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Can leaders prevent technology from backfiring?: Empowering leadership as double-edged sword for technostress in care
Bauwens,Robin Denissen,Marith van Beurden,Jeske Coun,Martine
Bauwens,Robin
Denissen,Marith
van Beurden,Jeske
Coun,Martine
Abstract
Purpose Recent studies have called for more contextual studies of technostress and the role leaders can have in this experience. While technostress is an increasingly prevalent and severe phenomenon in care professions, limited studies have addressed its potential negative consequences for employee well-being and quality of care delivered in this sector or, more importantly, examined how the adverse consequences of technostress could be mitigated. Therefore, the present study addresses this gap by investigating how technostress in childcare affects quality of care delivered via emotional exhaustion and what influence empowering leadership plays in this relationship. Design/methodology approach Incorporating the views of 339 Dutch childcare workers, this study tests a model in which technostress influences quality of care delivered, mediated by emotional exhaustion and moderated by empowering leadership. Findings Results confirm that techno-invasion and techno-overload predict higher emotional exhaustion and lower quality of care delivered among childcare workers. Empowering leadership reduced the influence of techno-invasion on emotional exhaustion but strengthened the influence of techno-overload. Originality/value Our results provide childcare organizations with relevant information on the increasing use of ICT that influences both childcare workers’ well-being and quality of care they deliver. Important implications are suggested for leadership geared at stimulating employees’ responsibility and accountability for different dimensions of technostress.
Description
Funding Information: This work was supported by the FP7 People: Marie-Curie Actions (grant number 896698).
Date
2021
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Research Projects
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Keywords
COLLABORATION, COMMUNICATION, CONSERVATION, DARK SIDE, EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION, JOB-PERFORMANCE, RESOURCES, SATISFACTION, STRESS, WORK PRACTICES, conservation of resources theory, emotional exhaustion, empowering leadership, quality of care delivered, techno-complexity, techno-invasion, techno-overload, technostress
Citation
Bauwens, R, Denissen, M, van Beurden, J & Coun, M 2021, 'Can leaders prevent technology from backfiring? Empowering leadership as double-edged sword for technostress in care', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 12, 702648. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.702648