Worker stress in the age of mobile technology: The combined effects of perceived interruption overload and worker control

A design evaluation tool for older adults using domestic information processing appliances

Domestic information processing appliances include embedded digital technologies with which users interact. The designs of such appliances tend to be technology oriented and not well-suited to the needs of older adults. This is problematic because these appliances are essential in many activities of daily living and so affect the ability of people to live independently. This paper introduces a coding scheme for the analysis of users' interactions with such appliances and uses it to inform recommendations for the design of operational interfaces and associated instructional materials. The efficacy of the coding scheme as a design evaluation tool is illustrated by its application in a microwave oven case study. The coding scheme considers four aspects of users' interactions with this type of device: information processing activities, including the gathering and interpretation of information from the appliance, its user manual and cooking instructions from food packaging; interactions with the device's user interface; concurrent verbalisation supporting problem-solving; and impediments to the user's workflow.

Work interruptions of office workers: The influence of the complexity of primary work tasks on the perception of interruptions

BACKGROUND

Research demonstrates that work interruptions are considered one of the most common work stressors. Understanding the mechanisms of work interruptions is therefore vital to reducing worker stress and maintaining performance.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of the frequency of work interruptions on subjective workload in the context of office work. Specifically, the mediating influence of interruption perception as well as the moderating influence of the complexity of the primary task are examined.

METHOD

The work interruptions of 492 office workers in Germany were collected by means of a one-day diary study. A mediation model and a conditional indirect effect model were calculated to examine the influence of interruption frequency on subjective workload, mediated by the individual perception of these interruptions as well as moderated by the complexity of the primary work tasks.

RESULTS

The analyses indicated a significant mediation and moderation. This implies that, on the one hand, the perception of work interruptions significantly mediates the relationship between the frequency of work interruptions and subjective workload. On the other hand, more complex primary work tasks seem to strengthen the positive relationship between interruption frequency and perceived interruption overload.

CONCLUSION

The study underlines that work interruptions need to be considered in a much more differentiated way than is currently the case. Both in research and in terms of intervention measures in the work context, the various influencing factors need to be identified for an assessment of the effects on the working person to be possible.

Work intensification: A systematic review of studies from 1989 to 2022

BACKGROUND

Work intensification can lead to both work-related and non-work-related outcomes that positively and negatively affect the employee, organization, and job in question. The criticality of this phenomena necessitates conducting a systematic review to capture the essence of the extant literature.

OBJECTIVE

This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on work intensification from 1989 to 2022. It reviews the conceptualization of the construct, explores the factors influencing work intensification, identifies its outcomes, moderators, and mediators, and provides a review of the theories that have been used to support the phenomena of work intensification.

METHODS

The systematic review employed the PRISMA approach to screen 2823 records from the Web of Science database and extract 74 quantitative studies for final examination.

RESULTS

Firstly, work intensification has primarily been conceptualized through various constructs such as workload, long work hours, and time pressure. Secondly, there are well-established positive and negative outcomes associated with work intensification, either directly or through mediators. Thirdly, both the conservation of resource theory and the job-demands resource theory are widely utilized to support models related to work intensification.

CONCLUSION

The study urges practitioners to enhance their efforts in effectively managing employees' intensified work demands, particularly in relation to work overload, working hours, and time pressure. By addressing these factors, organizations can minimize negative outcomes and promote positive consequences.

Negative psychological and physiological effects of social networking site use: The example of Facebook

Social networking sites (SNS), with Facebook as a prominent example, have become an integral part of our daily lives and more than four billion people worldwide use SNS. However, the (over-)use of SNS also poses both psychological and physiological risks. In the present article, we review the scientific literature on the risk of Facebook (over-)use. Addressing this topic is critical because evidence indicates the development of problematic Facebook use ("Facebook addiction") due to excessive and uncontrolled use behavior with various psychological and physiological effects. We conducted a review to examine the scope, range, and nature of prior empirical research on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Our literature search process revealed a total of 232 papers showing that Facebook use is associated with eight major psychological effects (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological effects (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state). The review also describes how Facebook use is associated with these effects and provides additional details on the reviewed literature, including research design, sample, age, and measures. Please note that the term "Facebook use" represents an umbrella term in the present work, and in the respective sections it will be made clear what kind of Facebook use is associated with a myriad of investigated psychological variables. Overall, findings indicate that certain kinds of Facebook use may come along with significant risks, both psychologically and physiologically. Based on our review, we also identify potential avenues for future research.

