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Technostress Among Library Professionals: Possible Causes, Symptoms,
Coping Strategies and Future Proposal
Subhajit Panda1
1Assistant Librarian, University Library, Chandigarh University, Punjab (India)
1Email: subhajit.e9641@cumail.in
1Orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1578-1159
Abstract
Technostress is the feeling of anxiety or mental pressure caused by working with multiple
and rapidly changing computer systems and mediating between these systems and the
demands of the organisation, users and personal life. This study investigated the nature and
extent of technostress, the factors causing technostress, the effect of technostress on
professional and social lives among the Library Professionals in India. The study further
investigates the coping strategies to deal with technostress & also give a proposal of Positive
Technology for technostress prevention and management. The study was carried through an
online survey with a structured questionnaire designed on a Google form. Total of 500
respondents was selected for the study over four designated domain viz. Library Assistant,
Assistant Librarian, Deputy Librarian and Librarian or University Librarian. Whereas 10
preferred causes and coping strategies, and 8 identified physiological & psychological
symptoms are subjected in front of the library professionals to examine their preferability.
The findings of the study may be used to develop strategies and policies which facilitate
librarians to avoid, adapt to, or mitigate technostress.
Keywords: Technostress, Technophobia, Techno-insecurity, Techno-overload,
Techno-invasion, Techno-complexity, Techno-uncertainty, Library Professionals,
Physiological symptoms, Psychological symptoms, Positive technology, Coping strategy
This is a Preprint Version (Preprint DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/938ga)
Published Version Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348232995
https://zenodo.org/record/4419548#.YfBYDupBzIU
Cite as:
Panda, Subhajit. (2020). Technostress among Library Professionals: Possible Causes, Symptoms, Coping Strategies, and Future
Proposals. International Journal of Information Studies & Libraries, 5(2), 01–19. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4419548
Introduction:
With the increasing levels of library automation, both library staff and users often have to
deal with concerns over how technology is going to impact them. During the last two decades,
the advancement in ICTs have not only changed the library environment drastically but also
altered work roles, expanded required skill sets, and increased uncertainty about future
prospects of libraries and library services. Computer operating systems and software versions
are changing so rapidly that by the time library staff and users get used to one version of the
software, the next version gets released (Sami & Pangannaiah, 2006). Library professionals
are constantly eager to adapt new technologies out of the fear of becoming obsolete. But at
the same time introduction of these new technologies can become a threat through its misuse,
abuse, and overuse, resulting in technostress (Gaudioso et al., 2017). The term techno stress
is used synonymously with technophobia, computer phobia, computer anxiety and computer
stress, is one of the negative effects of the continuous use of ICTs in libraries. It is the
negative physiological & psychological link between people and the new technologies.
This article aims to present the main causes of technostress, its physiological & psychological
problems and coping strategies. Additionally the study propose how Positive Technologies
(Riva et al., 2012) can help prevent technostress, and promote positive work experiences and
general well-being through an effective organizational safety culture (Galimberti, 2014;
Galimberti et al., 2016).
Study Background:
(a) Definition:
Brod (1984) a pioneer in this particular field, had coined and defined the term techno stress as:
“A modern disease of adaptation caused due to lack of an individual’s ability to cope with
new computer technologies in a healthy manner. It manifests itself in two distinct but related
ways: in the struggle to accept computer technology and in the more specialized form of
over-identification with computer technology.” (p.16)
David-Mallis (1998) identified techno stress as a condition whereby a person has to adapt to
new technology especially when there is inadequacy of the equipment, support, or the
technology itself.
Weil and Rosen (1997) defined techno stress as any negative impact on attitudes, thoughts,
behaviours, or body physiology that is caused either directly or indirectly by technology.
According to Clark and Kalin (1996), the real definition of techno stress is “resistance to
change”. They claimed that technology is not the culprit because computer and technologies
are just tools and stress is a natural reaction. Thus, they suggested that in order to manage
techno stress, it is the change that has to be managed not the technology.
Figure 1. Technostress: The Dark Side of Usage of Technology
(b) Factors inducing Techno Stress:
There are generally two main groups of factors inducing techno stress (Owusu-Ansah et al.,
2016):
(i) Environmental factors: These factors refers to poor working conditions, insufficient
lighting, inadequate equipment, inadequate security measures, user incompatibility, noisy
equipment, software limitations, lack of funding, electrical issues, risk of accidental data
loss, insufficient knowledge and insufficient staff which may cause people to suffer
technology-related stress.
