Connectivity management practices: the interplay between the social and the material in an institutional context

The prevalence of digital technology has allowed professionals to work anywhere/anytime, problematizing disconnection from work. However, the literature on connectivity has not considered the role sociomateriality plays in influencing professionals’ connective decisions within the institutional contexts they are embedded. We adopted the framework of sociomateriality to explore how sociomaterial elements shape academics’ connectivity management practices in two different Higher Education institutions. We followed a comparative case study approach involving interviews and documentary review. We found that although professionals operated under similar occupational responsibilities, their connectivity management practices varied remarkably between the institutions, with their practices being underpinned by three key institutional characteristics: spatiotemporal expectations of availability, dominant platform of communications, and intensity of connectivity. We argue that these institutional characteristics are interrelated, simultaneously affecting one another while shaping connectivity management practices. We advocate that while professionals may develop practices toward the management of connectivity, their practices are enabled and constrained by an interplay of social and material elements already embedded within their institutional context.