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E-mail as a Source and Symbol of Stress

Authors:

Stephen R. Barley,

Debra E. Meyerson,

Stine GrodalAuthors Info & Claims

Organization Science, Volume 22, Issue 4

Pages 887 - 906

https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0573

Published: 01 July 2011 Publication History

Abstract

The increasing volume of e-mail and other technologically enabled communications are widely regarded as a growing source of stress in people's lives. Yet research also suggests that new media afford people additional flexibility and control by enabling them to communicate from anywhere at any time. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, this paper builds theory that unravels this apparent contradiction. As the literature would predict, we found that the more time people spent handling e-mail, the greater was their sense of being overloaded, and the more e-mail they processed, the greater their perceived ability to cope. Contrary to assumptions of prior studies, we found no evidence that time spent working mediates e-mail-related overload. Instead, e-mail's material properties entwined with social norms and interpretations in a way that led informants to single out e-mail as a cultural symbol of the overload they experience in their lives. Moreover, by serving as a symbol, e-mail distracted people from recognizing other sources of overload in their work lives. Our study deepens our understanding of the impact of communication technologies on people's lives and helps untangle those technologies' seemingly contradictory influences.

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cover image Organization Science

Organization Science Volume 22, Issue 4

July 2011

284 pages

ISSN:1526-5455

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Linthicum, MD, United States

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Published: 01 July 2011

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3597503.3639079
Scholze AHecker A(2024)The job demands-resources model as a theoretical lens for the bright and dark side of digitizationComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2024.108177155:COnline publication date: 1-Jun-2024
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