Electronic communication in the workplace: boon or bane?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review technostress-related challenges arising out of workplace communication, for employees and organizations, and to provide suggestions for taking these challenges on.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents an overview of current research and practice in the area of technostress-related challenges workplace communication.

Findings

Employees face technostress challenges relating to workplace communication in the form of technology overload, interruptions and work-home interferences. Organizations have to strike a balance between giving employees the technology they want and protecting them from these challenges. Several interventions to strike such balance are reviewed and commented on.

Practical implications

The paper gives practitioners an accessible overview of current research and practice in the area of technostress from workplace communication such as e-mail. A number of practical interventions are reviewed and commented on, which could help employees tackle such challenges.

Originality/value

Although this paper reviews state-of-the-art research, it is written in an accessible and practitioner-oriented style, which should be found valuable by readers with limited time but urgency to deal with technostress challenges arising out of workplace communication.

Citation

Stich, J.-F., Tarafdar, M. and Cooper, C.L. (2018), "Electronic communication in the workplace: boon or bane?", Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 98-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOEPP-05-2017-0046