(ii) Social factors: These factors refers to conflict of interest caused by the use of
technology, power struggles, work and role changes, anxiety over loss of employment,
work fragmentation and hierarchal changes which may cause people to suffer
technology-related stress.
(c) Components of Techno Stress:
Techno-overload: A situation where the ICTs users are compelled to work more
and work faster.
Techno-invasion: A situation where ICTs users feel that they can be contacted
anytime or anywhere thereby losing their privacy and free hours causing an unclear
boundary between work-related and personal contexts.
Techno-complexity: A situation where ICTs users feel that their skills are
insufficient because of the difficulty related to ICTs which compelled them to spend
all their time and efforts in learning and understanding the use of new applications
and updating their skills.
Techno-insecurity: A situation where the ICTs users feel insecure of losing their
jobs, either being replaced by the new ICTs or by other people who have a better
understanding of new gadgets and computing devices.
Techno-uncertainty: A condition where the ICTs users feel uncertain and mentally
disturbed since ICTs is endlessly shifting and need upgrading.
These stressors may have impact both at private and organizational levels and endangering
their work-life balance (Brivio et al., 2018).
(d) Techno Stress in Libraries:
Library professionals in academic libraries have to work in an ever changing technological
environment. They cannot remain idle as they have to cater to the learning needs of the
library users. They have to work with multiple and rapidly changing computer systems,
upgrade the computer hardware and software, manage electronic resources, meet the
information demands of their parent institution, students, faculties, other staff, and maintain a
balance between their personal life and work life. As noted by Al-Qallaf (2006) “today,
librarians provide access to eclectic e-collections, create and maintain digital content, support
e-learning, provide real time e-reference, negotiate contracts and licensing agreements and
struggle with the economics of electronic information” (p.168). Therefore, the usage of
advanced ICT technologies like integrated computer system, multiple databases, CD-ROMs,
Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) has given rise to enormous amount of strain on the
library professionals resulting in techno stress.
Figure 2. Flowchart of Technostress Management in Library
Review of the Previous Literature:
Research on technostress has been conducted in different domains, for instance, medicine
(Arnetz & Wiholm 1997), psychology (Brod 1984; Weil & Rosen 1997), and from
economical and organizational perspectives (Brillhart 2004; Tarafdar et al. 2005; Wang et al.
2008). Here some such significant researches are discussed to give a preliminary idea about
the present study, it’s need & significance, and how it adds some more to the existing
literature.
The purpose of the paper of Sami and Pangannaiah (2006) is to review the impact of
information technologies on users of libraries by reference to the concept of “technostress”,
the inability to cope with the new computer technologies healthily or positively. A distributed
cognition perspective of human-technology interaction was investigated by Yuvaraj and
Singh (2015) through Limesurvey to explore technostress, its effects and coping strategies to
prevent it among university librarians in Delhi. A similar study was found in the paper of
Ogada, Kwanya and Kiplang’at (2019), where they investigated the nature and extent of
technostress among technical university librarians in Kenya. Ahmad and Amin (2012)
defined in his paper the degree of technostress caused by the highly automated workplace
environment among academic librarians in Malaysian public universities. Aghwotu and
Owajeme (2010) sought to examine the causes, symptoms and coping strategies of
technostress among university librarians (sample size=5) in Edo and Delta State, Nigeria.
Jena and Mahanti (2014) analyzed the factors affecting the technostress among Indian
academicians (N= 116) by conducting a survey using an online questionnaire. Owolabi,
Aregbesola and Oyesola (2015) focused on their study on identifying causes of technostress
among library staff at Landmark University, Omu-Aran and proffering solutions. Hsiao (2017)
studied the compulsive usage of mobile applications and their negative effect on people’s
health and social interaction. Khasawneh (2018) examined the literature to highlight the
hairline gap between computer anxiety/phobia and technophobia.
