You Perceive What You Believe: The Impact of Psychological Beliefs on Perceived Technostress

Abstract

Research in technostress examines how and why the use of information and communication technologies causes individuals to experience an imbalance between demands and the ability to meet them. In this paper, we develop a new approach for explaining differences in the perceived level of technostress between individuals. We propose that psychological beliefs have an impact on the level of perceived technostress. In a web-based survey (N=159) we collected data on perceived technostress and two essential beliefs, namely locus of control and self-efficacy, to test our proposition. The results confirm that perceived technostress is significantly dependent on the individual’s beliefs. In particular, the higher the sense of self-efficacy of an individual is, the lower is the level of perceived technostress. Similarly, individuals with an internal locus of control are less prone to technostress than individuals with an external locus of control.