Transcultural Comparison of Mental Health and Work-Life Integration Blurring in the Brazilian and Spanish Populations during COVID-19

The study aimed to compare the impact of Role Blurring on mental health and Work-Life Integration in the Brazilian and Spanish populations during COVID-19. Role Blurring, which is related to resources and demands in the work context, affects coping with stressors arising from role overlapping and impacts individuals' perception of work overload and mental health. The sample consisted of 877 adults from Spain (n = 498) and Brazil (n = 372), and various statistical analyses were conducted to compare the groups. Results showed that Role Blurring is linked to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, as well as suicidal ideation. Therefore, it is essential to promote working conditions that limit expectations on availability and favor disconnection from work during leisure time. Public policies that intervene, promote, and prevent psychosocial risk factors in emergent contexts are crucial to prevent suicidal ideation and attempts. Considering the high expected influence of Blurring as a focus of interventions can be reflected in the medium term in the indicators of well-being and satisfaction of companies, institutions and organizations. This can result in the reduction of health costs aimed at cushioning post-COVID-19 impacts on mental health. The study is relevant to understand the impact of the pandemic and technology on mental health and suggests the need for interventions to promote work-life balance and prevent psychosocial risks.

A Narrative Review of Commercial Platforms Offering Tracking of Heart Rate Variability in Corporate Employees to Detect and Manage Stress

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in employees being at risk of significant stress. There is increased interest by employers to offer employees stress monitoring via third party commercial sensor-based devices. These devices assess physiological parameters such as heart rate variability and are marketed as an indirect measure of the cardiac autonomic nervous system. Stress is correlated with an increase in sympathetic nervous activity that may be associated with an acute or chronic stress response. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that individuals affected with COVID will have some residual autonomic dysfunction that will likely render it difficult to track both stress and stress reduction using heart rate variability. The aims of the present study are to explore web and blog information using five operational commercial technology solution platforms that offer heart rate variability for stress detection. Across five platforms we found a number that combined HRV with other biometrics to assess stress. The type of stress being measured was not defined. Importantly, no company considered cardiac autonomic dysfunction because of post-COVID infection and only one other company mentioned other factors affecting the cardiac autonomic nervous system and how this may impact HRV accuracy. All companies suggested they could only assess associations with stress and were careful not to claim HRV could diagnosis stress. We recommend that managers think carefully about whether HRV is accurate enough for their employees to manage their stress during COVID.

TElewoRk-RelAted Stress (TERRA), Psychological and Physical Strain of Working From Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Many workers shifted to working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This review aims to investigate if this sudden change caused an increase in TElewoRk-RelAted stress (TERRA) which is defined as physical and mental stress caused by telework.

METHODS

A systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was performed of three scientific databases (PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Scopus), which also included a quality assessment. Articles measuring stress, psychological or physical, in remote workers, published from December 2019 through August 2021 were included in the review. Results were extracted by reporting: authors, country, study design, type of workers, sample, questionnaires and measurements, and outcomes. Data were synthesized quantitatively for country, type of workers, and outcomes.

RESULTS

Out of the 518 articles found in the three databases, 19 articles were included in the systematic review (10,012 participants overall), and 78.9% of these highlighted an increase in TERRA levels in remote workers. Among 85.7% of the studies considering gender as a variable, TERRA levels were higher in female workers. Twelve (63.2%) of the studies investigated psychological well-being, two (10.5%) focused on the physical well-being of remote workers, three (15.8%) investigated both, and two studies had other outcomes (10.5%).

CONCLUSIONS

Considering the redefinition of workplaces dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this review highlights the emerging issue of remote work and the use of technology in working from home, emphasizing a rapidly growing occupational health problem. Remote workers need to be provided with emotional and technical support to prevent TERRA in remote workers.

Information and communication technologies-assisted after-hours work: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of the relationships with work-family/life management variables

The phenomenon of information and communication technology (ICT)-assisted after-hours work has led to rising academic interest in examining its impact on workers' lives. ICT-assisted after-hours work may intrude on the home domain and contribute to higher work-family/life conflict, lower work-family/life balance, or higher work-family/life enrichment (the last one owing to the acquisition of competencies transferable to the home domain). Additionally, owing to cultural and societal differences in gender roles, the relationships between ICT-assisted after-hours work and work-family/life management variables may differ between female and male workers. To analyze the current empirical findings, this study performed a literature review with 38 articles and a meta-analysis with 37 articles. Our findings showed that ICT-assisted after-hours work was positively related to work-family/life enrichment (r = 0.335, p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.290, 0.406]), but also to work-family/life conflict (r = 0.335, p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.290, 0.406]). However, neither gender nor pre-/post-COVID significantly affect the relationship between ICT-assisted after-hours work and work-family/life conflict. Finally, future research and implications are discussed.

