Coping with technostress in the software industry: Coping strategies and factors underlying their selection

Background: Software industry employees are subject to the harmful effects of technostress, which is caused by information technology use. Aim: The aim of the current study is to understand how software industry employees cope with technostress and how their employers can best support these coping efforts. Method: We employed the critical incident technique using a qualitative approach and collected our data through a questionnaire. In total, we collected and analyzed 715 real-life accounts of coping with critical technostress incidents from employees working in the industry. Results: We identified 27 strategies for coping with technostress and provided a comprehensive categorization of them. Additionally, we uncovered novel coping strategies and highlighted the contextual (organizational and personal) factors that influence the selection of coping strategies. Conclusions: Our findings help in explaining the reasons and motives for up-taking specific coping strategies in the software industry. Based on our findings, employees invest considerable effort into coping with technostress, but do not receive enough support for their coping efforts. We offer insightful suggestions for support mechanisms that could be used by software organizations to enhance employees’ coping efforts and well-being.