ICT-Adoption and Well-Being: An Inter-disciplinary Consequence Perspective

ICT-systems are generally initiated for their assumed organisational productivity-enhancing properties; however, their undesirable consequences extend beyond organisational boundaries to users’ non-work lives on multiple levels in society. However, research about information technology’s undesirable consequences is highly fragmented among disciplines separated by terminologies and theories spread among many discourses. I propose a consequence perspective as method for linking them and develop the proposition by synthesising extant empirical research from three bodies of literature selected by a systematic literature review, presented in two forms: An essay, “A Common Tale Rarely Told” illustrating the complex nature of undesirable consequences’ long-term multilevel consequences; an analysis synthetizing three “core paths” of undesirable consequences, which identifies three interfaces with opportunities for inter-disciplinary research. The perspective is grounded in social science traditions; captures path-dependent, multilevel latent effects, and; supports inter-disciplinary research. Its practical viability and general relevance for research remain to be tested.