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This study aims to examine some of the benefits and drawbacks of communication visibility. Specifically, building on communication visibility theory, the authors study how and why message transparency and network translucence may increase knowledge reuse and perceived overload through behavioral responses of vicarious learning and technology-assisted supplemental work.

Drawing on survey data obtained from 1,127 employees of a global company operating in the industrial machinery sector, the authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized model.

The results demonstrate that the two aspects of communication visibility yield somewhat differential benefits and drawbacks in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload, through vicarious learning and supplemental work practices.

The results demonstrate the relationship between different aspects of communication visibility and knowledge reuse, specifically through vicarious learning. Furthermore, the findings highlight a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work. Overall, network translucence seems more beneficial compared to message transparency in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload.

The study connects with recent work on communication visibility by distinguishing differential direct and indirect effects of message transparency and network translucence. It also extends this work by testing relationships between communication visibility and a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work.

This paper investigates the moderating role of multitasking computer self-efficacy on the relationship between social media affordances and social media overload as well as its moderation between social media overload and social media fatigue.

The authors hypothesize that social media affordances will have a positive impact on social media overload (i.e. information and communication overload). They also hypothesize that social media overload will affect social media fatigue. In addition, they hypothesize that multitasking computer self-efficacy will attenuate the effect of social media affordances on both information overload and communication overload. Similarly, they also hypothesize that multitasking computer self-efficacy will attenuate the effects of both information overload and communication overload on fatigue. The authors test this model by collecting two-wave data from 220 professionals using PLS techniques.

Social media affordances have significant impacts on information overload, but not on communication overload. In turn, information overload and communication overload significantly affect social media fatigue. Multitasking computer self-efficacy was found to attenuate the effect of social media affordances on both information overload and communication overload. Furthermore, the study results suggest that multitasking computer self-efficacy attenuates the effect of information overload and reinforces the effect of communication overload on social media fatigue.

Most prior literature focused on students rather than on professionals. There is a lack of research that investigates how the affordances of social media relate to social media overload and fatigue. Furthermore, research that investigates mitigating mechanisms of social media fatigue has been rare. This paper fills these important research gaps.

During the digital media era with an explosion of messages, the prevalence of what is known as “message fatigue” has grown. However, there is a lack of understanding toward message fatigue in using instant messengers. Based on the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study provides a theoretical model to explore possible predictors and consequences of instant messaging fatigue.

The hypothesized model includes communication overload, social overload, instant messaging fatigue, technology and behavioral intention to use instant messaging. Three hundred and eleven responses are collected using an online survey. The authors conduct structural equation modeling to evaluate the hypothesized model and test the hypotheses.

This study reveals that (1) communication overload and social overload are positively associated with instant messaging fatigue and technostress; (2) higher levels of instant messaging fatigue and technostress are also related to a higher level of intention to discontinue usage; (3) technostress significantly mediates the relationship between instant messaging fatigue and intention to discontinue usage of instant messaging.

This study is limited to collect data from one university in the United States with a cross-sectional design. Future research should include other countries, different age groups and longitudinal methods to examine instant messaging fatigue.

This study extends existing findings on fatigue in using mobile communication by applying the stressor-strain-outcome framework to IM fatigue and improves the understanding of the potential negative aspects of instant messaging.

Social media overload and fatigue have become common phenomena that are negatively affecting people's well-being and productivity. It is, therefore, important to understand the causes of social media overload and fatigue. One of the reasons why many people engage with social media is to avoid boredom. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how boredom proneness relates to social media overload and fatigue.

Building on the stress–strain–outcome framework, this paper tests a model hypothesizing the relationships between a social media user's boredom proneness, information and communication overload, and social media fatigue. The study tests the model by collecting data from 286 social media users.

The results suggest a strong association between boredom proneness and both information and communication overload, which, in turn, are strongly associated with social media fatigue. In addition, social media usage was found to amplify the effects of information overload on social media fatigue, but, unexpectedly, attenuates the effects of communication overload.

Prior research has largely overlooked the connection between boredom and problematic social media use. The present study addresses this important gap by developing and testing a research model relating boredom proneness to social media overload and fatigue.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of social network sites (SNS) overload on individual job performance and discontinuous usage intention.

Based on the Stressor-Strain-Outcome (SSO) framework, a research model was proposed and tested empirically. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was applied to data collected online through a questionnaire.

Findings highlighted that social overload is related positively to information overload and communication overload. Information overload affected only the perception of work overload, while communication overload was a significant stressor affecting work overload and dissatisfaction towards SNS. Although results revealed a positive relationship between these two strains, only dissatisfaction influenced job performance and discontinuous usage intention.

As much as SNS are a useful tool in the workplace, they can have significant drawbacks. Prior studies have investigated this dark side. However, they scantily explored the effects of SNS overload on both job performance and discontinuous usage intention. Moreover, the relationships between types of overload are understudied. This paper proposes an enrichment of the literature by validating a model of the relationships between information overload, communication overload and social overload, job performance and discontinuous usage intention. It extends prior research on SNS stressors and points out the communication overload as the main SNS stressor affecting strains in the workplace.

This study is based on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model to examine how job demands and technology overload affect work stress for workers using video conferencing apps (VCAs) in organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the moderating effect of technology self-efficacy was tested in the model on the relationship between technology overload and work stress.

