Outcomes of Technostress at Work: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we provide the first meta-analysis of 96 empirical studies (N = 34,350) of technostress and its relationship with a wide range of employee outcomes. This novel analysis allowed us to sparse out the most prominent and powerful technostress effects in work-related settings. Significant negative relationships were found between technostress and employees’ job performance (ρ = –.07), innovation (ρ = –.20), job satisfaction (ρ = –.23), continuous usage intentions (ρ = –.34), and end-user satisfaction (ρ = –.32). While, technostress displayed significant and positive relationships with employees’ turnover intentions (ρ = .13), work engagement (ρ = .30), job burnout (ρ = .31), work-to-family conflict (ρ = .41), and techno-exhaustion (ρ = .60). In general, technostress demonstrated the strongest effects on health-related employee measures, followed by attitudinal and behavioral measures. Beyond providing estimates of population correlations, we addressed several important gaps in the technostress literature, including the role of methodological characteristics as moderators. Especially, we provide evidence for common method variance biasing the relationships between technostress and health-realted outcomes and discuss potential remedies.