Journal of Business Strategy

Leaving employees to their own devices: new practices in the workplace

Aurelie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte

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Leaving employees to their own devices:

new practices in the workplace

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Aurelie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte

Aurelie LeclercqVandelannoitte is Associate

Professor at the ISEG
School of Management,
LEM (CNRS 9221), Lille,
France.

Introduction
In the past, organizations, and their information technology (IT) departments in particular,
chose which IT and applications their workers would use, as well as why, how and when
they could use them. In modern organizations, workers instead decide which IT and
applications to use, as well as why, how, and when. That is, in just a few years, traditional
IT equipment and adoption logics have been completely reversed.
Rather than originating in business markets, then becoming dominated over time by higher
volume consumer usage, such new IT emerged first on the consumer market and then
started entering the organizational sphere. This IT consumerization, defined as the
adoption of consumer applications, tools and devices in the workplace (Moschella et al.,
2004; Gens et al., 2011, Vile, 2011; Ortbach et al., 2013), constitutes perhaps the most
significant trend affecting IT in the next 10 years (Gartner, 2012). It parallels some
companies deployments of bring your own device (BYOD) programs, which allow or
encourage employees to use their own personal devices to complete work-related
activities. However, and despite the importance of this growing phenomenon, very few
companies address the implications of IT consumerization and BYOD. Rather, they tend to
develop overly simplistic approaches to BYOD, such as banning or avoiding the trend out
of fear of security threats (DArcy, 2011). Yet, BYOD is neither a fashion nor a new trend; it
is an objective fact that affects organizations and obliges them to rethink some core
processes, models and practices. Thus, it becomes urgent for companies not only to
understand this growing phenomenon but also to anticipate and support it with the most
appropriate strategies, rather than suffering less-than-optimal outcomes due to IT usages
that they have not chosen and cannot control.
The apparent lack of interest among managers and the research gaps instead have left
many questions unanswered (Crowston et al., 2010; Niehaves et al., 2012):
Q1. What are the consequences of renewed and reversed individual IT adoption logics
for organizations?
Q2. How can organizations manage technologies that they have not procured or
provisioned?
Q3. How should IT departments react to potential threats to their information systems
(IS) and networks?
Q4. Should they continue to strive to control all aspects of the companys IS (e.g. data,
hardware, software)?
Q5. To what extent should companies encourage employees to bring their own IT to
work, versus providing employees with professional devices?

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VOL. 36 NO. 5 2015, pp. 18-24, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0275-6668

DOI 10.1108/JBS-08-2014-0100

Q6. What kind of innovations might organizations foster? And ultimately, should they
even bother?
We consider the need to understand the business challenges and implications of reversed
adoption logics including the risks and opportunities they present for organizations
pressing. This article offers an overview of this growing but under-researched
phenomenon. Our goal in turn is to move beyond the classic discourse that appears in
practitioner studies about the security threats of BYOD and provide useful insights to both
managers and academic researchers. Accordingly, we undertake an in-depth analysis of
existing literature, from which we identify changes introduced in organizations by reversed
adoption logics. These findings help shed light on the stakes involved in BYOD and IT
consumerization, as well as the changes they imply for organizations. Our ultimate goal
thus is to help organizations understand how to manage this growing trend and address its
implications.

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IT consumerization: a growing but under-appreciated trend

Peoples growing dependence on technologies and the Internet, combined with the fast
democratization of powerful technological devices (e.g. laptops, smartphones, tablets) and
the rapid explosion of social media, has led to new work behaviors and attitudes toward IT
usage, as summarized by the concept of IT consumerization. This growing trend transforms
the top-down, organizational-level equipment policy into a bottom-up diffusion of IT at the
individual level (Figure 1) (Author, 2014). That is, IT deployment in organizations is no
longer initiated by management but rather is pushed by younger, more mobile, technically
literate workers, who have never known a world without the Internet or IT (DArcy, 2011).
This young, empowered workforce is less tied to tradition and less inclined to draw
boundaries between corporate and personal forms of technology. In addition, they are
familiar with leading-edge technologies, and using their own devices at work represents a
perceived right, not a privilege. Many of these employees already have equipped
themselves with sophisticated technologies at home; they own a multitude of sophisticated,
affordable devices, diverse in their functionalities, and they are never far from their own
smartphones, tablets or laptops. These technological devices are even smaller, smarter,
cheaper and more powerful than traditional enterprise desktops and IT (Harris et al., 2011).
Finally, modern communication capabilities enable workers to access their internal
company networks with nearly any device and virtually anywhere.
In turn, workers personal IT is so imbricated in their daily lives that they reject the idea of
losing access to their sophisticated devices or having to use less efficient devices at work.
Figure 1 Two logics of IT deployment in organizations
From a top-down IT
equipment policy at the
organizaonal level

IT consumerizaon & BYOD

To a boom-up
diusion of IT at the
individual level

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JOURNAL OF BUSINESS STRATEGY

PAGE 19

In modern organizations, workers instead decide which IT

and applications to use, as well as why, how, and when.

