Analyzing ICT Events as the Possible Antecedents of Technostress Leading towards Employee Withdrawal Intentions: A Mediated-Moderation Model

Abstract

The Technological advancements have profoundly affected the organizational and societal developments, as they have enabled easy access and connectivity irrespective of the time and location. However, the immense and excessive usage of information and communication technology (ICT) are inevitably changing the employee’s current working lives and patterns. It entails greater availability expectations and usage on employees which can lead towards detrimental outcomes like technology related stress. Thus, it is important to analyze such ICT events that are increasingly indispensable in various aspects of routine life and business. The current study highlights the issue of ICT events like supervisor availability expectations and work-related use of ICT after work hours, especially by focusing on media sector employees that are highly impacted by these circumstances. This research contributes to the literature through statistically testing the association between ICT events, technostress and employee withdrawal intentions using quantitative analysis. Moreover, the mediating role of technostress and moderating role of perceived interruptions overload was also analyzed in this research. A sample data of 225 employees was collected from news media industry using non-probability sampling techniques i.e., convenience and snowballing technique. The research findings proved that the ICT events have positive significant association with technostress and employee withdrawal intentions. The related theoretical and practical implications are also proposed in this research for further researches. Through theoretically relating the transactional stress theory with the proposed research model, it was proved that extreme and inconsiderate usage of information and communication technology can result in technological stress. Furthermore, this research recommends practitioners to introduce policies and procedures that enable employees to deal with stressful environments. It was also suggested to implement the current research model in country wise contextual setting.