An online survey was conducted to investigate workers on PTT forums in Taiwan. A sample was obtained of 253 workers, and structural equation modeling was conducted using AMOS to test the hypotheses.

Job demands positively affect work stress through information overload, communication overload and system feature overload. Moreover, high technology self-efficacy may weaken the relationship between technology overload and work stress.

The study may have sample bias because our sample was obtained from an online survey on social networking sites. Regarding the theoretical implications, this study demonstrated that technology overload, as an internal organism, is a critical mediator influencing the relationship between job demands (stimulus) and work stress (response). Thus, this study extended the applicability of the SOR model in the context of working with VCAs in organizations.

Company managers need to effectively control the information amount, communication interruptions and system features of social media at optimum levels for workers. Moreover, companies should recruit workers with high technology self-efficacy or provide technology training and technology-related consulting to those with low technology self-efficacy.

The extant work stress knowledge is extended to workers using VCAs in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of excessive social media use on individual job performance and its exact mechanism. An extended stressor–strain–outcome research model is proposed to explain how excessive social media use at work influences individual job performance.

The research model was empirically tested with an online survey study of 230 working professionals who use social media in organizations.

The results revealed that excessive social media use was a determinant of three types of social media overload (i.e. information, communication and social overload). Information and communication overload were significant stressors that influence social media exhaustion, while social overload was not a significant predictor of exhaustion. Furthermore, social media exhaustion significantly reduces individual job performance.

Theory-driven investigation of the effects of excessive social media use on individual job performance is still relatively scarce, underscoring the need for theoretically-based research of excessive social media use at work. This paper enriches social media research by presenting an extended stressor–strain–outcome model to explore the exact mechanism of excessive use of social media at work, and identifying three components of social media-related overload, including information, communication and social overload. It is an initial attempt to systematically validate the casual relationships among excessive usage experience, overload, exhaustion and individual job performance based on the transactional theory of stress and coping.

This study aims to provide insight on the meaning of communication overload as experienced by modern academic librarians. Communication is the essence of reference librarianship, and a practically endless array of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools (ICTs) are available to facilitate communication.

This study relied on a phenomenological methodology, which included nine in‐depth interviews with academic librarians. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using RQDA, a qualitative analysis software package that facilitates coding, category building, and project management.

Seven themes about librarianship emerged from this research: attending to communication abundance, librarians of two types, instruction not reference, twenty‐first century librarianship, user needs, trusted methods: filter not retrieve, and self‐impact. The shared meaning of communication overload among these librarians is that it is a problem when it detracts from or hinders their ability to assist their users.

Further research should contribute to an understanding of communication as a problem when it interferes with serving the librarians' users, or to an understanding of interpersonal communication within the librarians' organizational structures and in their broader professional networks.

Research in popular psychology has focused on the negative impacts on productivity and concentration of living in an always‐plugged‐in environment. This research confirms that librarians should have time to work away from digital distractions to maintain job satisfaction.

Important work by Radford and Dervin has focused on communication with users. This study focuses on the impact of ICTs on librarians' work and personal lives.

The purpose of this study is to examine how technology overload (system feature, information, and communication overload) influences salespeople’s role stress (role conflict and role ambiguity), effort to use technology and performance. This research examines whether these relationships are linear or quadratic. It also examines the moderating effect of salespeople’s technology self-efficacy.

Salespeople at a national company providing services to small and medium companies were surveyed via an online instrument to measure key constructs and control variables. Over 200 usable responses resulted; structural equation model was used to analyze the data.

Results show that dimensions of technology overload had linear and/or quadratic relationships with role stress, effort to use technology and performance. Salesperson’s technology self-efficacy moderated the relationship between technology overload, effort to use the technology and performance.

The benefits from new technology are not always linear. Managers should regulate the timing of technology improvements, as well as the availability of information, communication and system features, to reduce role stress and enhance efforts to use technologies.

Drawing on the job demand and resource model, this research demonstrates that technology used as a job resource will aid the salesperson and company; however, when technology overload exists, it becomes a job demand with the potential to enhance role stress and decrease salesperson performance.

The authors investigate the relationship between instant messenger (IM) use and work performance, mediated by interruptions and two key indicators of the stress associated with technology use: overload and complexity.

The authors validate this research model using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with data collected through a survey of 416 working professionals.

The data reveal that while IM use contributes minimally to work interruptions and to a greater extent to technological complexity, these two constructs fully mediate the direct influence of IM use at work on technology overload, and meanwhile significantly and directly contribute to work performance.

This research provides theoretical insights into the deployment of IM and its actual impacts in the workplace. To improve the generalisation of the findings, the authors call for more IM-related research in other countries, with more native theories and various methodologies in this domain.

The level of stress generated through IM use is moderate, considering IM is not a significant contributor to work interruptions. Thus, despite the potential negative effects of IM communication, the positive effects of using IM at work prevail. As a result, the technology can be promoted as long as employees, their managers and the organisation as a whole are well prepared. Employees can transfer skills and behaviour from the personal setting to their work environment and thus may find an intrinsic motivation to make better use of the IM technology at work.

The authors argue that this research model is novel for its perspective on evaluating the actual impacts of IM use at work instead of the reasons of using it. The authors conceptualise the process to explain how IM contributes to interruptions and other technostress indicators in the working context, and the impact on performance. Contrary to some prior research, the authors find that overall IM applications do not have a negative impact on work performance, and instead may enhance it.