Towards a NeuroIS Research Methodology: Intensifying the Discussion on Methods, Tools, and Measurement

The genesis of the Neuro-Information Systems (NeuroIS) field took place in 2007. Since then, a considerable number of IS scholars and academics from related disciplines have started to use theories, methods, and tools from neuroscience and psychophysiology to better understand human cognition, emotion, and behavior in IS contexts, and to develop neuro-adaptive information systems (i.e., systems that recognize the physiological state of the user and that adapt, based on that information, in real-time). However, because the NeuroIS field is still in a nascent stage, IS scholars need to become familiar with the methods, tools, and measurements that are used in neuroscience and psychophysiology. Against the background of the increased importance of methodological discussions in the NeuroIS field, the Journal of the Association for Information Systems published a special issue call for papers entitled “Methods, tools, and measurement in NeuroIS research” in 2012. We, the special issue’s guest editors, accepted three papers after a stringent review process, which appear in this special issue. In addition to these three papers, we hope to intensify the discussion on NeuroIS research methodology, and to this end we present the current paper. Importantly, our observations during the review process (particularly with respect to methodology) and our own reading of the literature and the scientific discourse during conferences served as input for this paper. Specifically, we argue that six factors, among others that will become evident in future discussions, are critical for a rigorous NeuroIS research methodology; namely, reliability, validity, sensitivity, diagnosticity, objectivity, and intrusiveness of a measurement instrument. NeuroIS researchers—independent from whether their role is editor, reviewer, or author—should carefully give thought to these factors. We hope that the discussion in this paper instigates future contributions to a growing understanding towards a NeuroIS research methodology

Technostress Research: A Nurturing Ground for Measurement Pluralism?

Because technostress research is multidisciplinary in nature and, therefore, benefits from insights gained from various research disciplines, we expected a high degree of measurement pluralism in technostress studies published in the information systems (IS) literature. However, because IS research mostly relies on self-report measures in general, reasons exist to also assume that technostress research has largely neglected multi-method research designs. To assess the status quo of technostress research with respect to the application of multi-method approaches, we analyzed 103 empirical studies. Specifically, we analyzed the types of data-collection methods used and the investigated components of the technostress process (person, environment, stressors, strains, and coping). The results indicate that multi-method research is more prevalent in the IS technostress literature (approximately 37% of reviewed studies) than in the general IS literature (approximately 20% as reported in previous reviews). However, our findings also show that IS technostress studies significantly rely on self-report measures. We argue that technostress research constitutes a nurturing ground for the application of multi-method approaches and multidisciplinary collaboration

Design Blueprint for Stress-Sensitive Adaptive Enterprise Systems

Stress is a major problem in the human society, impairing the well-being, health, performance, and productivity of many people worldwide. Most notably, people increasingly experience stress during human-computer interactions because of the ubiquity of and permanent connection to information and communication technologies. This phenomenon is referred to as technostress. Enterprise systems, designed to improve the productivity of organizations, frequently contribute to this technostress and thereby counteract their objective. Based on theoretical foundations and input from exploratory interviews and focus group discussions, the paper presents a design blue-print for stress-sensitive adaptive enterprise systems (SSAESes). A major characteristic of SSAESes is that bio-signals (e.g., heart rate or skin conductance) are integrated as real-time stress measures, with the goal that systems automatically adapt to the users’ stress levels, thereby improving human-computer interactions. Various design interventions on the individual, technological, and organi- zational levels promise to directly affect stressors or moderate the impact of stressors on important negative effects (e.g., health or performance). However, designing and deploying SSAESes pose significant challenges with respect to technical feasibility, social and ethical accept- ability, as well as adoption and use. Considering these challenges, the paper proposes a 4-stage step-by-step implementation approach. With this Research Note on technostress in organizations, the authors seek to stimulate the discussion about a timely and important phenomenon, particularly from a design science research perspective

Role and Status of Biomarkers in Technostress Research: A Systematic Review

Pawan Kumar Mishra, Martina Rašticov&#x00E1Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, CzechiaCorrespondence: Pawan Kumar Mishra, Email [email protected]: The revolution in technology has impacted the work and personal lives of human beings greatly. While it has introduced the mankind to a more comfortable life, it has brought in the stress too in the form of technostress, the situation where a person fails to cope up with the ever-advancing technology and experiences stress symptoms. The increasing intensity of technostress calls for more research on technostress diving deeper into the causes and coping mechanisms. However, technostress research requires successful and reliable assessment of stress. It has been observed in recent years that biomarkers such as cortisol and salivary alpha amylase are reliable indicators of stress. There are several reports where the researchers have used questionnaires and surveys to assess the technostress, but the number of studies using biomarkers for technostress assessment is limited. It has been established that biomarker assessment is an important complement to the surveys to study the technostress. Here, we summarize the important studies done on technostress using the biomarkers along with the rationale of using these biomarkers.Keywords: technostress, biomarkers, cortisol, skin conductance, salivary alpha amylase, heart rate variabilit

