A study conducted by an MBA class at Strathmore Business School this year found out that many professionals in Kenya are now suffering from Technostress. Technostress was defined by Craig Brod in his 1984 book ‘Technostress: the Human Cost of the Computer Revolution’ as "a modern disease of adaptation caused by inability to cope with the new computer technologies in a healthy manner.

Fifty-eight percent of the 125 respondents surveyed said that they manifested stress-related symptoms caused by technology at their workplaces. The survey was conducted in organisations in various sectors including banking, media, engineering, finance, transport, and the public sector.

The respondents’ age ranged from early 20s to above 60 years and included workers in support and clerical roles to senior management. The respondents were chosen randomly and clustered in organisational hierarchy.

The most common symptoms of technostress included anxiety; fatigue, headaches, absence of emotion, and irritability. The findings of the survey confirmed what Laudon and Laudon said in their 2006 book that: “humans working continuously with computers come to expect other humans and human institutions to behave like computers by providing instant responses, attentiveness, and absence of emotions.”

Another significant symptom reported by some ten percent of respondents affected by technostress is their use/abuse of alcohol and other drugs as a result of technostress. Similarly, fourteen percent of respondents admitted that technostress is affecting their family relationships.

It was deduced from the study that there is a marginal indication of women being more prone to technostress than men. But this is more indicative than definitive as statistics alone cannot show causality and more research needs to done to establish for instance why women tend to be more stressed than men.

There is apparently a negative relationship between stress and age. Professionals below 39 years of age seem to be more stressed by technology than older people. Similarly, technostress is experienced more by professionals in lower management and middle management than in support, clerical and top management. This could be as a result of pressure to maintain technological competence that pushes this group to keep up with changes in technology.

One of the conclusions that the class made from the survey was that work design be balanced in such a manner that does not make tasks overly dependent on computers -whatever task that can be efficiently and effectively manually carried out need not be done through computers. Technology scholars Caro and Sethi say that organizations have the responsibility to introduce, diffuse, and manage ICTs in congruence with the principles of sound, supportive and humanistic management.

In 2006, ICT scholars Laudon and Laudon pointed out that technostress is one of the factors that contribute to high levels of job turnover in the ICTs industry, and the high levels of early retirements in the industry.

ICTs have become a part of every worker’s life – personally as well as socially, culturally, and politically. It is unlikely that the issues and the choices will become easier as information technology continues to transform the world and many social issues will emerge as we move into the first digital century.

 By:  Dr Freddie Acosta
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