Investigating the impact of IT-mediated information interruption on emotional exhaustion in the workplace

Xusen Cheng,Alex Zarifis,Ying Bao

doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2020.102281

Abstract

Information technology-mediated interruptions have become widespread and ubiquitous in the workplace. However, our understanding of how these interruptions and individuals’ interruption processing mechanism impact individuals’ performance, especially psychological performance, is still limited. Leveraging Conservation of Resources Theory, this study focused on two types of IT-mediated information interruptions (congruent and incongruent) and examined the moderating effects of different process mechanisms on the relationship between information interruptions and individuals’ interruption overload. A multi-methods research design was conducted in this study: a qualitative study with 20 interviews in Study 1 and a quantitative study with 345 surveys in Study 2. The results show a positive indirect effect of IT-mediated information interruption on emotional exhaustion through interruption overload. Results also review the moderation effects of different processing mechanisms. The findings of this study advance the current understanding of the “dark side” of online information behavior. Additionally, this study provides practical and theoretical implications for both employers and employees on how to process IT-mediated information interruptions in the workplace.

Highlights

Information technology-enabled connectivity can offer communication flexibility among people and has gradually become the main channels that people communicate with each other (Dennis, Fuller, & Valacich, 2008)
We mainly focus on two types of processing mechanisms of the IT-mediated information interruptions: sequential processing and preemptive processing
Supported Supported of the average variance extracted (AVE) of a construct should be larger than its inter-construct correlation with other constructs in the model (Henseler, 2017; Fornell, & Larcker, 1981)

Summary

Introduction

Information technology-enabled connectivity can offer communication flexibility among people and has gradually become the main channels that people communicate with each other (Dennis, Fuller, & Valacich, 2008). While the widespread of IT (information technology)-mediated channels bring convenience to people, it produces some “dark side” and negative consequences such as frequent information interruptions, especially in the workplace (Gupta, Li, & Sharda, 2013; Addas & Pinsonneault, 2015). Due to the nature of the technical devices, IT-mediated information interruptions can occur anywhere and at any possible time (Chen & Karahanna, 2014). Some of the IT-mediated information interruptions are minuscule and take only a few minutes, as they become more frequent and their numbers accumulate, they may cost a high price (Chen & Karahanna, 2018). IT-mediated in formation interruptions have been ubiquitous in the workplace. Individuals may get interrupted every 11 minutes. The average times of viewing the phones in one day is 52, the figure of e-mails being sent daily in the world is about 333 billion

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