Coping with technostress-related goal hindrances: multidimensional and hierarchical nature of goals

Abstract

Purpose – While considerable attention has been directed towards identifying antecedents and consequences of technostress in various contexts, research is lagging on its mitigation, especially in personal use contexts. Here, we explain how individuals employ coping to shield their humanistic and instrumental goals from technostress-related hindrances in personal smartphone use. As individuals’ goals can be considered pivotal in shaping their lives as worthwhile, identifying solutions for managing the negative consequences of technostress on, for instance, users’ well-being and productivity, is paramount. By focusing on smartphones, which are used by billions, we provide impactful insight relevant for numerous stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – We conducted qualitative research by collecting and analyzing rich data (semi-structured interviews) from 38 smartphone users. Findings – By investigating coping with smartphone-related technostress that manifests as hindrances to users’ humanistic (e.g. attaining meaningful life) and instrumental (e.g. managing personal information) goals and their sub-goals (e.g. experiencing happiness and maintaining information security, respectively), we address the multidimensional and hierarchical nature of goals. We further extend this perspective by examining how coping relates to goal explicitness: anticipatory coping tends to prevail when goals are explicit, while reactive coping is more common with implicit goals. Additionally, we showed that users' goals, technostress, and the associated coping can be in conflict, requiring goal prioritization from users. Originality/value – We address an important gap in the literature by examining the intricate dynamics of coping with the unintended outcomes of personal smartphone use manifesting as technostress-related hindrances to users’ goals.