TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 crisis and digital stressors at work
T2 - A longitudinal study on the Finnish working population
AU - Oksanen, Atte
AU - Oksa, Reetta
AU - Savela, Nina
AU - Mantere, Eerik
AU - Savolainen, Iina
AU - Kaakinen, Markus
N1 - Funding Information:
This research has received funding from the Finnish Work Environment Fund (Professional Social Media Use and Work Engagement Among Young Adults Project, project number 118055 PI: Atte Oksanen).
Funding Information:
This research has received funding from the Finnish Work Environment Fund (Professional Social Media Use and Work Engagement Among Young Adults Project , project number 118055 PI: Atte Oksanen).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - The global crisis caused by the outbreak of a novel coronavirus and the associated disease (COVID-19) has changed working conditions due to social-distancing policies. Many workers started to use new technologies at work, including social media applications. In this longitudinal study, we investigated the potential stress effects of social media communication (SMC) at work. Based on our integrative theoretical model, we expected that SMC at work would burden some workers, but those who were accustomed to SMC at work would be better off when the crisis started. We collected a nationally representative sample of Finnish workers before (N = 1308) and during (N = 1081) the COVID-19 crisis. Outcome measures included technostress and work exhaustion. Multilevel linear mixed-effects regression models investigated formal and informal SMC at work. Covariates included cyberbullying at work, social media usage, personality, occupational status, and sociodemographic factors. Results showed that formal SMC increased and predicted higher technostress. However, technostress and work exhaustion decreased among workers already accustomed to using SMC at work before the crisis. The results indicate a disparity in workers’ resilience during remote work and highlight a need for organizational level support.
AB - The global crisis caused by the outbreak of a novel coronavirus and the associated disease (COVID-19) has changed working conditions due to social-distancing policies. Many workers started to use new technologies at work, including social media applications. In this longitudinal study, we investigated the potential stress effects of social media communication (SMC) at work. Based on our integrative theoretical model, we expected that SMC at work would burden some workers, but those who were accustomed to SMC at work would be better off when the crisis started. We collected a nationally representative sample of Finnish workers before (N = 1308) and during (N = 1081) the COVID-19 crisis. Outcome measures included technostress and work exhaustion. Multilevel linear mixed-effects regression models investigated formal and informal SMC at work. Covariates included cyberbullying at work, social media usage, personality, occupational status, and sociodemographic factors. Results showed that formal SMC increased and predicted higher technostress. However, technostress and work exhaustion decreased among workers already accustomed to using SMC at work before the crisis. The results indicate a disparity in workers’ resilience during remote work and highlight a need for organizational level support.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Disasters
KW - Social media
KW - Technology
KW - Technostress
KW - Work exhaustion
U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2021.106853
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2021.106853
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105560837
SN - 0747-5632
VL - 122
JO - Computers in Human Behavior
JF - Computers in Human Behavior
M1 - 106853
ER -
