Always Connected: Technology Use Increases Technostress Among Public Managers

• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/02750740211050387
• Author: Federica Fusi,Leonor Camarena
• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Always Connected: Technology Use

Increases Technostress Among Public

Managers

Leonor Camarena

1

and Federica Fusi

2

Abstract

Despite the growing use and adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in government, few studies

investigate how ICTs impact the well-being of public managers in the workplace. Information system and psychology studies

define “technostress”as a form of stress stemming from the social and technical changes brought by ICTs use. Public man-

agers likely experience technostress as ICTs become pervasive in their professional and private life and add new demands to

their workload. Using nationwide 2014 survey data of 2,500 local government managers, we focus on technolog y use and

individual and organizational practices around ICT use to investigate their effect on technostress. We find that ICT use for

professional purposes increases technostress, but public organizations can reduce technostress by providing policies and

guidelines on ICT use. Personal use of ICTs and electronic monitoring do not affect technostress. We discuss implications

for technology and human resource management in public organizations.

Keywords

technostress, technology, social media, human resources, local government

The use of information and communication technologies

(ICTs) has grown steadily across all levels of the U.S. gov-

ernment. ICTs such as websites, social media, and mobile

applications help public agencies to enhance transparency

and communicate information to the public (Porumbescu,

2016; Welch & Feeney, 2014). Digita l data analysis and col-

laboration tools are expected to increase management effec-

tiveness, including hiring and information sharing (Feeney

et al., 2019; Tufts et al., 2015). These positive impacts of

ICTs have reinforced government propensity toward tech-

nology adoption and use (Feeney et al., 2019; Mergel &

Bretschneider, 2013). Yet, there are discussions on the

potential fallouts of technology use, such as time wasting

and work overload (Fusi & Feeney, 2016), work–life spill-

over effects (Benlian, 2020), and the impact of ICTs on

employees’morale and job satisfaction (Demircioglu &

Chen, 2019). The increased use of ICTs is creating new

workload demands on public employees. By posting infor-

mation online, public employees expose themselves and

their organization to new and more frequent interactions

with the public (Khan et al., 2014). Moreover, ICT use

might duplicate workload as public employees need to

manage both offline and online activities (Fusi & Feeney,

2016). In line with this scholarship, this article suggests

that the technical and social changes brought by ICTs use

in public organizations might increase technostress among

public employees.

Psychology and information systems (IS) studies define

“technostress”as the stress created by ICT use on individuals

(Brod, 1984; Tarafdar et al., 2007). Technostress stems from

the pervasiveness of ICTs in both personal and professional

spaces, which leads to competing work–life demands, infor-

mation overload, and longer working hours that an individual

is unable to meet (Benlian, 2020; Molino et al., 2020). Public

service is one of the most stressful and demanding profes-

sions because of the intense administrative workload and

demands that public employees face (Eldor, 2018; Hsieh

et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2015). Additional stress stemming

from ICT use might compromise employees’performance

(Christ-Brendemühl & Schaarschmidt, 2020) and their will-

ingness to innovate, adopt, and diffuse new ICT tools

(Fuglseth & Sørebø, 2014; Zainun et al., 2020). These nega-

tive consequences of technostress are particularly relevant in

small- and medium-sized local governments that lack

1

School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University –Newark,

Newark, NJ, USA

2

Department of Public Administration, University of Illinois Chicago,

Chicago, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Leonor Camarena, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers

University –Newark, 111 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.

Email: leonor.camarena@rutgers.edu

Article

American Review of Public Administration

2022, Vol. 52(2) 154–168

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/02750740211050387

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