An investigation of IT users' emotional responses to technostress creators

Abstract

While prior research on technostress has examined its different adverse effects, the role of emotion has largely been ignored. Emotions play a major role in individuals' beliefs and guide their behavior and decision-making process. Thus, it is essential to understand how IT users emotionally respond under the presence of technostress creators in the workplace. To that end, this paper seeks to identify different emotional responses induced by technostress creators. We surveyed 188 employees from different industries and used path modelling techniques to analyze the data. The results of the research show that techno-overload and techno-complexity are significant predictors of negative emotions. Moreover, while techno-complexity is negatively associated with positive emotions, techno- uncertainty was positively associated with positive emotions. The influences of other technostress creators, such as techno-invasion and techno-insecurity are less clear. More research is needed to identify outcomes of emotions associated with each technostress creator and to provide a foundation for effective managerial interventions.