Interruption science as a research field: Towards a taxonomy of interruptions as a foundation for the field

Interruptions have become ubiquitous in both our personal and professional lives. Accordingly, research on interruptions has also increased steadily over time, and research published in various scientific disciplines has produced different perspectives, fundamental ideas, and conceptualizations of interruptions. However, the current state of research hampers a comprehensive overview of the concept of interruption, predominantly due to the fragmented nature of the existing literature. Reflecting on its genesis in the 1920s and the longstanding research on interruptions, along with recent technological, behavioral, and organizational developments, this paper provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of the various attributes of an interruption, which facilitates the establishment of interruption science as an interdisciplinary research field in the scientific landscape. To obtain an overview of the different interruption attributes, we conducted a systematic literature review with the goal of classifying interruptions. The outcome of our research process is a taxonomy of interruptions, constituting an important foundation for the field. Based on the taxonomy, we also present possible avenues for future research.

Professional social media-enabled productivity: a five-wave longitudinal study on the role of professional social media invasion, work engagement and work exhaustion

Purpose

Social media platforms are increasingly used at work to facilitate work-related activities and can either challenge or make people feel more productive at jobs. This study drew from technostress and employee well-being literature and analyzed longitudinal effects of professional social media (PSM) invasion, work engagement and work exhaustion on PSM-enabled productivity.

Design/methodology/approach

Nationally representative five-wave survey data of Finnish employees were analyzed with hybrid multilevel linear regression analysis. Outcome measure was PSM-enabled productivity and the predictors included PSM incqvasion, work exhaustion and work engagement. Age, gender, education, occupational sector, managerial position, remote work and personality traits were used as control variables.

Findings

PSM invasion and work engagement had both within-person and between-person effects on PSM-enabled productivity. Higher educated and individuals with open personality reported higher PSM-enabled productivity. No association between work exhaustion and PSM-enabled productivity was found.

Originality/value

The findings are central considering the increasing use of social media and other technologies for work purposes. The authors challenge the dominant view in the literature that has often seen PSM invasion as a negative factor. Instead, PSM invasion's positive association with PSM-enabled productivity and the association of work engagement and PSM-enabled productivity should be recognized in work life.

Competence transfer in virtual realities: Can virtual reality bring products and services together?

BACKGROUND: The virtual and real worlds of work are increasingly merging through digital transformation. This also applies to products and services. Virtual Reality (VR) with all its learning opportunities is a promising technology to improve workflows and enable transparency between different departments and organizations. This transparency is particularly important when it comes to preventing potentially dangerous work situations. OBJECTIVE: We investigate weaknesses in competence transfer processes between computer-aided designers and service employees connected in a hybrid value chain. On the one hand, designers receive only little feedback, hence are missing necessary evaluation to adjust their designs to empirical specifications. On the other hand, service employees, therefore, work with sometimes impractical machine designs which makes their work on-site unergonomic, dangerous, and more difficult. METHODS: We present a design science-driven, empirical approach to provide enhanced competence transfer with the help of VR. Thereby, we evaluate a self-developed VR demonstrator with an iterative approach consisting of 60 qualitative interviews. RESULTS: The developed VR demonstrator supports interorganizational sharing of (tacit) knowledge by enabling designers to take the service perspective and ensuring collaboration across organizational boundaries. By intentionally using VR technology as an interruption to the work, the design can be viewed from a service perspective and evaluated for occupational safety and health issues. CONCLUSIONS: The work process improvements achieved by the VR demonstrator enable early consideration of design issues that are particularly relevant to safety, thus ensuring greater occupational safety and health protection in the processes for service employees.

The influence of technostress, work–family conflict, and perceived organisational support on workplace flourishing amidst COVID-19

The remote working environment is characterised by excessive use of new technology and work activities that extend to personal time. It is expected of each employee to balance multiple roles whilst maintaining maximum performance and individual wellbeing; however, without adequate support from an organisation, employees languish instead of flourish. The current study applied a model to investigate the combined effect of technostress, work–family conflict, and perceived organisational support on workplace flourishing for higher education employees. The study followed a cross-sectional quantitative research framework. Data were collected from a sample of 227 academic and support staff employees from a selected residential University in South Africa. The results indicated that technostress through perceived organisational support and through work–family conflict influences workplace flourishing. No direct significant effect was reported between technostress and workplace flourishing. Technostress, work–family conflict, and perceived organisational support combined explained 47% variance in workplace flourishing. Perceived organisational support displayed the strongest direct effect on workplace flourishing, and technostress is a strong determinant of work–family conflict, which then mediates the relationship between technostress and workplace flourishing. The study concluded that providing organisational support and creating policies favourable to work–life balance assist employees in managing techno-overload, techno-invasion, and techno-complexity (technostress) better and enhance workplace flourishing. Although employees struggle in the remote working context with demands imposed by techno-overload, techno-invasion, and techno-complexity, the results indicate that perceived organisational support and balanced work life act as job resources that enhance emotional, psychological, and subjective wellbeing (workplace flourishing).

