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Top1. Introdution
Information technology (IT) professionals offer a valuable contribution to society, since they develop and maintain artifacts that support processes, decision making and knowledge management in diverse sectors and organizations (De Moura Jr & Helal, 2019). Their professional activity tends to occur in a relaxed and dynamic work environment, conducive to the emergence of creativity and innovation during the process (Armour, 2006). Furthermore, IT professionals perform specific and often complex tasks, which tend to require high degrees of concentration and mental activity (Pratt et al., 2016).
When deeply involved in activities that present challenges and require specific skills, some professional groups assign intrinsic reward to work. During the execution of these activities, the individual perceives that time passes faster than normal; he/she have control over her/his actions; the task have a level of challenge equivalent to her/his skills; and that the process as well as the achievement of the final objective would be self-rewarding. This provisional, subjective and experiential state of mind, resulting from activities that provide perception of well-being combined with personal satisfaction, is called ‘flow state’. The flow state requires a dynamic and intrinsically fragile balance (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002), which recursively occurs “in a sort of challenge-skills spiral”, often requiring new skills to deal with the expanding level of the challenge (De Moura Jr & Bellini, 2019, p. 441). That is, “[f]or the task to continue to be rewarding, we must increase its difficulty” (Armour, 2006, p. 20).
The software development activity is subject to flow as it requires continuous learning from the developer (Armour, 2006; Pratt et al., 2016). However, if the activity is carried out in the comfort zone of the professional, even if competence and skill are manifested, the work may be unrewarding, since it can produce boredom, a mental state strongly associated with sadness, lack of interest or stimulation, due to leisure or excessively repetitive activities (Kass & Vodanovich, 2001; O’Hanlon, 1981). It is not a coincidence that task design can be an important predictor of boredom or its absence (Demerouti, 2006; Fisher, 1998).
While the literature states the propensity to flow by the IT professionals, since it is a creative activity, on the other hand, there is an intense degree of formalism in the area, being increasingly regulated and standardized through well-defined routines (De Moura Jr, 2017) and code of ethics (Alhassan et al., 2020), which supposedly contributes to the occurrence of monotony, repetition and boredom. In fact, decreased commitment to work and productivity of IT professionals have been reported as a consequence of the absence of (a) intellectual stimulation (Anjali & Anand, 2015), (b) a balanced level of work stress (Foy et al., 2019), and (c) a challenging and complex work (Wingreen et al, 2017).
The literature considers boredom and flow as mutually exclusive mental states and, perhaps because of the strong appeal that this statement has (it is easy to agree with), as far as we know both phenomena have not been investigated simultaneously, specifically in the context of the IT profession, where still prevail the notions of a propensity for concentration (Candatten et al., 2013), to enjoy the task of coding/programming (Pratt et al., 2016) and a willingness to face challenges (Jacks & Palvia, 2014). This article highlights that IT professionals must also deal with the routine and protocols of a maturing profession in order to meet industry standards, which interposes an unusual work situation for these professionals and their managers. Grounded on these assumptions, this study seeks to answer the question: to what extent do IT professionals perceive themselves in mental states of flow and/or boredom throughout their working hours?
Although not a recent topic in Psychology and social sciences, there are few studies on the concept of boredom and its implications in organizational contexts (Eastwood et al., 2012) and in work-related activities (Vodanovich & Watt, 2016). Flow, likewise, has demanded investigations in professional and work contexts. Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi (2014), for example, recommend analyzing the phenomenon in search of emerging qualities, whether in relation to dimensions, dynamics, conditions, functions and effects. Both claims in the literature aim to alleviate conflicts and tensions in the levels of individuals and teams, while raising the quality of life and well-being at work.