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They generally regard their personal tools as more powerful, more useful, more capable,
faster and more fun than the enterprise IT provided by their companies (Harris et al., 2011).
Because of their conviction that their personal devices and applications make them more
effective in carrying out their missions, they expect to be able to use them at work too, to
manage their jobs and connect freely with enterprise IS. These trends and beliefs explain
why more workers now use their own technologies at work, regardless of official company
policies and with or without their managers approval (Harris et al., 2011).
Yet, managers attention to this growing trend appears limited. For example, IT
consumerization mainly has catalyzed concerns about IS security and reliability (DArcy,
2011), as well as employees performance if they get distracted from their work missions by
the use of more fun personal technologies. Accordingly, most studies of BYOD in both
professional and academic outlets adopt IT security and cost-efficiency perspectives. First,
a successful BYOD strategy should incorporate a secure infrastructure (e.g. wireless local
area networks that link all devices to the companys IS; security identity services; data
infrastructure, training, and procedures). Second, managers acknowledge that a reversed
adoption logic could reduce organizational expenditures on IT infrastructure, though the
hidden costs of technology standardization and internal organizational compatibility also
demand consideration (Kaneshige, 2012).
Even in companies that have started to recognize the growing use of consumer IT at work
(Brousell, 2012), many managers tend to regard each initiative as an insular occurrence,
unrelated to other examples (Harris et al., 2011). As a result, few organizations explicitly
address or manage the expanded blending between personal and business uses of
technological devices and applications. To create a cohesive strategy for IT
consumerization, they must first understand the nature and implications of the vast
changes this trend promises for organizations and their IT strategies.

A new area of innovation, openness and flexibility

Beyond representing technological trends, IT consumerization and BYOD have a key role
in organizations because they constitute exciting opportunities, huge challenges and
substantial implications for organizations. Consumer IT is easy to implement, can foster
innovation and can potentially enhance employees creativity, productivity and satisfaction
(Harris et al., 2011). Thus:

a salesperson might bring her own laptop to the office;

a director can finish a report or respond to e-mails while in a doctors waiting room;

a representative could rely on location-enabled mapping, expense management and

other consumer applications (e.g. Google Docs, Yahoo Messenger) on his smartphone
to maintain closer connections with clients;

a CEO might use her iPad to present up-to-the-minute results to the board; and

a nurse could use his camera phone to relay images of patient wounds and thereby
enhance patient care.

All these examples represent creative uses of consumer IT by employees within

organizations, with clear value for companies. Specifically, these workers improvise in
using their personal technology in new, sometimes unanticipated ways, and companies in
turn can enjoy transformed, improved business processes.

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The changes induced by IT consumerization and BYOD also go deeper, in that they prompt
organizations to become more open, fluid and flexible by creating a new corporate space,
characterized by greater digital freedom. For example, new forms of mobility likely emerge,
because workers can access any information from any location with any chosen device.
With more options than ever before, they work with the device and format that best suits
them, whether in the office, from home or on the move (Choo, 2011). Because they are free
of the rigid methods that IT departments and management might have imposed previously,
workers can decide how to work, when and where it is most convenient for them. For
example, cloud-based e-mail enables workers to access their electronic mailboxes from a
smartphone, tablet, or other device, nearly regardless of time, location, and software, which
means they likely can obtain relevant information, communicate, and work anywhere and
anytime (Choo, 2011). Workers also achieve greater flexibility and empowerment when they
gain greater control over how they can manage the increasing demands of their
professional and personal lives.
In renewed enterprises in motion (Choo, 2011), the static workplace becomes
dynamic. Companies that welcome and support such practices often appeal more to
current and potential employees. To attract the most elite, technologically savvy
employees, companies must give them choice and flexibility in how they work, including
in the devices they use, and ensure comparable experiences, regardless of how they
access the companys IS. Such conditions might enhance organizational productivity
and motivation, which means that IT consumerization and BYOD require strategic
consideration by organizations.

Waves of change in IT strategies and business models

The new openness and flexibility that accompany BYOD eventually will alter the face,
missions, power and role of IT departments completely. These trends, accordingly, will
fundamentally and irreversibly transform companies IT strategies (Harris et al., 2011),
especially considering that the capabilities of consumer IT tend to outpace those achieved
by enterprise IT (Murdoch et al., 2010). The constitution of complex, individualized systems,
featuring various privately owned and company-provided IT (Ortbach et al., 2013),
contribute to the process of the individualization of IS within companies (Baskerville, 2011).
This trend also creates waves of change for business and IT strategies and models. The
impact on corporate IT departments is especially notable: Whereas they traditionally
controlled the technologies that employees used to perform their jobs, the sovereign
territory of enterprise IT is being invaded by consumer IT (Cisco, 2012). Consumer IT has
spread throughout organizations at remarkable speed, with levels of maturity, support and
maintenance quality that seemingly never would have been accepted in the past by IT
departments, managers or organizations. As a result, the traditional business models of
most IT departments have been forced to adjust. Because they no longer provide their
employees with technological devices, they cannot control their IT uses anymore. This
altered role for IT departments can be troublesome though, because it likely leads them to
perceive a loss of power.
In this vein, many IT managers express fear about the consequences of relaxing their
control over the companys IT environment and infrastructure and seek to maintain tight
controls over IT usages within the firm. Others attempt to avoid allowing employees to use

IT deployment in organizations is no longer initiated by

management but rather is pushed by younger, more mobile,
technically literate workers.

