The impact of self-esteem, conscientiousness and pseudo-personality on technostress

Abstract

PurposeThe authors investigated how personality traits are associated with workplace technostress (perception of stressors related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected 95 self-rated and 336 observer-rated questionnaires using the personality audit and a shortened version of the technostress scale. To analyze relationships between personality dimensions and technostress, the authors applied partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThis study shows that in line with previous studies, self-esteem is negatively related to levels of technostress. Contrary to our expectations, conscientiousness is positively related to technostress. Finally, the gap between a person's self-ratings and observer ratings in all personality dimensions is positively associated with technostress.Practical implicationsThe authors showed that the experience of technostress varies significantly amongst individuals. By taking personality differences into account when allocating responsibilities and creating guidelines for ICT use at work, technostress could be addressed. Instead of setting organization-wide norms for availability and use, the authors suggest it would be more effective to acknowledge individual needs and preferences.Originality/valueThis study contributes to current technostress research by further examining antecedents and by focusing on the role of personality. In addition, the authors examined how differences in “self” and “observer” ratings of personality characteristics may point to variations in the way individuals experience technostress. The authors outlined concrete best practice guidelines for ICTs in organizations that take interindividual differences into account.

Enforced remote working: The impact of digital platform-induced stress and remote working experience on technology exhaustion and subjective wellbeing

“…the home environment). But the current literature on technostress ( Tarafdar et al, 2019 , Khedhaouria and Cucchi, 2019 , Korzynski et al, 2020 , Yener et al, 2020 ) has offered little in terms of comparative assessment of these two different types of technostress. Drawing on theoretical lenses of the stressor-strain-outcome ( Ragu-Nathan et al, 2008 ) and resource-experiences-demands models ( Salanova et al, 2011 ), we address this research gap by merging the two parallel but related streams of research on technostress.…”

Teleworking and technostress: early consequences of a COVID-19 lockdown

“…Technostress research has used the techno-stressors defined by Tarafdar et al ( 2011 ) or Ayyagari et al ( 2011 ) to analyze their work-related antecedents and consequences. In terms of antecedents, studies have found different organizational environments (e.g., decision centralization; Wang et al 2008 ), job characteristics (e.g., job autonomy; Suh & Lee, 2017 ), technology features (e.g., complexity; Qi, 2019 ), and personal characteristics, such as demographics (e.g., age or gender; Marchiori et al 2019 ), attitudes (e.g., dispositions to job; Bala and Bhagwatwar 2018 ), personality (e.g., extraversion; Korzynski et al 2020 ), or cultural values (Ma and Turel 2018 ), to be drivers of technostress. In terms of consequences, technostress produces strain (Galluch et al 2015 ; Lee et al 2016a ) and affects negatively other outcomes, such as technology end-user satisfaction (Fuglseth and Sørebø 2014 ; Tarafdar et al 2011 ; Tu et al 2008 ), job satisfaction (Jena 2015 ; Kumar et al 2013 ; Ragu-Nathan et al 2008 ), performance (Ioannou and Papazafeiropoulou 2017 ; Jena 2015 ; Li and Wang 2021 ), and organizational commitment (Jena, 2015 ; Tarafdar et al 2011 ).…”

How technostress and self-control of social networking sites affect academic achievement and wellbeing

“…The outcomes linked to technostress are called strain responses and can be psychological, behavioral or physiological (Ayyagari et al, 2011;Ragu-Nathan et al, 2008). Studies conclude that people reporting elevated levels of technostress are more likely to suffer the psychological strains of diminished commitment (Tarafdar et al, 2010(Tarafdar et al, , 2015, poor selfesteem (Korzynski et al, 2020), dissatisfaction with the IT system (Tams et al, 2020), harmful psychological responses (Riedl et al, 2012), burnout (Afifi et al, 2018) and lower job satisfaction (Califf and Sarker, 2020;Suh and Lee, 2017). While studies of technostress generally rely on self-reported data, physiological studies have also demonstrated that stress hormones cortisol and alpha amylase increase with IT-mediated interruptions (Tams et al, 2018), IT system breakdown (Riedl et al, 2012) and extensive exposure to IT applications (Afifi et al, 2018).…”