The emergence of technostress in software development work: Technostressors and underlying factors

Abstract

Software development is a fast-growing market that is heavily tied to information technology (IT) use. Despite the high utilization of IT and high stress levels of software developers, research has largely neglected the effect of IT use on stress experienced by software developers. To address this gap in the research, we employ the concept of technostress. Prior technostress research has found many technostress-creating factors that cause severe negative consequences for both organizations and their employees. Despite these advancements, little is known about how technostress emerges in different organizational contexts and the underlying factors behind the technostress creators in these contexts. We conducted a qualitative study using the critical incident technique to uncover these factors and relevant technostress creators in the context of software development. We utilized a questionnaire with open-ended and closed-ended questions to collect descriptions of technostress experiences from 406 software developers. The current research identifies 21 influencing factors and 10 technostress creators to be relevant in software development, hence contributing to the technostress literature. We also contribute to software development research by explaining how the use of IT contributes to the stress experienced by software developers.