Technostress in academia: The mediating role of autonomy satisfaction and frustration in academic staff's technostress, turnover intention and intrinsic motivation

This study investigates the extent to which academic staff in Norway (N = 327) experience stress related to the digitalization of their daily work, and how such digital stress—commonly referred to as technostress (TS)—may influence intrinsic motivation and turnover intention. Previous research has not to our knowledge examined how TS relates to what self-determination theory identifies as the most salient basic psychological need: Autonomy. Applying Structural equation modelling, the present study examined how autonomy satisfaction and autonomy frustration mediate the relationship between TS and two key outcomes: turnover intention and intrinsic motivation. Overall, the study found support for all proposed hypotheses. University employees who reported high levels of TS were more likely to express lower levels of intrinsic motivation and intentions to leave the profession compared to employees experiencing low levels of TS. Furthermore, both autonomy satisfaction and autonomy frustration fully mediated the relationship between TS and the outcome variables. The findings have important implications, demonstrating that autonomy may serve as a counteractive factor by fully mediating the association between TS and adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. Educational implications are discussed in relation to future research and adaptive digitalization procedures in the realm of higher education.