COPING WITH INTERRUPTIONS IN COMPUTER-MEDIATED ENVIRONMENTS: THE ROLE OF COMPUTER EXPERIENCE

In the workplace, technology can cause stress (“techno-stress”), which can erode the very productivity gains sought by theintroduction of the technology. To treat this problem, our field must gain a more complete understanding of the factors whichcause techno-stress, and of factors which may reduce technology-induced stress. This research-in-progress considers whethercomputer experience can ameliorate workplace stress caused by technology-mediated interruptions (instant messages, forexample). If computer experience is revealed to be a factor in the reduction of techno-stress in this way, inferences may bedrawn about the relationships between techno-stress, individual differences, and work conditions. By drawing upon existingresearch in psychology, we offer the hypotheses that more frequent technology-mediated interruptions cause more technostress,and that computer experience moderates those stressful effects. Ultimately, our assertions must be tested through anexperiment, which we describe in this paper

Individual information systems : design, use, and a negative outcome in the business and private domain

Digitalization increasingly changes individuals business and private lives. Today, individuals build and use ever more complex individual information systems (IIS) composed of privately-owned and business-owned components. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this development since individuals were forced to work from home due to the social distancing measures associated with the pandemic. The ongoing digitalization comes with great opportunities for individuals, such as higher mobility and flexibility, as well as for organizations, such as lower costs and increased productivity. However, the increased use of IIS at the workplace also bears risks for individuals. Such risks include technostress, which refers to stress that is caused by digital technologies. Technostress, in turn, can lead to health-related issues, reduced productivity, and higher turnover intentions. Thus, to leverage the positive opportunities of digitalization while reducing its associated risk of technostress, a better understanding of IIS, their use, and its effect on technostress, and of individual resources that may affect this relationship is needed. The aim of this dissertation is threefold: First, to contribute to a better understanding of layers of IIS and their different components. Second, since a negative outcome of IIS use can be technostress, this dissertation seeks to advance knowledge on technostress creators and how they can be influenced by IIS use and by various IIS characteristics. Third, this dissertation aims to reveal which resources of individuals may help mitigate technostress. This dissertation uses quantitative methods, such as online surveys and structural equation modeling, and qualitative methods, such as literature analyses and semi-structured interviews. Thereby, the methodological focus lies on quantitative data collection and analysis, while some papers use a mixed-methods approach as a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Chapter 2 of this dissertation aims at providing a better understanding of IIS by investigating its various components. Therefore, Chapter 2.1 conceptualizes four layers of IIS: devices, digital identities, relationships, and information. It also considers that IIS have two more or less integrated subsystems: the business information systems with business-owned components and the private information systems with privately-owned components. An empirical validation supports this conceptualization as well as the definition of integration between the two sub-systems on each of the four layers. Chapter 2.2 studies IT consumerization, which refers to the use of private IIS components in the business domain and applies a risk-benefit consideration. The results imply that benefits of consumerization of IT services, such as better functionalities of a private IT service outweigh risks, such as the threat of sanctions for the use of private IT services. Chapter 3 focuses on technostress as a negative outcome of the increased IIS use. Chapter 3.1 analyzes how IT consumerization is related to the technostress creator unreliability of digital technologies. The results reveal a positive relationship between IT consumerization and unreliability and show that unreliability is perceived higher when the IT portfolio integration and the individuals computer self-efficacy are low. Chapter 3.2 proceeds with studying characteristics of digital technologies and how these are related to technostress. It presents ten characteristics that are associated with at least one technostress creator. Chapter 3.3 extends the concept of technostress and introduces a framework of twelve different technostress creators, reveals four second-order factors underlying the twelve technostress creators, and brings them into relation with work- and health-related effects. Chapter 4 also deals with technostress and investigates resources to mitigate technostress. Chapter 4.1 focuses on organizational measures and finds different relationships of the investigated measures with different technostress creators. While some of the technostress creators can be inhibited by the implementation of organizational measures, others are found to be even intensified by the organizational measures. Chapter 4.2 focuses on social mechanisms that function as technostress inhibitors. Findings differ between technostress creators and the investigated social support dimensions. Furthermore, the results highlight the fact that some of the social support dimensions gain even greater importance in light of increasing telework. In summary, this dissertation provides new insights into IIS and their use, the emergence of technostress in digitalized workplaces, and organizational as well as social mechanisms that help mitigate technostress. Hence, this dissertation supports current efforts in both research and practice to reduce technostress while leveraging the positive opportunities of workplace digitalization.Die Digitalisierung verändert unser berufliches und privates Leben zunehmend und hat dazu geführt, dass Individuen heute immer komplexere individuelle Informationssysteme (IIS) nutzen. Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat diese Entwicklung noch beschleunigt, da Beschäftigte durch Social-Distancing-Maßnahmen gezwungen waren, von zu Hause aus zu arbeiten. Die fortschreitende Digitalisierung der Arbeitswelt bringt sowohl für Individuen als auch für Organisationen große Chancen mit sich, wie höhere Mobilität und Flexibilität sowie geringere Kosten und eine gesteigerte Produktivität. Allerdings birgt die verstärkte Nutzung von IIS am Arbeitsplatz auch Risiken. Dazu gehört Technostress, also Stress, der durch digitale Technologien verursacht wird. Technostress wiederum kann zu gesundheitlichen Problemen, verringerter Produktivität sowie einer höheren Fluktuationsrate führen. Um die Chancen der Digitalisierung nutzen und gleichzeitig die Risiken des Technostresses reduzieren zu können, ist ein besseres Verständnis über IIS, deren Nutzung und deren Auswirkung auf Technostress erforderlich sowie darüber, welche individuellen Ressourcen diesen Zusammenhang beeinflussen. Die vorliegende Dissertation verfolgt drei Ziele: Erstens soll zu einem besseren Verständnis über IIS und deren Komponenten beigetragen werden. Zweitens soll das Wissen über Auslöser von Technostress erweitert werden sowie darüber, wie Technostress durch die Nutzung von IIS und durch verschiedene IIS-Charakteristika beeinflusst werden kann. Drittens strebt die Dissertation an, aufzuzeigen, welche Ressourcen helfen, Technostress zu verringern. Zu diesem Zweck werden quantitative Methoden (z.B. Online-Befragungen und Strukturgleichungsmodellierung) und qualitative Methoden (Literaturanalysen und semi-strukturierte Interviews) eingesetzt. Der methodische Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der quantitativen Datenerhebung und -analyse, wobei teilweise ein Mixed-Methods-Ansatz als Kombination quantitativer und qualitativer Methoden verwendet wird. Kapitel 2 zielt auf ein besseres Verständnis über IIS und deren verschiedene Komponenten ab. Dafür werden in Kapitel 2.1 vier Ebenen eines IIS konzeptualisiert: Devices, Digital Identities, Beziehungen und Informationen. Zudem berücksichtigt die Konzeptualisierung, dass ein IIS aus zwei mehr oder weniger integrierten Subsystemen besteht: dem beruflichen und dem privaten Informationssystem. Eine empirische Validierung unterstützt die Konzeptualisierung sowie die Definition der Integration zwischen den Subsystemen auf jeder der vier Ebenen. Kapitel 2.2 analysiert IT-Consumerization also die Nutzung privater IIS-Komponenten im beruflichen Kontext. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der relative Nutzen, wie z.B. bessere Funktionalitäten des privaten IT-Services, die wahrgenommenen Risiken, wie z.B. die Androhung von Sanktionen für die Nutzung privater IT-Services, überwiegt. Kapitel 3 beschäftigt sich mit Technostress als negativer Folge der verstärkten IIS-Nutzung. In Kapitel 3.1 wird analysiert, wie IT-Consumerization mit dem Belastungsfaktor Unzuverlässigkeit digitaler Technologien zusammenhängt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen positiven Zusammenhang, der noch stärker wahrgenommen wird, wenn die IT-Portfolio-Integration und die Computer-Selbstwirksamkeit des Individuums niedrig sind. Kapitel 3.2 untersucht Charakteristika digitaler Technologien und deren Zusammenhang mit Technostress. Es werden zehn Charakteristika gesammelt, die mit mindestens einem digitalen Belastungsfaktor zusammenhängen. Kapitel 3.3 erweitert das Technostress-Konzept und präsentiert zwölf digitale Belastungsfaktoren. Zudem werden vier Faktoren aufgedeckt, die den zwölf Belastungsfaktoren zugrunde liegen, und mit arbeits- und gesundheitsbezogenen Folgen in Zusammenhang gebracht. Kapitel 4 untersucht Ressourcen, die helfen können, Technostress zu mindern. Kapitel 4.1 untersucht organisatorische Maßnahmen und findet unterschiedliche Zusammenhänge der untersuchten Maßnahmen mit verschiedenen digitalen Belastungsfaktoren. Während einige der Belastungsfaktoren durch die organisatorischen Maßnahmen gehemmt werden, werden andere sogar verstärkt. Kapitel 4.2 untersucht soziale Mechanismen, die Technostress verringern können. Die Ergebnisse zeigen unterschiedliche Auswirkungen der untersuchten Dimensionen sozialer Unterstützung auf die digitalen Belastungsfaktoren. Darüber hinaus wird deutlich, dass einige der Dimensionen sozialer Unterstützung angesichts der zunehmenden Arbeit von zuhause eine noch größere Bedeutung erlangen. Zusammenfassend liefert die vorliegende Dissertation neue Erkenntnisse über IIS und deren Nutzung, die Entstehung von Technostress und über organisatorische sowie soziale Mechanismen, die helfen, Technostress zu mindern. Damit leistet die Dissertation einen Beitrag zu den aktuellen Initiativen in Forschung und Praxis, Technostress zu reduzieren und gleichzeitig die Chancen der Digitalisierung der Arbeit zu realisieren

