Join the 2026 panel study
How are we affected by technostress, both as individual technology users and as policy makers?
Three years ago, IDEWE conducted a panel study on technostress together with KU Leuven and Tilburg University. We are now launching this study’s successor. “While we will indeed be exploring the negative impact of technostressors on job performance, we will also look for effects relating to innovative work behaviour, learning and the influence of factors such as confidence in one’s own abilities,” explains researcher Tinne Vander Elst. Moreover, the researchers also wish to explore the impact of worries about cybersecurity on employees and policymakers this time around.
AI and other technological developments are intended to provide inspiration, reduce the need for repetitive tasks and make people’s jobs easier. In practice digitalisation introduces its own challenges.
Searching for techno-security
“We found a clear negative correlation between technostressors and aspects such as job satisfaction, wellbeing and performance back in 2023,” says Tinne. “More specifically, this involved feelings of techno-overload (the impulse to work more, faster and longer), techno-invasion (employees being accessible anywhere and at all times due to technology), techno-complexity (work tasks becoming more difficult), techno-insecurity (fear of job displacement) and techno-uncertainty (technology leading to constant change). We found that nearly one in five respondents had a high score for techno-uncertainty. We definitely want to explore that in more detail in this new study. Additionally, we want to investigate the extent to which people are affected by a sixth stressor: techno-threats. This is the fear of falling victim to phishing or a cyberattack, for example due to unsecure passwords or the accidental use of cc instead of bcc in emails. We know from our own experience that it is a concern for individual users, but to what extent is cybersecurity also a stressor for policymakers? Our previous study did not address this aspect.”
Influence of stable personality traits
“Unlike in our previous study, besides exploring correlations with wellbeing and job performance, we also want to investigate the impact on innovative work behaviour and learning in the workplace. How do technostressors affect the generation and implementation of creative ideas? And what is the influence of personality traits such as ‘self-efficacy’, the confidence in one’s own ability to complete a task or solve a problem successfully? Could these compensate for the negative effects of technostress? Are more ambitious people with a more positive mindset regarding learning and development better at coping with technostressors than those who are more focused on safety and risk avoidance?”
Participation
The study consists of a multiple-choice questionnaire that will be made available in four rounds. The first round will take place between 24 and 31 March 2026, with the others scheduled for April, May and June.
From the second round of surveys onwards, you will have the chance to win one of five Fnac-Vanden Borre vouchers worth €50 for each survey completed (note: 567 people took part in the competition for the second survey during the previous panel study). Anyone who takes part in several survey rounds has multiple chances of winning.
You must be 18 or older and in paid employment to take part.