Scope of the Present Study:
The study was surveyed about the factors causes technostress in workplaces which results in
physiological & psychological problems of the library professionals and tries to find possible
coping strategies to get rid of it. In this critical situation of the present outbreak of COVID-19,
the use of digital technology & digital media increases as a means of providing information.
Library professionals now work more from remote position through an online help desk, ask
a librarian as a virtual reference provider . As a result, the techno working time of all kind of
library professionals increased significantly and the effect of technostress also increased
gradually with it.
Objectives of the Study:
(i) To find out the possible reason for the technostress among library professionals
(ii) To identify the physiological problems results because of technostress among library
professionals
(iii) To identify the psychological problems results because of technostress among library
professionals
(iv) To find out possible coping strategies or solutions to get rid of this technostress
Research Methodology:
Figure 3. Research Design
The research framework of this survey was designed upon a structured research questionnaire
created through Google form and circulated online among different social platforms (e.g.
Facebook, Whatsapp, Telegram, LinkedIn, Academia etc), and also via email to the eminent
LIS professionals. The questionnaire contained some specific causes of technostress,
identified physiological & psychological symptoms result from technostress and possible
solutions. It took almost 2 months (from August 2020 to October 2020) and almost 749
participants took part in this survey from different parts of India. For sampling, the target
group for this study was the Library Professionals which further categorized in 4 groups
according to their designation viz. Library Assistant, Assistant Librarian, Deputy Librarian &
Librarian. From the collected 749 respondents, 123 were not affected by technostress in their
working place. The research sample was selected from the remaining 626 after proper
analysis of the responses based on adequate, authentic and complete response. The final
selected sample universe (N) for the study was 500 library professionals including 365
Library Assistant (LA) (73%), 100 Assistant Librarian (AL) (20%), 15 Deputy Librarian (DL)
(3%) & 20 Librarian or University Librarian (UL) (4%) and among them, 279 (56%) women,
184 (37%) men, & 37(7%) choose to prefer not to say about their gender.
Figure 4. Research Sample Size & Category (Gender & Designation Wise)
Result & Discussion:
(a) Techno-Working Hours:
The time an employee uses IT instruments in the workplace is the measure of his
techno-working hours. As our study focused particularly on technostress, hence it is
considered to identify the techno-working hours of the LIS professionals rather only working
hours. The study questionnaire provides three options to the respondents, viz. 0-4 (minimum
techno-working time), 4-8 (moderate techno-working time) & <8 (greater than usual office
hours).
Figure 5. Techno Working Hours (Designation Wise)
From figure 5, it can be shown that the maximum number of LIS professionals use IT
instruments in their workplace between 4 to 8 hours. In the case of Library assistant 69%
(=251), Assistant librarian 60%(=60), Deputy librarian 67% (=12) & Librarian 100% (=20)
covered under this category. Additionally, some of the Library assistant & Assistant librarian
choose 0 to 4 hours as their techno working time (16% LA & 10% AL), whereas some other
Library assistant, Assistant librarian & Deputy librarian work more than 8 hours (15% LA,
30% AL & 33% DL) with the use of IT instruments.
(b) Perceived Stress:
In this study, the amount of stress measured by a 3 point scale viz. Low, Moderate & Highly
perceived stress. Here low stress indicates usual irritation, headache, finger & back pain etc,
while in medium & high stress causes some serious issues viz. blurred vision, high blood
pressure, heart problem, depression etc.
Figure 6. Perceived Stress (1 to 3 Scale)
Figure 6 indicates that among the 4 type of designation based respondent, majority of the first
three types i.e. LA (81%), AL (68%) & DL (87%) prefer moderate stress as a commonly
perceived stress. Although 70% of university librarian choose low stress as preferable one.
Again, only 9% of LA & 14% of AL demands that they suffer from highly perceived stress.
(c) Techno Working Hours vs Perceived Stress:
Techno-working hour is the work time of a LIS professional for sitting in front of computers,
or working with IT instruments; and these are the primary reasons for suffering from
technostress. Thus, the current study try to find any relation between the “Techno-working
hour” & the “Perceived stress” and don’t take the “Working hour” as a study variable.