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

Enhancing Productivity at Home: The Role of SmartWork and Organizational Support in the Public Sector.

In recent years, Italian Public Administrations (PAs) have swiftly adapted to flexible work arrangements due to the impact of COVID-19. The flexible work has led to addressing new challenges including the need to balance work demands with family commitments, a lack of social support, struggles with inadequate technology, and managing home interruptions that negatively affect home performance. Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the present study aims at examining the negative impact of home interruptions on smart working performance and the moderating role of two potential job resources: organizational support and perceived quality of the smart working. A convenience sample of 301 Italian public employees engaged in smart working completed an online questionnaire. Multivariate regression analysis results showed that organizational support plays a moderating role in reducing the negative effect of interruptions on home performance. However, the findings did not support a moderating role for the perceived quality of smart working. Overall, these findings highlight the critical role of social factors in buffering the negative effects of smart working, as compared to the quality of the technological arrangements. This information could be valuable for organizations looking to enhance the effectiveness of smart working by focusing on organizational support

Using IT Mindfulness to Mitigate the Negative Consequences of Technostress

Research in the IS field has been focusing on investigating the adverse effects of ICT usage such as technostress. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated mechanisms for the alleviation of this phenomenon. This study contributes to the technostress literature by adopting a mindfulness perspective that has not been investigated before. In this paper, we aim to explore the role of IT mindfulness as a buffer to technostress stressors as well as a mechanism that can mitigate the negative consequences arising from extended ICT usage within organizational settings. By following a survey based approach and exploring a sample of 440 working individuals, our SEM analysis revealed that IT mindfulness constitutes a potential further mechanism that can effectively reduce technostress conditions, enhance user satisfaction while utilizing ICT’s for work tasks and improve task performance. Further research is proposed into expanding the proposed model, exploring the influence of IT mindfulness on additional organizational outcomes. Keywords IT Mindfulness, Technostress, stressors, ICT, organization

