Remote, Mobile, and Blue-Collar: ICT-Enabled Job Crafting to Elevate Occupational Well-Being

Abstract

Blue-collar remote and mobile workers (BC-RMWs) such as repair/installation engineers, delivery drivers, and construction workers, constitute a significant share of the workforce. They work away from a home or office work base at customer and remote work sites and are highly dependent on ICT for completing their work tasks. Low occupational well-being is a key concern regarding BC-RMWs. The objective of this research is to understand how BC-RMWs can use information and communication technology (ICT) to elevate their occupational well-being. Drawing from the job demands-job resources theoretical framework in occupational psychology, we theorize that the distinctive work characteristics faced by BC-RMWs can be viewed in the conceptual framing of job demands. We conceptualize BC-RMWs’ practices of ICT use as possible ways to gather resources to tackle these demands. We conducted a study of 28 BC-RMWs employed in two private sector firms (telecom service provision and construction industries) in the UK across 14 remote work sites. Based on our findings, we developed the concept of ICT-enabled job crafting and theorized how ICT-enabled job crafting by BC-RMWs can help them increase their job resources to tackle their job demands and consequently increase their occupational well-being. The empirical context of the paper, i.e., the study of BC-RMWs, provides further novelty because these kinds of workers and their distinctive and interesting work conditions have not received much attention in the literature.