Figure 7. Techno-working Hours vs Perceived Stress
From Figure 7, it can be identified that with increasing techno-working time (from 0-4 to 4-8)
the perceived stress increased significantly. Out of the total 14 % of low-stress LIS
professional, 12% have 0-4 hours of techno-working time; whereas, out of the 68% of
moderately stressed LIS Professionals, 64% with 4-8 techno-working hours. But in the case
of LIS Professionals with >8 techno-working hour, out of the total 18% respondent, 10%
suffer from moderately perceived technostress & 8% suffer from highly perceived
technostress.
(d) Causes of Techno Stress among Library Professionals:
There are several reasons for the impact of technostress among LIS professionals. It varies
depending on the workplace, work culture, work instrument, job responsibility, job timing,
personal immunity, personal behaviour, old disease & several other. Following are 10 such
causes included in the research questionnaire as a multi-response question of the online
survey for this study.
Information overload
Pace of technological change
Increased workload
Lack of proper training
Networking problems & Security issues
Lack of standardization of Hardware and Software
Prolonged sitting in front of Computers
Ergonomic hazards
Vendor-produced databases
Change in work role
Figure 8. Possible Causes of Technostress (Library Assistant)
Figure 8 displays that majority of the Library Assistant choose “Increased Workload” (99%
or 352), “Prolonged sitting in front of Computers” (87% or 319) and “Networking problems
& security issues” (70% or 254) as top three causes of their technostress; while
“Vendor-produced databases” is the least chosen one (5% or 18).
Figure 9. Possible Causes of Technostress (Assistant Librarian)
Out of the 100 respondent of Assistant Librarian, majority of the respondent choose
“Prolonged sitting in front of Computers” (100 or 100%), “Information overload” (91 or 91%)
and “Ergonomic hazards” (88 or 88%) as the cause of their technostress. Whereas, “Change
in work role” (2 or 2%) and “lack of proper training” (23 or 23%) are the least chosen.
Figure 10. Possible Causes of Technostress (Deputy Librarian)
In the case of Deputy Librarian, all the 15 (100%) respondents choose “Prolonged sitting in
front of Computers” & “Information overload” as the cause of their technostress, while, none
of them (0%) choose “change in work role” or “lack of proper training” for the same.(see
Figure 10)
Figure 11. Possible Causes of Technostress (Librarian or University Librarian)
Among the 20 UL respondents, the top selected causes for technostress are “Networking
problems & Security issues” (20 or 100%), “Prolonged sitting in front of Computers” (19 or
95%) and “Lack of standardization of Hardware and Software” (19 or 95%). Although, the
respondents don't prefer to choose causes like “Change in work role”, “Ergonomic hazards”
and “lack of proper training” for the reason behind their technostress.
(e) Physiological & Psychological symptoms of Techno Stress among Library
Professionals
The above research of this study shows that factors contribute to technostress (Ragu-Nathan
et al., 2008), including techno-invasion, techno-overload, techno-complexity,
techno-insecurity, & techno-uncertainty. The specific causes for these factors including,
“Change in work role”, “vendor-produced databases”, “Prolonged sitting in front of
Computers”, “Networking problems & Security issues”, “Increases workload”, “Information
overload” etc. Additionally, lack of support during testing, implementation, and use of the
ICTs adopted by the library; discomfort and fatigue resulting from multitasking, as ICTs
allow for completion of more tasks in a lesser amount of time (Ragu-Nathan et al., 2008);
frequent interruption of assigned tasks due to the ongoing stream of communication (Mark et
al., 2008). These stressors, together with a lack of personal coping mechanisms, create
technostress in the work environment, placing both physiological and psychological
consequences on employees (Brivio et al., 2018).
i. Physiological Symptoms: Out of the several physiological symptoms, in this study
following 8 particular symptoms are selected to include in the questionnaire.
Blurred vision
Joint Pain
Back Pain
Headaches
Hand and Wrist Pain
Rapid Heart Rate
Insomnia
High Blood Pressure
Figure 12. Physiological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Library Assistant)
Figure 12 displays that out of the 8 physiological symptoms, “Back Pain” (312 or 85%),
“Headaches” (306 or 84%) & “Joint Pain” (258 or 71%) are chosen by the majority of the
Library Assistant; whereas “High Blood Pressure” (2 or 1%) & “Rapid Heart Rate” (10 or
3%) are least chosen.