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PAGE 21

Vignette 1. A company that has coped successfully with BYOD

Example: the case of Volvo
Instead of ignoring a growing phenomenon or limiting employees to professional devices,
Volvo decided to support them by offering a dedicated service, designed specifically to help
workers benefit from the uses of their own, personal devices (smartphone, tablet).

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Specifically, to address growing demands by employees for access to corporate data on the road,
Volvos IT department created a customized service, through which employees may install
corporate applications (e.g. office software) on their personal mobile devices. Employees who
choose to do so can access e-mails, electronic diaries and contact information from a distance;
more than 12,000 devices are thus linked. As an innovation manager in Volvos IT department
explains, There is a real willingness from our employees to centralize their personal and
professional usages on their own device. Yet, this usage remains voluntary; rather than any IT
usage policy being imposed, employees choose whether to use their own device or not to access
corporate data and IS.
Although Volvo acknowledges the importance of corporate data security and network
protection (e.g. if a worker loses a personal device to theft or misplacement, Volvo IT can
remotely delete all corporate data), security is not the top priority. The most important focus
is open innovation, the name Volvo gave its new program. Through open innovation, the
company can identify priorities and involve multiple employees in generating and diffusing
innovative ideas. Numerous improvements, suggested spontaneously by workers, already
have been implemented. In turn, Volvo IT already has decided to expand the service with new
applications to help meet other demands from workers (e.g. booking a taxi, completing
expense accounts, planning).
As the innovation manager further explains, Participative innovation is at the heart of our culture,
and our collaborators are very engaged in idea sharing to help us develop our internal and
external services and strategies. Our approach is very pragmatic: We decided to provide our
workers with access to corporate applications that seemed essential, like the emails and agendas
and then our goal has been to make the service evolve, according to the expectations of the
employees. I think that managing BYOD as a whole from the beginning is not a good tactic; its far
more important to study IT usages closely and anticipate the needs of the future. The result is a
renewed, more strategic role for the IT department. Furthermore, the company can now sell itself
as a highly attractive workplace to prospective employees.
Source: Volvo (2012)

their own devices at work at all. A 2011 study, thus, revealed that 80 per cent of IT
professionals were opposed to the use of consumer technologies in the workplace (Harris
et al., 2011). Yet, 40 per cent of chief information officers also believe that companies will
stop providing employees with physical desktops within five years (Cisco, 2012). Thus, IT
managers face a difficult dilemma between their perceptions of their classic missions, roles
and duties and what they recognize as the ineluctable evolution of the IT environment.
Examples of companies that have successfully tackled this trend and the associated dilemma
are instructive. They offer a resolution, achieved by helping IT departments rethink their mission
in the company (Vignette 1). The idea is to free IT departments from some of their traditional
roles and duties (e.g. provision of and control over IT), leaving them with more time to pursue
innovative, strategic projects. In this view, BYOD and IT consumerization represent unexpected
opportunities for IT departments and information officers to turn their attention to long-term IT
strategies and take a critical, strategic role in their organizations.

Conclusion
Rather than simple fads or trends, IT consumerization and BYOD exert notable impacts on
organizations (Table I).

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VOL. 36 NO. 5 2015

Table I Transformations of IT departments due to BYOD impacts

Criteria

From . . .

To

Usage

One device, one task

Connectivity
Deployment logic

Limited
Top-down
Organizational initiative
Provision and control of IT
Sovereign territory of enterprise IT

Anytime, anywhere, any device

(ATAWAD)
Permanent and continuous
Bottom-up
Individual initiative
Strategic
Anticipation of employees needs
Innovative projects
Long term
Mobility, fluidity and dynamic
workplaces
Enterprise in motion

IT department role

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Organization

Keywords:
Information technology,
Adoption logics,
BYOD,
CIO,
Consumerization,
Individualization

Short term
Fixity in static workplaces

To address the lack of research on this central topic for organizations (Crowston et al.,
2010; Niehaves et al., 2012), this article analyzes how companies might embrace BYOD, a
decision that will affect not only the technologies used within the company but also the IT
strategies, innovation processes, creativity and well-being of its employees. If successfully
embedded into the strategy of the organization, IT consumerization and BYOD can deliver
tangible business benefits, including efficiency, productivity, cost savings and process
improvements. Companies that successfully redefine their perspective on mobility and
BYOD and IT strategies, thereby adapting to these broader changes, will gain critical
competitive advantages. Not least of all, it will help them attract the best employees to join
their workforce.

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Corresponding author

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Aurelie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte can be contacted at: a.leclercq@ieseg.fr

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