Associations of work- and personal-life-related techno-stressors with emotional exhaustion, sickness absenteeism, and turnover intentions in public administration

Buzeti, Jernej (author), Dečman, Mitja (author), Kristl, Nina (author)

Digital technology is increasingly embedded in our professional lives, exposing us to various techno-stressors. Based on the Stressor-Strain-Outcome (SSO) model, we developed a holistic perspective on technostress and a research model to investigate how work-related and personal-life-related techno-stressors among employees in public administration organizations impact emotional exhaustion, sickness absenteeism, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, we investigated how psychological resilience moderates the relationship between work-related and personal-life-related techno-stressors and emotional exhaustion. The study was conducted in public administration organizations in Slovenia and included 1191 employees in the study sample. We used structural equation modeling to test the proposed research model. We found that some work-related techno-stressors significantly associated with employees emotional exhaustion. Among the personal-life-related techno-stressors, information overload demonstrated positive association with emotional exhaustion. In addition, emotional exhaustion was positively related to sickness absenteeism and turnover intention. Although no direct association between techno-stressors and sickness absenteeism was observed, our findings demonstrate that techno-stressors are indirectly linked to sickness absenteeism via emotional exhaustion. This study thus provides the first known empirical evidence of the indirect associations between techno-stressors and sickness absenteeism through emotional exhaustion, thereby filling a notable research gap.

• Language: English
• Keywords: technostress, ICT–related job demands, sickness absence, intention to leave, emotional fatigue, mental resilience, public sector employees
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FU - Faculty of Administration
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 17 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 266, [article no.] 106772
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181475
• UDC: 35:331.316.2"374.6"
• ISSN on article: 1873-6297
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106772
• COBISS.SI-ID: 274575875
• Publication date in RUL: 08.04.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Acta psychologica
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• ISSN: 1873-6297
• COBISS.SI-ID: 56342019

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: tehnostres, z delom povezane zahteve IKT, bolniška odsotnost, namera za odhod, čustvena izčrpanost, duševna odpornost, zaposleni v javnem sektorju

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0426
• Name: Digitalna preobrazba za pametno javno upravljanje