Physician Burnout: A Technology-based Reification of Competing Logics View

Abstract

Physician burnout has become a major concern for healthcare organizations and society as the increasing use of technology along with other changes have dramatically altered healthcare delivery in recent years. While prior research on burnout has offered explanations of a “dark side” of technology, it has not sufficiently captured the complexity of the institutional context in healthcare. To address this research gap, we develop a theoretical framework of physician burnout that considers both institutional issues and job demands/resources related to healthcare delivery. Drawing on the institutional logics literature, we identify four competing logics that shape physician responses to day-to-day interactions with technology and institutional issues. We contribute to IS literature by theorizing that when technology reifies competing logics, the technology—which was intended to be a job resource—becomes a source of increasing job demands while simultaneously reducing worker autonomy that could have buffered the impact of those increasing demands.