About Russell Haines:

Russell Haines is an Associate Professor of Information Technology at Old Dominion University. He received his B.S. and Master of Accountancy from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. from The University of Houston. His research specializes in laboratory experiments, supply chain decision-making, ethical decision-making, and awareness in computer-mediated communication.

Abstract:

The introduction of computerized information and communication technologies (ICT) has been linked in some cases with increased feelings of being overloaded, drained, and/or burned out. This so called "technostress" is thought to result from (1) increased workload both during and after work hours, (2) feelings of being constantly monitored, and (3) constant changes and/or frequent breakdowns in technology. Although these effects apply to most workers that use ICT, we believe that knowledge workers experience technostress in a more multiplicative fashion because increased connectivity via computer-mediated communication (CMC) enables (and often requires) knowledge workers to coordinate their workload within and between the teams in which they are embedded. A need to coordinate with different others that share different norms of work, communication, and work-life balance adds a significant cognitive load to these workers. This increases their stress multiplicatively because they must manage multiple workloads involving multiple others. In this way, a knowledge worker's stress can't be compared to an assembly line worker whose assembly line speed is increased to the limit of their capacity; rather, a knowledge worker must coordinate the interplay of multiple assembly lines that might work at different speeds. This presentation summarizes the progress on our research so far and presents new opportunities for examining the technostress phenomenon as it affects knowledge workers.