Technostress Creators and Employee’s Well-Being at a Telecommunication Company in Sarawak, Malaysia

There are many benefits of technology in the workplace, such as an increase in productivity and knowledge acquisition. However, technological advancement in the workplace may cause technostress. The term technostress refers to the negative psychological relationship between people and adopting new technologies. Technostress occurs when people cannot adequately adapt to or interact with information technologies. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between five technostress creators, namely, techno-overload, techno-invasions, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty towards employee well-being at one Telecommunication Company in Sarawak, Malaysia. The respondents of this cross-sectional quantitative study were 141 individual employees. Data were collected using convenience sampling by utilizing a Google form that was distributed to all populations under the study. The findings of this research indicate a strong relationship between all technostress creators and the well-being of employees. Thus, this research adds to the knowledge of the relationships between technostress creators and employees’ well-being in the workplace. Since the research found that the most prevailing independent variable in this research study is techno-invasion, thus, this research recommended that the company provide guidelines on ICTs use outside of work and take action to limit such work-related interruptions

Socio-technical analysis and design of digital workplaces to foster employee health

Recent socio-technical developments caused by ongoing digitalization (e.g., robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, anthropomorphic systems) or the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., an increasing number of remote working employees and hence, increasing number of virtual collaboration) change the work environment and culture. Digital and smart workplace technol-ogies facilitate business processes and provide tools for efficient communication and (virtual) collaboration, “increasing the productivity of the workforce in the information age” (Attaran et al. 2019, p. 1). Especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technologies play a crucial role in keeping us socially close, connected, and collaborative while increasing the phys-ical distance between humans. However, this development affects the health of employees (Tarafdar et al. 2013). In research, for example, it has long been known that the increased usage of digital technologies and media (DTM) may cause stress, leading to potentially harmful reac-tions in individuals. Research has noted this specific form of stress as technostress (Ayyagari et al. 2011; Tarafdar et al. 2007; Tarafdar et al. 2011; Tarafdar et al. 2019), which is an umbrella term for causes, negative organizational outcomes, and negative humanistic outcomes resulting from the use of DTM at work. The simultaneous consideration of humanistic (e.g., well-being, equality) and organizational outcomes (e.g., efficiency, productivity) is an integral part of a socio-technical system (Beath et al. 2013; Mumford 2006), which is at the core of the IS discipline (Bostrom et al. 2009; Chiasson and Davidson 2005). However, a review from Sarker et al. (2019) regarding published research articles in one of the top journals within the IS community revealed that most reviewed studies (91%) had focused exclusively on instrumental goals. They conclude that “many IS researchers have forgotten or ignored the premise that technologies need to benefit humankind overall (Majchrzak et al. 2016), not just their economic condition” (Sarker et al. 2019, p. 705). Especially as humanistic outcomes can lead to even more positive instrumental outcomes. Hence, Sarker et al. (2019) call for focusing on the connection between humanistic and instru-mental outcomes, enabling a positive synergy resulting from this interplay. For this reason, this dissertation adopts a socio-technical perspective. It aims to conduct re-search that links instrumental outcomes with humanistic objectives to ultimately achieve a healthier use of DTMs at the digital workplace. It is important to note that the socio-technical perspective considers both the technical component and the social component privileging nei-ther one of them and sees outcomes resulting from the reciprocal interaction between those two.Therefore, the dissertation focuses on the interaction while applying pluralistic methodological approaches from qualitative (e.g., semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions) and quantitative research (e.g., collection from a field study or survey research). It provides a theo-retical contribution applying both behavioral research (i.e., analysis of cause-and-effect rela-tionships) and design-oriented research (i.e., instructions for designing socio-technical information systems). Overall, this work addresses four different areas within the reciprocal interaction between the social and technical components: the role of the technical component, the role of the social component, DTMs fostering a fit between the technical and social compo-nents, and the imminent misfit between these two due to ongoing digitalization. First, to contribute to an understanding of the technical