The Impact of Interruptions on Technology Usage: Exploring Interdependencies Between Demands from Interruptions, Worker Control, and Role-Based Stress

Mobile technologies have dramatically increased the number of work-related interruptions. In many organizations, employees have to remain accessible and respond to these technology-mediated (T-M) interruptions even after regular work hours. At the same time, most employees have limited freedom to decide how and when they accomplish their tasks, a work condition that renders the explosion of T-M interruptions problematic. When people have limited control over their work environment, they cannot adapt their work schedules and methods to the additional demands from T-M interruptions, potentially leading them to be stressed and, in turn, to shy away from using the technologies that create these interruptions. Hence, we propose that demands from T-M interruptions negatively affect work-related IT-usage via workers’ experiences of stress and that this indirect effect depends on worker control. Psychological and physiological data (salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase) will be collected and analyzed through advanced procedures for testing moderated-mediation effects.