Business and Management
Topic:
The impact of technostress on role stress and productivity: The case of Qatar
ABSTRACT
In the recent past, the workplace environment has experienced huge changes due to the increased adoption of information technology and the resulting digital transformation. However, this development also poses a great danger to organizations and their workforce through the abuse, misuse, or overuse of this technology, leading to technostress. As such, this study aims to investigate the impact of technostress on job satisfaction and performance as well as organizational commitment. The study hypothesis is that of technostress lowers job satisfaction, performance, and organizational commitment within an organization. The methodology adopted for this study is to examine the most current literature and other related research studies in Qatar touching on this subject of technostress in the work environment. The results of this research established that organizational commitment tends to have an immense positive effect on an organization’s perceived performance. Additionally, job satisfaction tends to have a positive effect on overall organizational commitment. As such, technostress creator’s impact on job satisfaction tends to be significantly negative while technostress inhibitors’ impact of job satisfaction is significantly positive.
Background
Today is has become inevitable for the organization to adopt information technology and integrate the resulting digital transformation into their everyday operations. However, these developments tend to have serious effects on their daily activities and lives of an organization’s workforce or employees. According to Barley, Meyerson, and Grodal (2011), modern organizations have benefited immensely by integrating information technology into their operations because the effectiveness and productivity of their employees have increased significantly. Although Barley, Meyerson, and Grodal (2011) admit that these benefits exist, he notes that the same technology has brought about some challenges like health problems and stress on employees within an organization. Based on this understanding, we can conclude that information technology cuts in both ways because although it enhances communication through collaborative technologies like voicemails and instant messaging, the dark side is that it may lead to increased stress within an organization’s workforce. The fact that employees are now under immense pressure to respond to numerous work-related messages can lead to increased stress and health-related complications, resulting in a condition known as technostress.
According to Brod (2014), technostress can be described as the negative effects that often result from increases use, misuse, or abuse of ICT and related technologies. Brod (2014) further adds that the negative effects associated with technostress can lead to a person or employee in any organization experiencing deteriorating psychological state and gives examples such as loss of concentration, insomnia, headaches, among others. As such, technostress arises from the information technology users attempts to cope with the social and cognitive obligations associated with this use. Finally, notes that with the increased expansion and adoption of information and communication technology in modern organizations, the effects associated with technostress have also been on a sharp increase. This development points to an alarming trend that requires further investigations so that appropriate action can be taken to cease or mitigate it.
Although technostress is an issue that has been studied extensively, there is very little published research about it. However, researchers like Simosi (2013) have managed to document research about technostress and also illustrate its effects. According to Simosi (2013), most people experiencing technostress tend to have low job satisfaction or fulfillment level which makes them less committed or interested in working for their organization. However, although Simosi, (2013) has exposed the impact of technostress on employees and the effects it has on any organization, he has failed to demonstrate the exact technologies characteristics likely to lead to this kind of stress. Simosi (2013) gives an example of issues like techno-overload which is a term used to demonstrate technostress and it emphasizes that technology tends to result in a heavy workload. Such unclear conceptualization of technostress is what makes it difficult for most employers and other relevant stakeholders to understand the issues at hand precisely thus acting as a hindrance to putting in place effective measures that can address this problem.
For organizations to enjoy the benefits associated with an advanced information technology environment there is a need to comprehend the issues associated with technostress on an organization’s workforce commitment, perceived performance, and satisfaction. According to various researches on the topic, there exists a negative correlation between employee performance and job satisfaction and technostress. For instance, Tarafdar and Ragu-Nathan (2007) argue that there exists a negative correlation between employee productivity and technostress. Moreover, Tarafdar and Ragu-Nathan (2007) add that technostress is known to decrease job innovation, commitment, and satisfaction among employees because they have to increase their interactions with various information technology gadgets constantly. These issues highlight the fact that technostress remains a serious problem affecting modern organization’s workforce and needs to be dealt with effectively to ensure that they capitalize on the benefits associated with this technology without being hindered by its side effects.
Finally, one limiting factor about the current research studies about technostress is that it was mainly carried out in developed countries while very little research has been done in the developing world. As such, undertaking this study in a country like Qatar will offer a good benchmark of how the issue of technostress affects emerging countries. As such, this study will add to the already existing about the subject of technostress by highlighting its influence on perceived performance, organization commitment, and overall job satisfaction.
Objectives
The primary objective of this research is to investigate the impact of technostress on job satisfaction and performance as well as organizational commitment especially in emerging countries like Qatar. Undertaking this study will allow for the development of new techniques that can be used to alleviate technostress effects on modern organization’s workforce in Qatar through the establishment of the most significant technostress inhibitors. This objective will be realized through examining the most current literature and other related research studies in Qatar touching on this subject matter. The study hypothesis is that of technostress lowers job satisfaction, performance, and organizational commitment within an organization. The study hypothesis will be used to outline the expected outcome of the study while the methodology will highlight the various techniques used to gather information about the study to arrive at the conclusion made. A discussion of the study will follow to outline the observation made from the research and also outline the limitations experienced in the process. These steps will go a long way in helping this research process realize its identified goals and objectives.
