could help us expe-
therefore, have many wondrous benefits. rience greater work–life balance, as we could handle work-
related issues while being at our child’s soccer game, dance
But . . . There Is a Dark Side or play, research indicates that mobile phones represent a
looming threat to the development of high-quality relation-
It is apparent that we now have the power in our hands to live ships in the family, diminishing rather than enhancing peo-
dream lives, fulfilling our goals and staying connected to our ple’s participation and engagement in family activities.
loved ones. All these things are good things. But are we Checking the phone for incoming emails on the couch, in the
really living such dream lives? Are we really using mobile bathroom (a book has even been published explaining how to
communication technologies to boost our work perfor- make more money by using one’s smartphone while sitting
mances, enrich our lives, and feel happier? Of some signifi- on the toilet), or even in the bed before sleeping, has become
cant concern, we are rapidly discovering that mobile phones a must for many of us. Only hard-core segmenters (i.e., those
can be addictive (Ong, 2018). They have a dark side that can who prefer to keep their work and home domains separate)
inhabit and inhibit, rather than enable and empower our ideal seem to be able to resist this impulse and keep the phone out
lives—something unsaid and probably unconsidered in the of sight and out of sound during evening hours spent with the
1980s. Many observers now argue that because they are family. In support of such compulsive connectivity, a recent
ubiquitous and often in more-or-less continuous use, mobile study by McDaniel and Coyne (2016) found that 75% of
communication technologies can result in a state of “con- women felt that the biggest challenge in their marriages was
stant connectivity” that actually diminishes individual per- remaining or becoming more interesting to their partners
formance and effectiveness. For example, while being able than their partner’s smartphones. Think about that.
to respond to work messages at any time can be good for The risks of excessive use of communication technolo-
one’s career, as it signals full commitment to work, commu- gies are even evident (and worrying) among teenagers.
nication technologies tend to intensify work, creating dis- According to numerous studies conducted by psychologist
tractions and making people at work even “less connected”—a Jean Twenge, teenagers are developing the tendency to spend
new manifestation of the “loneliness-in-the-crowd” phenom- long hours at home, alone, just playing with their smart-
enon. The mere presence of one’s muted smartphone on the phones, without feeling any need to go out and engage in
desk can impair cognitive functioning and cause impolite social relationships. They are experiencing less dating, less
behaviors that endanger social interactions, such as neuroti- sex, and fewer social gatherings than teenagers at the same
cally picking up the devices when there is no real need to do age of the prior generations. Moreover, they tend to use their
so, constantly focusing on the phone screen, and suddenly smartphones late at night, which may lead to serious sleep
interrupting communication just to rummage on the phone. deprivation. Although this is arguably more of a sociological