How do females and males perceive and cope with technostress in the workplace?

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Volume Title

School of Business | Master's thesis

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Date

2023

Department

Tieto- ja palvelujohtamisen laitos

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Information and Service Management (ISM)

Language

en

Pages

49 + 8

Series

Abstract

As technology plays an ever-bigger role in our personal and professional lives, there is an increasing amount of research on the concept and causes of technostress. The research on generic stress started in the early 1900th century and there is some research on how different genders experience stress differently. However, there seems to be little information on how men and women experience technostress differently. Consequently, if women and men experience technostress differently, what can companies do to manage and prevent technostress adequately? This study was conducted as qualitative research to discover how females and males experience technostress, what the differences between genders are and how companies and individuals can prevent and manage technostress. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviewees were all early-in career information workers in Finland. The interview data was coded and analyzed for themes and recommendations. Main findings were that both men and women recognized positive stress in the workplace, but women are better recognizing negative stress. When it comes to technostress, the respondents recognized the technostress creators studied in literature, but not all the experiences were found stressful. Women generally had more technostress experiences, and they were more sensitive towards work-life-balance challenges created by techno-overload. Even though techno-invasion was experienced, effective mitigation was also identified to cope with techno-invasion. This focus group did not experience techno-insecurity meaning they were not afraid to lose their jobs due to technology. The men interviewed has generally a more positive attitude towards learning new technology. This thesis findings emphasize the crucial role company and organization management can play to help employes manage and prevent technostress. As technostress creates a negative impact not only on individual employee level, but it impacts the whole organization negatively, it is important that company leadership takes proactive action to minimize technostress. The respondents brought up a need to create a more systematic technology strategy and team norms for technology usage. This thesis developed a framework for technology and tools strategy that helps optimize the number of tools used, ensures proper IT training and a feedback loop back to the management. A second important action would be to create the right organizational culture that promotes learning, trial and safe feedback.

Description

Thesis advisor

Liu, Yong

Keywords

työstressi, teknostressi, selviytymiskeinot, ihmiskäyttäytyminen

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Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202401211671

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[gradu] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