Jean-François Stich : Research articles

07/04/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

Publication: Email Overload: Investigating Technology-fit Antecedents and Job-related Outcomes

07/04/2022 Research Publication, Work, Technology

Email is the communication application most widely used in organizations. Its use in the workplace has increased fourfold since 2006. Yet, email is associated with a number of negative aspects, most prominently ‘email overload’, defined as an individual’s perception of being overwhelmed by emails that s/he considers too numerous to handle. Email overload is a theoretically interesting phenomenon because of its adverse organizational outcomes. Moreover, it continues to be vexing in practice because it has proved intractable to manage. We problematize the current understanding of email overload as being due to lack of understanding of its technology fit-related antecedents and job-related outcomes, and then investigate how email overload is influenced by a lack of fit between the communication applications that the organization provides to individuals and those that (1) they want, and that (2) are suitable for their tasks. We hypothesize that such lack of fit leads to email by default, defined as the perception of email being used improperly, when other communication applications would be better suited. Email by default is then hypothesized to lead to email overload. We further investigate job-related outcomes of email overload. To achieve this, we conducted a two-stage, multi-method empirical study in a large manufacturing organization in a sequential research design, where the first study (qualitative-interviews) informed the second (quantitative-survey). Our results support the hypothesized relationships. The paper theoretically broadens the scholarly discourse on email overload to include novel antecedents and outcomes in the ongoing quest to establish a more complete understanding of this phenomenon.

13/07/2020 Research Publication, Work, Technology, Human Resources

Publication: Flexible Working and Applicant Attraction: A Person-Job Fit Approach

13/07/2020 Research Publication, Work, Technology, Human Resources

Purpose: The ability to work anytime from anywhere is attractive to job seekers, who respond by developing needs regarding flexible working. Flexibility needs are compared to the flexibility perceived in job advertisements to form an overall perception of flexibility fit. The purpose of this paper is to examine both the impact of flexibility fit (on applicant attraction) and its antecedents.
Design/methodology/approach: The impact of flexibility fit on applicant attraction and its antecedents are examined using person-job fit theory. 92 job seekers analyzed a total of 391 job advertisements. The hypotheses are tested using multilevel structural equation modeling.
Findings: The results show that perceived flexibility fit is positively related to job pursuit and job acceptance intentions. They further show that perceived flexibility fit is driven by perceived job advertisements’ flexibility exceeding applicants’ needed flexibility, which in turn is driven by the flexibility actually present in job advertisements exceeding applicants’ flexibility needs.
Originality/value: The study contributes to literature on new ways of working by highlighting the desirable nature of flexibility and its impact on fit perceptions. It further contributes to literature on person-job fit by investigating a full model of fit, examining both outcomes and antecedents of perceived fit. For practitioners, the study highlights the importance of advertising flexibility to attract applicants.

07/05/2020 Research Publication, Work, Technology, Stress

Publication: A Review of Workplace Stress in the Virtual Office

07/05/2020 Research Publication, Work, Technology, Stress

Virtual offices give employees the ability to work anytime, anywhere, using information and communication technologies, thereby blurring the temporal and geographical boundaries of work. Workplace stress is thus allowed to spill over from traditional offices to virtual offices, and vice versa. This review article presents key research from work psychology and information systems on workplace stress experienced in virtual offices (interruptions, workload and the work-home interface). It further discusses the main threats faced by organizations and office managers: reduced social interactions, poor communication, and deviant behaviors. Suggestions are also offered to practitioners seeking to design virtual offices in which employees can feel and work well, and to academics seeking to research this phenomenon in a transdisciplinary way.

01/03/2019 Research Publication, Work, Technology, Stress, Email

Publication: Appraisal of Email Use as A Source of Workplace Stress: A Person-Environment Fit Approach

01/03/2019 Research Publication, Work, Technology, Stress, Email

The paper develops and tests theory that explains under what conditions the extent of email use is appraised as a stressor. Integrating concepts from information acquisition and person-environment fit theories, we hypothesize that individuals appraise their extent of email use as stressful based on the mismatch between their current and desired extents of email use. We define the mismatch as email misfit and the match as email fit. We first develop a conceptual framework that associates email misfit with the individual’s experience of three key workplace stressors—work relationships stressor, job control stressor, and job conditions stressor. We then develop hypotheses framing the relationship between email fit and misfit, and these stressors. We test our hypotheses by applying quadratic polynomial regressions and surface-response analysis to survey data obtained from 118 working individuals. The paper makes three theoretical contributions. First, in reporting a theoretical and empirical construction of email fit and misfit and their relationship to workplace stressors, it shows that email misfit is appraised as stress-creating. That is, both too much email and too little, compared to what the individual desires, are associated with stressors. Secondly, it shows that IT use (in this case, email) is appraised as stressful both when it exceeds (i.e., associated with overload) and fails to meet (i.e., associated with underload), the user’s expectation and preference. Thirdly, this paper suggests the person-environment approach as a theoretically novel way to conceptualize the cognitive appraisal and judgement associated with information underacquisition and overacquisition and shows workplace stressors as potentially new effects associated with them.

01/01/2019 Research Publication, Stress, Technology, Work

Publication: The technostress trifecta - techno eustress, techno distress and design: Theoretical directions and an agenda for research

01/01/2019 Research Publication, Stress, Technology, Work

Abstract:

Technostress—defined as stress that individuals experience due to their use of Information Systems—represents an emerging phenomenon of scholarly investigation. It examines how and why the use of IS causes individuals to experience various demands that they find stressful. This paper develops a framework for guiding future research in technostress experienced by individuals in organizations. We first review and critically analyse the state of current research on technostress reported in journals from the IS discipline and the non-IS disciplines that study stress in organizations (eg, organizational behaviour and psychological stress). We then develop our framework in the form of the “technostress trifecta”—techno-eustress, techno-distress, and Information Systems design principles for technostress. The paper challenges 3 key ideas imbued in the existing technostress literature. First, it develops the argument that, in contrast to negative outcomes, technostress can lead to positive outcomes such as greater effectiveness and innovation at work. Second, it suggests that instead of limiting the role of IS to that of being a stress creator in the technostress phenomenon, it should be expanded to that of enhancing the positive and mitigating the negative effects of technostress through appropriate design. Third, it lays the groundwork for guiding future research in technostress through an interdisciplinary framing that enriches both the IS and the psychological stress literatures through a potential discourse of disciplinary exchange.

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