Personality and espoused cultural differences in technostress creators

Abstract

This study examines the individual differences in ‘technostress creators'—defined as the factors that cause technostress for employees. Drawing on the Five-Factor model of personality and Hofstede's cultural values framework, this study proposes that the Big-Five personality traits and the espoused cultural values explain variation in technostress creators beyond the traditional antecedent measures of age, gender, education, and computer confidence. Further, in line with the insights from extant behavioral studies on “personality–culture” interaction, this study posits that the Big-Five personality traits can be linked to technostress creators more closely when each of them is accompanied by the espoused cultural value of long-term orientation than when without it. Analyzing data from an online survey of 322 full-time employees in India, results indicated that (1) the personality traits of agreeableness, neuroticism and openness to experience, and the espoused cultural values of masculinity and power distance are the key predictors of technostress creators; and (2) the relationships of agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion with technostress creators are contingent on espoused long-term orientation. Findings of this study contribute to the knowledge base of technostress by understanding the linkages of (and among) personality and culture with technostress creators.