Figure 13. Physiological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Assistant Librarian)
Out of the 100 respondents of Assistant Librarians, the majority are chosen “Back Pain” (92
or 92%), “Headaches” (89 or 89%) & “Joint Pain” (85 or 85%); while “High Blood Pressure”
(0 or 0%) & “Rapid Heart Rate” (5 or 5%) are least chosen. (see Figure 13)
Figure 14. Physiological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Deputy Librarian)
According to Figure 14 among the 15 Deputy Librarians, the top selected physiological
symptoms are “Headaches” (15 or 100%), “Back Pain” (15 or 100%) and “Joint Pain” (12 or
80%). Although, the respondents don't prefer to choose symptoms like “High Blood
Pressure”, “Rapid Heart Rate” and “Blurred vision” as the results for their technostress.
Figure 15. Physiological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Librarian or University
Librarian)
In the case of Librarian or University Librarian, out of the 20 respondents, “Back Pain” (20 or
100%), “Insomnia” (19 or 95%) and “Headaches” (18 or 90%) are chosen by the majority;
while “Rapid Heart Rate” (1 or 5%), “High Blood Pressure” (4 or 20%) and “Blurred vision”
(4 or 20%) are chosen by least. (see Figure 15)
ii. Psychological Symptoms: Out of the several psychological symptoms, in this study
following 8 particular symptoms are selected to include in the questionnaire.
Computer Anxiety
Unrelenting Stress
Frustration
Irritation (& Anger)
Skepticism
Nightmares
Mental Fatigue
Depression
Figure 16. Psychological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Library Assistant)
From Figure 16 it can be identified that the Library Assistants choose “Unrelenting Stress”
(279 or 76%), “Mental Fatigue” (247 or 68%) and “Frustration” (223 or 61%) as the top three
psychological symptoms they suffer due to technostress. Whereas, “Skepticism” (29 or 8%)
and “Nightmares” (53 or 15%) are the least ones.
Figure 17. Psychological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Assistant Librarian)
Figure 17 displays that out of the 8 psychological symptoms, “Frustration” (93 or 93%),
“Irritation (& Anger)” (90 or 90%) & “Unrelenting Stress” (87 or 87%) are chosen by the
majority of the Assistant Librarians; whereas “Skepticism” (2 or 2%) & “Computer Anxiety”
(11 or 11%) are least chosen.
Figure 18. Psychological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Deputy Librarian)
In the case of Deputy Librarian, out of the 15 respondents, “Mental Fatigue” (14 or 93%),
“Frustration” (14 or 93%) and “Unrelenting Stress” (12 or 80%) are chosen by the majority;
while “Depression”, “Nightmares” and “Computer Anxiety” chosen by none as a
psychological symptoms they suffer due to technostress. (see Figure 18)
Figure 19. Psychological Symptoms Due to Technostress (Librarian or University
Librarian)
According to Figure 19 among the 20 Librarians or University Librarians, the top selected
psychological symptoms are “Frustration” (20 or 100%), “Unrelenting Stress” (20 or 100%)
and “Irritation (& Anger)” (17 or 85%). Although, the respondents don't prefer to choose
symptoms like “Nightmares”, “Skepticism” and “Computer Anxiety” as the results for their
technostress.
(f) Selection of Possible Coping Strategies:
The phenomenon of technostress not only sets major demands for identifying the root causes
and major symptoms (outcomes/physiological or/& psychological) of LIS professionals but
also requires a good understanding of how LIS professionals can cope with varying demands
set by IT (Pirkkalainen et al., 2017). In the beginning, Lazarus (1966) stated: “coping is part
of the stress process, in that it is a response to the stress-creating conditions that individuals
experience”. Again in 1984, Lazarus and Folkman defined coping “as individuals’
psychological and behavioural efforts to deal with events that are appraised as demanding or
exceeding the resources possessed by the individual”. Following are 10 such coping
strategies included in the research questionnaire as a multi-response question of the online
survey for this study.
