Technostress and employee well-being: A systematic review of empirical evidence
Citation. Mansuroğlu, E., & Smith, A. P. (2026). Technostress and employee well-being: A systematic review of empirical evidence. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 21, Article 100941. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2026.100941
Summary. Mansuroğlu and Smith systematically review 201 peer-reviewed empirical studies on technostress and employee well-being. They synthesize technostress as a multidimensional digital-work stressor shaped by demands, resources, individual differences, and context, with techno-overload and techno-invasion most consistently linked to adverse well-being outcomes. The review proposes the Demands-Resources-Individual Effects (DRIVE) model, paired with the Well-being Process Questionnaire (WPQ), as an integrative framework for measuring and managing technostress in organizational settings.
Key claims
- Across the reviewed studies, techno-overload appeared in 122 studies and techno-invasion in 110 studies, making them the most commonly reported technostressors linked to emotional exhaustion, burnout, lower job satisfaction, work-home conflict, and reduced psychological well-being.
- Technostress effects are not uniform: techno-complexity appeared in 105 studies and can contribute to cognitive overload and reduced self-efficacy, but some studies also treat complexity or uncertainty as potential techno-eustress when employees have competence, autonomy, or supportive conditions.
- The evidence base is concentrated geographically and sectorally: Germany (n = 22), Italy (n = 21), India (n = 16), the UK (n = 11), and the United States (n = 11) are heavily represented, with education (49 studies) and healthcare (24 studies) the most common single-sector contexts.
- Social, organizational, and leadership support repeatedly act as buffers, but support effects differ by stressor; for example, empowering leadership can reduce the effects of techno-invasion while amplifying techno-overload.
- The review identifies major evidence gaps in longitudinal, cross-cultural, occupational-role-specific, and intervention research, with only 18 longitudinal studies found across the reviewed corpus.
- The authors argue that organizations should monitor technostress as an occupational health issue, simplify digital tool environments, clarify communication protocols, provide digital skills training and mental-health support, and use differentiated interventions rather than one-size-fits-all digital well-being programs.
Evidence & limitations
- Evidence comes from a peer-reviewed open-access systematic review in Computers in Human Behavior Reports that searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science and retained 201 empirical studies after double screening.
- The review is useful for construct mapping and evidence aggregation, but it synthesizes heterogeneous study designs rather than estimating pooled effect sizes through meta-analysis.
- The corpus is limited to English-language indexed publications and excludes grey literature, which may narrow global applicability and omit emerging practitioner evidence.
- The authors note that the search strategy may have missed newer or adjacent constructs such as telepressure, technosuffering, and technostrain when they did not appear in titles or keywords.