Enhancing Pharmacy Faculty Well-Being and Productivity While Reducing Burnout

Objective To explore methods that pharmacy programs can use to redefine their work environment to reduce stress, improve well-being, and increase faculty productivity.Findings To demonstrate a culture of support, organizations should consider a five-fold approach to enhancing and maintaining faculty well-being, including optimizing faculty and staff support, establishing a faculty development and mentoring program, permitting flexibility in work schedules, improving productivity of meetings, and managing communication tools. Individuals can also take measures to improve their well-being, including controlling email, giving attention to faculty citizenship, implementing stress reduction and coping techniques, and maintaining boundaries between work and home.Summary This article discusses approaches that have been shown to reduce burnout and provides strategies organizations and individuals can implement to improve productivity and faculty well-being. While certain areas, such as faculty wellness and productivity, have been well-studied in the pharmacy and health professions literature, significant gaps were identified in other areas, including alternate work arrangements. In some cases, data from the business sector can be extrapolated to pharmacy education; however, inferences from effective corporate strategies may not be transferable to the culture and expectations of academia. While there is significant overlap between institutional and individual strategies, a culture of communication, collaboration, support, and citizenship is foundational. There is no single strategy that will work for everyone, and flexibility is important to develop an individualized approach.

Moderating Effects of Self-Efficacy and Time Pressure on the Relationship Between Employee Aging and Work Performance

Purpose

The relationships among employee aging, working memory capacity, and task performance in the context of information technology were studied, and these investigations in turn provide insight into improving employee task performance and mitigating the negative effects of employee aging.

Participants and Methods

Based on the limited resource theory and the inhibitory deficit theory, a total of 296 valid questionnaires were collected and the relationships among the variables were examined using cascaded linear regression via SPSS 22.0.

Results

Aging negatively affects working memory capacity and task performance. Working memory capacity partially mediates the relationship between age and task performance. Time pressure can exacerbate the negative effects of age on task performance, and self-efficacy mitigates the negative effects of age on task performance.

Discussion

Employee information system learning and training can be enhanced to ameliorate the negative impact of aging on task performance. IT-related work can be limited to a manageable level to reduce the negative effects of reduced working memory capacity. Employees’ internal motivation can be gradually cultivated, and employees can be guided toward the improvement of their IT self-efficacy.

The mobile technological era: insights into the consequences of constant connectivity of personal devices by knowledge workers

Purpose

As employees’ adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has increased, so has research interest into the impact of BYOD on human resources outcomes. The present study aims at understanding the relationship between BYOD and human resources outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs the inductive data-driven content analysis approach to analyze the data collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews with a sample of 28 knowledge workers from different occupational sectors in Mauritius.

Findings

The results show the double-edged sword brought about by BYOD implementation. This trend is associated with perceived job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and work motivation while also having an effect on work-life conflict and stress.

Practical implications

This study has implications for organizations that are concerned about formulating guidelines and policies in relation to workers' adoption of BYOD in the workplace. This trend permits employees to continue to communicate and work irrespective of new working conditions and social distancing since the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way organizations operate around the globe.

Originality/value

Driven by the JD-R theory, themes and sub-themes were linked by the emerging relationships to present a conceptual framework to understanding employees' well-being since this is a pertinent research area for scholars and practitioners, as well as a topic of growing prominence for modern organizations.

Digitizing Social Counseling-Insights for Workplace Health Management

Working digitally can lead to changes in work organization and social interactions, as well as work pace and workload. Online counseling is more and more integrated in social counseling. Research exists on employees' and users' attitudes towards online counseling as well as on the advantages and disadvantages of online counseling. There is a lack of studies on the stressors and strains caused by the increasing digitalization and the associated health consequences in this context. With an interview study, we investigated the general work situation of counselors, with a focus on stressors, strain, and resources caused by online counseling. Consecutively, we discuss the results in relation to their impact on workplace health management. Twenty-two explorative interviews with counselors from a German welfare organization were conducted in 2019 and 2020. Qualitative content analysis according to Mayring was used for analysis. Counselors' use of online devices depends on their own digital affinity and is likely to be used when advantages for clients are seen. Difficulties were mentioned in establishing a relationship of trust with the clients. Good teamwork and regular informal exchanges among colleagues contribute to job satisfaction. Overall, we found only few health-related effects. Results of the study suggest that digitization can have positive effects on the job satisfaction of counselors, if the associated changes are supported by organizational measures.