Technology based education and training to both library staff and users
Developing positive attitude towards technology
Providing adequate equipment and technical support
Regular break intervals while using technology
Avoid multitasking
Effective time management
Regular physical exercise and meditation
Stress inoculation training
Work recognition by way of rewards publicly
Better ergonomics practice
Figure 20. Selection of Possible Coping Strategies (Library Assistant)
Among the 365 Library Assistants, the top selected coping strategies for technostress are
“Technology based education and training to both library staff and users” (363 or 99%),
“Providing adequate equipment and technical support” (359 or 98%) and “Avoid
multitasking” (355 or 97%); whereas “Work recognition by way of rewards publicly” (30 or
8%) and “Better ergonomics practice” (61 or 17%) are the least chosen.
Figure 21. Selection of Possible Coping Strategies (Assistant Librarian)
In the case of Assistant Librarian, all the 100 (100%) respondents choose “Regular break
intervals while using technology” & “Technology based education and training to both
library staff and users” as the successful coping strategies of their technostress; while “Work
recognition by way of rewards publicly” (9 or 9%) & “Avoid multitasking” (12 or 12%) are
the least preferable.(see Figure 21)
Figure 22. Selection of Possible Coping Strategies (Deputy Librarian)
Out of the 15 respondent of Deputy Librarian, majority of the respondent choose “Providing
adequate equipment and technical support” (15 or 100%), “Developing positive attitude
towards technology” (15 or 100%), and “Effective time management” (14 or 93%) as the
adequate coping strategies of their technostress; whereas, “Stress inoculation training” and
“Avoid multitasking” chosen by none. (see Figure 22)
Figure 23. Selection of Possible Coping Strategies (Librarian or University Librarian)
Figure 23 displays that 100% (20) of the Librarian or University Librarian choose “Providing
adequate equipment and technical support”, “Developing positive attitude towards
technology” and “Technology based education and training to both library staff and users”
for successfully cope with the technostress; alternatively “Work recognition by way of
rewards publicly”, “Stress inoculation training” and “Avoid multitasking” chosen by none of
them.
Summary of Findings:
This paper is based on the study of identifying and prioritizing the causes, physiological &
psychological symptoms and coping strategies among library professionals through an online
survey. Following are some major findings evolved from the study:
a) Among the library professionals majority (341 or 68%) have 4 to 8 hr techno-working
time, whereas, 18% (or 89) have >8 hr and 14% (or 70) have 0 to 4 hr techno-working
time. (see Figure 5)
b) Majority of the library professionals (382 or 76%) identified that they suffer from
moderately perceived technostress, while 14% (or 70) preferred low and 10% (or 48)
preferred highly perceived technostress they are suffering from. (see Figure 6)
c) From Figure 7 it can be identified that there is a positive relation between the
“Techno-working hour” & the “Perceived stress” of library professionals.
d) Among the causes of the technostress,
“Increased Workload” (99% or 362) was chosen by majority of the Library
Assistant,
“Prolonged sitting in front of Computers” (100 or 100%) was chosen by all of
the Assistant Librarian,
“Prolonged sitting in front of Computers” & “Information overload” were
chosen by all (15 or 100%) of the Deputy Librarian, and
“Networking problems & Security issues” were chosen by all (20 or 100%) of
the Librarian or University Librarian. (see Figure 8-11)
e) Among the physiological symptoms,
Majority (312 or 85%) of the Library Assistant suffer from “Back Pain”,
Majority (92 or 92%) of the Assistant Librarian suffer from “Back Pain”,
All (15or 100%) of the Deputy Librarian suffer from “Headaches” & “Back
Pain”, and
All (20 or 100%) of the Librarian or University Librarian suffer from “Back
Pain”. (see Figure 12-15)
f) Among the psychological symptoms,
Majority (279 or 76%) of the Library Assistant suffer from “Unrelenting
Stress”,
Majority (93 or 93%) of the Assistant Librarian suffer from “Frustration”,
Majority (14or 93%) of the Deputy Librarian suffer from “Mental Fatigue” &
“Frustration”, and
All (20 or 100%) of the Librarian or University Librarian suffer from
“Frustration” & “Unrelenting Stress”. (see Figure 16-19)
g) Among the effective coping strategies against the technostress,
“Technology based education and training to both library staff and users” (99%
or 363) was chosen by majority of the Library Assistant,
“Regular break intervals while using technology” & “Technology based
education and training to both library staff and users” were chosen by all (100 or
100%) of the Assistant Librarian,
“Providing adequate equipment and technical support” & “Developing positive
attitude towards technology” were chosen by all (15 or 100%) of the Deputy
Librarian, and
“Providing adequate equipment and technical support”, “Developing positive
attitude towards technology” & “Technology based education and training to
both library staff and users” were chosen by all (20 or 100%) of the Librarian or
University Librarian. (see Figure 20-23)
Positive Technology for Technostress Prevention and Management: A Proposal
As nowadays technology & use of IT instrument is essential to any library, adopting a
Positive Technology perspective in designing not just the technologies themselves, but also
the work processes. This is the first step to prevent technostress and its related
techno-stressors, and enduring happy, healthy, and satisfied staffs, and an efficient and
productive organization (Brivio et al., 2018). There have been several attempts in
organizations to counteract techno-stressors (Dello lacovo, 2012; Tarquini, 2014). A
scientific approach proven to be highly effective in producing a positive change is Positive
Psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Seligman, 2002), with its derivative
Positive Technology (Calvo & Peters, 2012; Riva et al., 2012, 2014). Positive Psychology
postulates that personal experiences can be leveraged to foster well-being and personal
growth. Similarly, Positive Technology is “the scientific and applied approach to the use of
technology for improving the quality of our personal experience” (Riva et al., 2012).
