Is There a Sampling Bias in Research on Work-Related Technostress? A Systematic Review of Occupational Exposure to Technostress and the Role of Socioeconomic Position

• Main Authors: Prem Borle, Kathrin Reichel, Susanne Voelter-Mahlknecht
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: socioeconomic status; occupational status; digital divide; precarious labour; platform work; digitalisation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/2071
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

Technostress is a widespread model used to study negative effects of using information communication technologies at work. The aim of this review is to assess the role of socioeconomic position (SEP) in research on work-related technostress. We conducted systematic searches in multidisciplinary databases (PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycInfo, PsycArticles) in June 2020 and independently screened 321 articles against eligibility criteria (working population, technostress exposure, health or work outcome, quantitative design). Of the 21 studies included in the narrative synthesis, three studies did not collect data on SEP, while 18 studies operationalised SEP as education (eight), job position (five), SEP itself (two) or both education as well as job position (three). Findings regarding differences by SEP are inconclusive, with evidence of high SEP reporting more frequent exposure to overall technostress. In a subsample of 11 studies reporting data on educational attainment, we compared the percentage of university graduates to World Bank national statistics and found that workers with high SEP are overrepresented in nine of 11 studies. The resulting socioeconomic sampling bias limits the scope of the technostress model to high SEP occupations. The lack of findings regarding differences by SEP in technostress can partly be attributed to limitations in study designs. Studies should aim to reduce the heterogeneity of technostress and SEP measures to improve external validity and generalisability across socioeconomic groups. Future research on technostress would benefit from developing context-sensitive SEP measures and quality appraisal tools that identify socioeconomic sampling biases by comparing data to national statistics.