Jean-François Stich : Research articles

08/04/2025 Research, Impact, Opinion Work, Technology, Telework

Starter packs, character sheets and virtual work

08/04/2025 Research, Impact, Opinion Work, Technology, Telework

A recent trend on social media is to share an AI-generated image of oneself depicted as an action figure in a blister with one’s favourite items – a “starter pack”. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this fun and harmless trend, and put it back in the wider context of working virtually with one another.

16/04/2024 Research none

Publication: Techno-eustress creators: Conceptualization and empirical validation

16/04/2024 Research none

Technostress is an inevitable part of work life. This paper takes a step toward mastering it by focusing on positive stress that Information Systems (IS) creates for IS users, known as techno-eustress. Factors that create techno-eustress are known as techno-eustress creators, which we conceptualise as cognitions experienced by IS users, that IS positively challenges and motivates them to enhance their work. They are important to study because they represent foundational opportunities for professional achievement and growth emanating from IS use. Drawing from theories of psychological eustress, self-determination and proactive work, this paper theorises and validates an instrument to measure techno-eustress creators. We establish the construct's validity and examine its nomological relationships based on data collected from working professionals who used IT for their work. We draw on data from two qualitative studies (N = 35) and three quantitative surveys (N = 980) conducted at different points in time. We validate techno-eustress creators as a second-order reflective construct having four dimensions: techno-mastery, techno-autonomy, techno-enrichment and techno-relatedness. We examine its nomological relationships with factors that create techno-distress, IT strain, and user satisfaction. We contribute to the literature by theorising and validating four ways in which IS users are challenged and motivated by IS to enhance their work. We inform to managerial practice by drawing attention to how organisations can strengthen the different ways employees experience the creators of the ‘good’ stress that use of IS generates.

31/08/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

Habilitation à diriger des recherches : Psychologie et Gestion du Travail Virtualisé

31/08/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

Ce mémoire d’HDR traite de la psychologie et de la gestion du travail virtualisé, c’est-à-dire de l’étude des individus dans le cadre d’un travail dépendant de l’usage de technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC), et de la gestion de ce travail. Mes travaux, positionnés à la fois en systèmes d’information et en comportement organisationnel et mobilisant des méthodes quantitatives et qualitatives, explorent différents enjeux et phénomènes liés à l’usage des TIC et aux nouveaux modes de travail qui en résultent, tels que le technostress ou le télétravail. Je me suis particulièrement attaché à établir l’importance des perceptions subjectives dans ces phénomènes, par exemple en ce qui concerne l’évaluation du stress issu des TIC ou la désirabilité du travail virtualisé. Mes travaux explorent ainsi les ambivalences et paradoxes qui traversent les individus confrontés au travail virtualisé, partagés entre attitudes de désir et de rejet, entre perceptions d’opportunités et de menaces, entre imaginaires d’utopies et de dystopies. Ce mémoire d’HDR offre un retour réflexif sur mes trajectoires de recherche et mes contributions académiques. Il présente aussi les pistes thématiques et méthodologiques que je souhaiterais poursuivre. Enfin, il synthétise mes années d’enseignement et mon souhait de m’engager dans la formation de doctorants.

28/07/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

PhD dissertation: Email Stress and Desired Email Use

28/07/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

This thesis is about workplace stress due to email and computer-mediated communication use. Rather than focusing on email-specific constructs such as email overload, email interruptions or email use outside working hours, it draws an overarching construct of ‘email stress’ based on previous theories of traditional workplace stress. This cross-disciplinary approach emphasizes the individually appraised nature of email stress. As a result, the thesis gives a central importance to individuals using email and, more importantly, to their desired email use. The thesis is based on a three-stage multi-method design involving quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. The results of these studies are part of the four self-sufficient papers composing the thesis. While the papers make their own contributions, they also build on one another to advance the understanding of email stress as being a kind of stress that is individually appraised and that affects workplace well-being. The papers adapt theories of workplace stress, such as Person-Environment Fit and Cybernetics, to the study of email stress, and empirically validate these adaptations. They reveal how email stress can be the result of unfulfilled desires in terms of email use or a reason for desiring fewer emails. As employees do not often have control over their email use, the findings encourage the emergence of a more empathetic organizational culture taking into account individuals’ desires in terms of email use.

29/06/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

Publication: Web Robinson, vivre le télétravail extrême par identification narrative

29/06/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

En 2014, le « Web Robinson » Gauthier Toulemonde partait 40 jours télétravailler sur une île déserte, physiquement isolé mais virtuellement connecté à une communauté immergée dans ses aventures. Cet article mobilise ce cas extrême et semi-fictionnel pour comprendre les mécanismes d’identification narrative ayant permis à ses lecteurs-auditeurs-spectateurs de vivre par procuration les paradoxes de l’autonomie asservie et de l’hyperconnexion solitaire inhérents au télétravail, puis de devenir les auteurs de leurs propres récits durant la crise COVID-19.

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