component’s role, this thesis presents new knowledge on the characteristics and features of DTM and their influence on employee health and productivity. Research on the design of digital workplaces examined different design approaches, in which information exchange and sharing documents or project support were regarded (Williams and Schubert 2018). However, the characteristics of DTM also play an es-sential role in the emergence of technostress (Dardas and Ahmad 2015). This thesis presents ten characteristics of DTM that affect technostress at an individual’s workplace, including a measurement scale and analysis on how these characteristics affect technostress. Besides, also, the provision of functional features by DTMs can affect instrumental outcomes or humanistic objectives. For example, affording users with certain kinds of autonomy regarding the config-uration of DTM while they work towards their goals could have a tremendous effect on pursu-ing goals and well-being (Patall et al. 2008; Ryan and Deci 2000). Therefore, this thesis presents knowledge regarding the design of DTM on the benefits of affording users with autonomy. Furthermore, it shows that merely affording more autonomy can have positive effects above and beyond the positive effects of the actualization of affordance. Second, to contribute to an understanding of the social component’s role, this thesis presents new knowledge on contextual and individual factors of social circumstances and their influence on employee health and productivity. In this context, the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the intensity of technostress among employees is considered, as work became more digital almost overnight. Therefore, this thesis provides empirical insights into digital work and its context in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on employees’ well-being, health, and productivity. Furthermore, measures to steer the identified effects if the situation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic persists or comparable disruptive situations should re-occur are discussed. On the other hand, this research takes a closer look at the effect of an individual preference regarding coping styles in dealing with upcoming technostress. A distinction is made between the effects of two different coping styles, namely active-functional and dysfunctional, on strain as a humanistic outcome and productivity as an instrumental outcome. In the course of this, evidence is provided that coping moderates the relationship between the misfit within the socio-technical system and strain as proposed by the psychological theory of job demands-resources model (Demerouti et al. 2001). Third, to contribute to a successful fit between the technical and social components, this thesis presents frameworks and guidelines on the design of DTM, which understand the social com-ponent (here the user and her/his environment) and adjust accordingly to the needs of their users. Therefore, the thesis provides knowledge on the design of DTMs that support users in applying stress management techniques and build the foundation for stress-sensitive systems (i.e., systems that aim to mitigate stress by applying intervention measures on the social and technical component (Adam et al. 2017)). As a matter of fact, a framework for collecting and storing data (e.g., on the user and her/his environment) is developed and experiences with im-plementing a prototype for life-integrated stress assessment are reported. The experiences from this and the existing knowledge in the literature will finally be aggregated to a mid-range design theory for mobile stress assessment. To contribute to the fourth and last aspect, the imminent misfit within the socio-technical sys-tem due to ongoing digitalization, this thesis presents new knowledge regarding digital work demands that potentially affect both employees’ health and instrumental outcomes. The current version of technostress’s theoretical foundation was introduced more than ten years ago by Tarafdar et al. (2007). However, the interaction with and use of DTM has considerably changed along with the societal and individual expectations. Therefore, this thesis puts the current con-cept of technostress to test. As a result, a new theory of digital stress, as an extension of the concept of technostress, is proposed with twelve dimensions – instead of five dimensions within the concept of Tarafdar et al. (2007) – that could be hierarchically structured in four higher-order factors. This theory holistically addresses the current challenges that employees have to deal with digitalization. To sum up, this dissertation contributes to the IS community’s knowledge base by providing knowledge regarding the interaction between employees and their digital workplace to foster the achievement of humanistic and instrumental outcomes. It provides both behavioral research and design-oriented research while using pluralistic methodological approaches. For this pur-pose, this thesis presents knowledge about the different components within the socio-technical system, design knowledge on DTMs fostering the fit between these components, and an under-standing of an upcoming misfit due to the ongoing digitalization. Overall, this research aims to support the successful change towards a healthy digital workplace in the face of digitalization