Methodology
This research study adopted a qualitative study design where relevant information was obtained from different research studies. In this case, only one main work packages were undertaken for this study. This work package focused on establishing the background and literature review of technostress on an organization’s workforce commitment, perceived performance, and satisfaction.
The key tasks involved in this work package involved;
T1: Collecting research articles
This involved collecting all the relevant research articles on technostress with a key focus being on those detailing studies done in Qatar.
T2: Reading and examining research articles
Once, the process of collecting these research articles was complete, the next task was to read and examine these articles. Short notes were made from each article which would then be used to write the final literal survey of the research report. This objective will be realized through examining the most current literature and other related research studies in Qatar touching on this subject matter.
T3: Writing a literature survey.
This was the final step and it involved coming up with a research survey that detailed all the relevant key points from the collected research articles.
Impact
According to the findings of this study, organizational commitment plays a huge role in enhancing perceived performance as evidenced through the research work done by Testa (2011). This research found that most employees tend to enthusiastic to show commitment to their organization which maximizes productivity and the overall reputation of an organization. Testa (2011) work further emphasis on this position by establishing that highly committed employees tend to be more productive in their work. With an increased commitment in any organization, the turnover rate increases significantly thus allowing such organizations to be competitive within their respective industries.
Another key finding from this study is that job satisfaction also plays a huge role in promoting organizational commitment. According to Dixit and Bhati (2012) job satisfaction enhances organizational commitment because most employees are more willing or open to be involved in the decision making process in their organizations when they are already satisfied with their work. Additionally, a happy workforce means that most employees are comfortable and satisfied with their job which helps to lower the turnover rate within an organization (Dixit & Bhati, 2012). Moreover, employees who are highly committed in their work can easily embrace an organization’s goals and values which serve to benefit the organization (Dixit & Bhati, 2012). Such employees tend to be more dedicated to helping their organizations accomplish their goals and objectives. As such, modern organizations should strive to enhance job satisfaction in their organizations to enhance commitment levels.
Several crucial implications emerge from this study. First, it is that future studies should utilize alternate techniques to measure the level of technostress within an organization, and this can be done by establishing that it is done before and after a new technology is introduced. Additionally, demographic factors should also be applied to identify technostress creators as well as their inhibitors. For instance, future researchers on the topic could focus their attention on possible stressful effects of a particular technology to the end-users during particular times of a year. Finally, future research should also seek to establish the effects of technostress while considering the technology involved such as tablets, phones, or computers. While this study primarily focused on Qatar, future studies should also explore other jurisdictions within the emerging world to have a broader picture of the situation in similar areas. Adopting such strategies ensures that this research study can be used as a benchmark for carrying out comparative studies on the impact of technostress between the emerging and developed worlds.
The findings of this study also have very useful implications for practitioners. For instance, future organizational managers will have to put in more effort to enhance the commitment of their employees through the use of developed models that can assess technostress levels. Moreover, the research findings also establish that job satisfaction tends to have a positive influence on an organization’s commitment levels. Finally, the research established that job satisfaction tends to influence organizational commitment positively. As such, engaging employees in different phases of technology testing and initiation ensures that technostress creators are reduced significantly which results in increased job satisfaction and commitment.
Conclusion
From the foregoing, technostress lowers job satisfaction, performance, and organizational commitment within an organization. This research managed to establish that organizational commitment tends to have an immense positive effect on an organization’s perceived performance. Additionally, job satisfaction tends to have a positive effect on overall organizational commitment. Job satisfaction enhances organizational commitment because most employees are more willing or open to be involved in the decision making process in their organizations when they are already satisfied with their work. Additionally, a happy workforce means that most employees are comfortable and satisfied with their job which helps to lower the turnover rate within an organization. As such, technostress creator’s impact on job satisfaction tends to be significantly negative while technostress inhibitors’ impact of job satisfaction is significantly positive. Undertaking this study will allow for the development of new techniques that can be used to alleviate technostress effects on modern organization’s workforce in Qatar through the establishment of the most significant technostress inhibitors. This study implies that future researchers on the topic could focus their attention on possible stressful effects of a particular technology to the end-users during particular times of a year. Additionally, future research should also seek to establish the effects of technostress while considering the technology involved such as tablets, phones, or computers. While this study primarily focused on Qatar, future studies should also explore other jurisdictions within the emerging world to have a broader picture of the situation in similar areas.
Timeline
Weeks
WPs
W1 w2 w3
WP1 Background and Literature Review Collecting Research Articles Reading And Examining Research Articles Writing A Literature Survey
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