Technostress: A Concept Analysis

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an integral part of modern society, transforming the way people work, communicate, and live. However, the pervasive use of technology has also given rise to a new phenomenon known as "technostress", which refers to the negative effects and stressors that arise from the use of technology in various domains of life, including the workplace. Despite the growing recognition of technostress as a significant issue, the literature on this topic remains fragmented and lacks comprehensive evaluations. Therefore, this article aims to provide a thorough and comprehensive literature review of technostress in the workplace. Using keywords such as "techno-stress", "technostress", and "Technology Related Stress", we conducted a systematic review of four major electronic databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), and Cairn. The review revealed that technostress is a multidimensional construct that encompasses various cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses to technology use in the workplace. The review also discuss theoretical models of technostress, and highlighted the physiological side of technostress, including its impact on physical health.  In addition to the negative effects, the review also discussed inhibitors or coping mechanisms that individuals and organizations may employ to mitigate technostress. The findings of this literature review provide insights for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to further investigate and address the challenges posed by technostress in the workplace.   Keywords: technostress definition, technostress theoretical models, physiological face of technostress, technostress assessment, technostress inhibitors. JEL Classification: I1 Paper type: Theoretical Research Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an integral part of modern society, transforming the way people work, communicate, and live. However, the pervasive use of technology has also given rise to a new phenomenon known as "technostress", which refers to the negative effects and stressors that arise from the use of technology in various domains of life, including the workplace. Despite the growing recognition of technostress as a significant issue, the literature on this topic remains fragmented and lacks comprehensive evaluations. Therefore, this article aims to provide a thorough and comprehensive literature review of technostress in the workplace. Using keywords such as "techno-stress", "technostress", and "Technology Related Stress", we conducted a systematic review of four major electronic databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), and Cairn. The review revealed that technostress is a multidimensional construct that encompasses various cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses to technology use in the workplace. The review also discuss theoretical models of technostress, and highlighted the physiological side of technostress, including its impact on physical health.  In addition to the negative effects, the review also discussed inhibitors or coping mechanisms that individuals and organizations may employ to mitigate technostress. The findings of this literature review provide insights for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to further investigate and address the challenges posed by technostress in the workplace.   Keywords: technostress definition, technostress theoretical models, physiological face of technostress, technostress assessment, technostress inhibitors. JEL Classification: I1 Paper type: Theoretical Research&nbsp

People on the other side are waiting: work obligations and shame in ICT-related Technostress

With the pervasiveness of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in organisations, employees continuously interact both online and offline. This continuous interaction leads to the construction of norms and obligations around the usage of technology, which can also result in negative impacts on employees’ health, for example, technostress. Previous Information Systems (IS) research on technostress has focused on psychological or neurophysiological quantitative research on the use of ICT and its effects. To our knowledge, there are no technostress studies that make use of the role of obligation, which in our view is a crucial lens, as it shifts the technostress debate to showing how the felt obligations constructed around the use of ICTs can lead to technostress. To further explore how technostress arises, we use the analytical concept of obligation from the discipline Sociology of Emotions. Our data comes from an exploratory case study in a Danish private company. We find that employees take on themselves the ideals of ICTs being seamless, and when ICTs do not live up to their expectations, they experience shame and guilt. To avoid such feelings, they construct obligations that lead to technostress. We contribute to IS research on technostress by showing how obligation contributes to technostress

Is the Technostress Creators Inventory Still an Up-To-Date Measurement Instrument? Results of a Large-Scale Interview Study

Self-report measures are of great importance for technostress research and particularly the Technostress Creators Inventory has been amongst the most frequently applied measurement instruments since its inception in 2008. As the technological environment has progressed since then, we investigated whether this inventory still completely represents the phenomenon of technostress today. We conducted interviews with 75 individuals in four companies on their technostress experiences. We asked them about their personal experiences with eight stressor categories in the workplace, the original five dimensions of the Technostress Creators Inventory (techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty) and additional three categories (techno-unreliability, IT-based monitoring, and cyberbullying). We found that techno-insecurity was the least prevalent stressor category throughout all companies, while techno-unreliability, one of our new categories, was the most prevalent stressor. Based on this evidence, we argue that a revised inventory is urgently needed to guarantee content validity of technostress measurement in future studies

Technostress Management at the Workplace: A Systematic Literature Review

Technostress is a major problem for employees and organizations, as it impairs employee health and weakens organizational performance. Therefore, it is relevant to effectively manage technostress and reveal ways for mitigating the adverse consequences. Seeing that previous studies on technostress management have provided a foundation for review work, we conduct a systematic literature review and integrate the scholarly findings of 22 research articles of different disciplines on technostress management strategies at the workplace. Our work provides an overview of technostress management strategies highlighting that technostress management strategies address the user, the technological, organizational, or the social environment. Moreover, we shed light on discipline-specific investigations of technostress management and derive five distinct avenues for future research. Our work thereby guides researchers to fill the identified research gaps and extend the understanding of ways for mitigating technostress

Enterprise resource planning systems induced stress: a comparative empirical analysis with young and elderly SAP users

In this research study we investigate whether and how ERP system characteris-tics cause its users to experience stress. In order to do so, we analyze a research model explaining enterprise resource planning systems induced stress with an empirical study in two organizations (N=227). The results reveal that usefulness, complexity, reliability, and pace of change are important ERP system characteris-tics leading to the perception of stressors and exhaustion. Furthermore, our com-parative empirical analysis with young and elderly ERP users indicate that the el-derly ones perceive ERP characteristics more negatively and are more stressed and exhausted than the younger users