Leadership Style and Technostress

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) infiltrate nearly every aspect of modern life. This pervasive technological revolution has led to significant growth in the utilization of ICTs. One specific undesirable phenomenon suggested to originate from the use of ICTs at home and at work is known as technostress. At the workplace, technostress not only impairs performance, productivity, employee commitment, and job satisfaction, but also increases the incidence of absenteeism and turnover. To date, the literature has not considered the impact that leadership style may have on the prevalence of technostress in practice. Utilizing a multiple linear regression analysis, this study evaluated whether transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire leadership styles and demographic factors including age, gender, education, and industry experience, influenced the perceived level of technostress in information technology managers working in the United States between the ages of 18 to 65. Results indicated that both transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles were statistically significant and positively influenced technostress.