Human agency in a wireless world: Patterns of technology use in nomadic computing environments

The problems of nomadic computing users have been described as challenges presented by the interplay of time, space and context. However, theoretical accounts to date have not addressed all three aspects of nomadic computing in a single effort. We investigated how the practices of individual nomadic computing users in a large mortgage finance company changed after implementation of a nomadic computing environment. Although users experienced contradictory outcomes as they sought resolutions to the dilemmas posed by work and nonwork demands, all users reported effectiveness in their computing practices. We attribute their effectiveness to skilled use of technologies to control the boundaries between their personal and business social contexts. The variety of patterns of boundary control across nomadic workers in the study is explained using a theory of human agency that focuses on the temporal, spatial and contextual conditions facing actors as they engage with their nomadic computing environments.

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