Journal publication · 2022
Dahabiyeh, L., Najjar, M. S., & Wang, G. (2022). Online teaching during COVID-19 crisis: The role of technostress and emotional dissonance on online teaching exhaustion and teaching staff productivity. The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 39(2), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-09-2021-0147
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A single harmful-stress story predicts similar adverse outcomes across different technology-related demands.
Reconsider
In this crisis sample, some stressors accompany higher productivity, even while exhaustion also rises.
Implication
Support learning and coping while monitoring the exhaustion that output alone may conceal.
Treating technostress as one uniformly harmful experience obscures how its different components relate to work outcomes during a crisis.
In a survey of 217 Jordanian university teachers during COVID-19, techno-uncertainty is associated with less exhaustion and higher self-reported productivity. Techno-insecurity and negative emotional dissonance are associated with both greater exhaustion and higher productivity.
Concept explorer
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In this crisis sample, techno-uncertainty was associated with less exhaustion and higher self-reported productivity, contrary to the predicted relationships.
The study found an association with both greater exhaustion and higher self-reported productivity; higher output did not imply lower strain.
In the fitted model, exhaustion mediated the overload–productivity relationship, revealing a cost not captured by the direct effect alone.
The study tests five technostress creators separately during an abrupt crisis transition, identifying opposing and non-significant relationships that an aggregate stress measure could obscure.
PDF pp. 11, 13–17; printed pp. 107, 109–113.
Integrating established technostress and emotional-dissonance theories explains more of the teaching setting. The original contribution is their contextual integration and empirical findings, not invention of either theory.
PDF pp. 1, 16–19; printed pp. 97, 112–115.
The authors recommend early technology training, work–life boundaries and psychological support. A positive productivity association does not justify deliberately increasing insecurity or emotional strain.
PDF p. 18; printed p. 114.
Application suggested by the findings: when assessing a rapid digital transition, examine exhaustion alongside output so that short-term performance does not hide depleted resources.
PDF pp. 16–19; printed pp. 112–115.
Why this matters
The findings challenge leaders to look beyond apparent output when evaluating the human consequences of rapid technology adoption. Applying them to AI adoption would be a further application, not an AI finding of this study.
Discuss this researchA convenience sample of 217 academics in Jordan, surveyed in May–June 2020, with self-reported cross-sectional data. Relationships are associations; explanations involving coping and appraisal are proposed interpretations, not directly established mechanisms. Generalisation beyond this crisis context requires further research.
Sample, PLS-SEM results, unexpected directions and mediation findings.
Training, work–life balance, support and country/sample limitations.
This exploration is based on the author-supplied full text. It distinguishes the paper’s own contribution from established concepts it draws on. For formal citation, consult the publication.