Figure 24. Positive Technology domains and their application to organizational safety
culture
(adapted from Riva et al., 2012).
As modelled by Riva et al. (2012), the Positive Technology domains are shown in the lower
part of Figure 24, while the corresponding indicator of organizational culture protection is
shown at the top. The combined output of these actions will create positive experiences while
working through IT instruments and reduce techno-stress at the organizational level. It should
be noted that the work culture of the organization mediates between the result of the
organization and the use of technology. The following are all three areas of personal
experience influenced by Positive Technology:
(i) Hedonic: at the individual level, positive emotions can be induced if the technologies are
well designed and compatible to the role of a particular staff within the library.
(ii) Eudaimonic: a technology within a work setting can generate an effect at this level if it is
designed correctly, and the staff training of the library is performed accordingly.
(iii) Social/interpersonal: many libraries are moving toward systems that exploit
collaborative intelligence processes, requiring their staffs to communicate with each
other to generate a competitive advantage.
All the three above areas can be used as a suggestive measure to identify the root cause of
technostress and may be applied both in a preventive and a corrective way. Previous literature
shows that the Positive Technology approach rarely has been applied preventively, but the
preventive perspective may prove to have more impactful and lasting effects, both on
employees and organizations, as it can be easily included in an organization’s safety culture
(Brivio et al., 2018). Though this is only a theoretical framework and this approach is neither
100% accurate nor without limitations. It can't be possible for all organization to structure
their certain IT infrastructure to stimulate the hedonic, eudemonic, and social/interpersonal
levels of personal experience separately. Again, the working efficiency of this model can
only be judged after its successful implementation & through observation.
Conclusion
Thus, it is evident that in the 21st century, ICTs has undoubtedly revolutionized modern-day
life, but at the same time, it has also brought with it new problems. Today the application of
technology has become a trend in libraries as technology has generally been found to enhance
the efficiency and effectiveness of library services. Nevertheless, it is essential to realize the
negative impacts of technology. It has become very critical in recent times for library
professionals to be abreast with the latest technology to continue to be relevant in their
profession. Library professionals need to adjust themselves with the changing library
environment and new formats of technologies; develop new technical skills and learn to
handle different metadata available in the library. Libraries should select both hardware and
software applications that fit their working environment. This is essential because the library
environment will keep changing to keep pace with technological developments. Hence it is
necessary to create awareness about technostress and its effects and possible ways to manage
it. The Positive Technology approach for Technostress also give a theoretical framework &
three possible suggestions for the prevention and managing of technostress in organizational
level. Ultimately it can be conclude that, the easier the library professional interact with the
technological system, the less technostress will be created.
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Further Reading:
Clark, K. & Kalin, S. (1996). Technostressed out? How to cope in the digital age. Library
Journal. 121(13), 30–32. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ529677
Davis-Millis, N. (1998). Technostress and the Organization - A Manager's Guide to
Survival in the Information Age. https://web.mit.edu/ninadm/www/mla.htm
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Chronicle of Higher Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ462778
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