How To Reduce ‘Techno-Stress’ At Workplace? INSEAD Study Seeks Answers

While smart phones and social media platforms help people remain in touch, both at work and leisure, ‘techno-stress’ levels are on the rise. Research at INSEAD has identified how it affects different personality types and steps that could be taken by employers to ensure that workers remain productive and happy.

The word ‘techo-stress’ was coined way back in 1984, when digital communication technology was practically in its infancy, to describe the nervous tension arising from its overuse.

Five factors were also identified as responsible for creating techno-stress. These were techno-overload, situations with higher workload generated by ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies); techno-invasion, their invasive impact on personal life; techno-complexity, difficulty in learning to use such technologies; techno-insecurity, situations in which users’ jobs are under threat by the technology and techno-uncertainty, related to new developments in the field.

An INSEAD Working Paper, “You and Your Technostress: Relating Personality Dimensions to CT-Related Stress” by Pavel Korzynski, Elizabeth Florent-Treacy and Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, assessed specific personality traits affected each of these factors.

Five factors were also identified as responsible for creating techno-stress. These were techno-overload, situations with higher workload generated by ICTs; techno-invasion, their invasive impact on personal life; techno-complexity, difficulty in learning to use such technologies; techno-insecurity, situations in which users’ jobs are under threat by the technology and techno-uncertainty, related to new developments in the field.

While smart phones and social media platforms help people remain in touch, both at work and leisure, ‘techno-stress’ levels are on the rise. Research at INSEAD has identified how it affects different personality types and steps that could be taken by employers to ensure that workers remain productive and happy.

During the research, they distributed two questionnaires among people the first of which captured their perceived level of techno-stress, the second one being a Personality Audit, a 360° feedback survey that looked at personality traits.

The researchers analysed the responses from 49 self-rated technostress surveys, and 152 observer-rated Personality Audit questionnaires, to identify specific personality traits that factor into the human cost of digitisation and came up with “some surprising insights”.

One of the findings was that it was hard for one person to assess how much techno-stress another person was feeling. Also, introverts and pseudo-introverts (those who have learnt to display extrovert behaviour when necessary) derived more benefit from the use of ICTs and experienced lower levels of techno-invasion.

This was attributed to the possibility of ICTs allowing them to communicate with a broader audience without having to be physically present in large social gatherings.

The more highly extroverted people tend to suffer from techno-overload while those with high self-esteem were less likely to suffer from techno-insecurity or fear of losing their job to individuals with greater technical skills.

Pseudo-conscientious individuals (those whose observer rating on the dimension of “conscientiousness” is higher than their self-rating) were found to have a lower level of techno-invasion.

Highly conscientiousness or fastidious people were more likely to have higher levels of techno-insecurity, suggesting that ICTs may have a negative influence on their well-organised work life.

The researchers said it was surprising to note that an individual’s availability through ICTs (that is, the time they are “connected” and able to receive and respond to email, answer a call, or see an update from a colleague on an online networking platform) and their discerning use of ICTs (through choice rather than obligation), while co-related, actually had opposite impacts on techno-invasion.

“We found respondents in the study who made themselves constantly and readily available through ICTs were more likely to be impacted by “techno-invasion”. On the other hand, people who regularly used ICTs, but at their own discretion, were less negatively impacted by techno-invasion, possibly because they had more positive feelings about the use of the technology and felt able to control how and when they used it.

They drew the conclusion that pseudo-conscientious people and pseudo-extraverts were better at using ICTs more strategically. People with these personality traits were more skilled at managing availability, thereby reducing their feeling of techno-invasion.

ICTs being part of modern office life, support many positive organisational transformations, offer greater flexibility, networking opportunities, and increased engagement. Thus, the way to reduce techno-stress would be by taking into account personality differences when allocating responsibilities and creating guidelines for ICT use.

ICTs may suit introvert team members while for extroverts, face-to-face communication could help alleviate their fear of missing out if not permanently “connected” and reduce their techno-overload.

Highly conscientious individuals exhibit increased levels of techno-insecurity and should not be assigned to ICT-intensive roles. They could also be assisted during a learning transition in order to gain confidence and control over ICTs.

“We also noted other intriguing links between technostress dimensions and personality traits. For example, people who self-report frequent use of ICTs appear to have a higher level of self-esteem, according to their observers,” the researchers said.

ALSO READ: Efforts On To Make GMAT More Innovative And Stress Free

Individuals who say they trust others, also self-report a high level of use of ICTs. On the other hand, people who self-report a high level of availability are seen to be rather low-spirited, according to their observers. This finding raises further questions about whether some people might connect through ICTs to build their self-esteem or to cheer themselves up.

The researchers suggest that instead of implying that employees have to be available 24X7 or setting rigid, organisation-wide norms, leaders could help people understand their individual preferences, and allow them the flexibility and training to best adapt their own optimal way to use ICTs. In this way people will see ICTs as helpful tools that come with options and choices, rather than an additional source of stress and anxiety.

Pawel Korzynski is Visiting Scholar at INSEAD and Assistant Professor at Kozminski University, Poland. Elizabeth Florent-Treacy is Senior Lecturer, INSEAD Executive Degree Programmes and Dutch Alumni Fund Research Fellow. Manfred Kets De Vries is the Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development & Organisational Change at INSEAD and The Raoul de Vitry d’Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus. (Image Courtesy:  pixabay.com)