The digital workplace and its dark side: An integrative review

Marsh, Elizabeth; Vallejos, Elvira Perez; Spence, Alexa

Abstract

An intensification of digital working driven by Covid-19 has brought into sharp focus both the beneficial nature of digital workplace technologies and their potential dark side. Research has burgeoned in this area in recent years, but an integrated view across fields, technologies, dark side effects and outcomes is lacking. There are potential insights to be gained from compiling and comparing results and theoretical approaches. Following integrative review procedures, 194 studies were analysed to understand unintended negative consequences of a range of workplace technologies across disciplines and methodologies. The results demonstrate that considerable insight has been uncovered regarding certain dark side effects, stress in particular, in relation to e-mail and smartphones. However, a broader view of how they might manifest in relation to employees’ holistic digital experience of work beyond certain information and communication technologies (ICTs) is lacking, including a clear picture of objective demands of the technology with which these effects are associated. Much remains to be understood across the full range of dark side effects in relation to the digital workplace including the associations between them and how they relate to cognitive and affective outcomes. The importance of both theoretical rigour and diversity is highlighted.

Citation

Marsh, E., Vallejos, E. P., & Spence, A. (2022). The digital workplace and its dark side: An integrative review. Computers in Human Behavior, 128, Article 107118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.107118

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 24, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Nov 29, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-03
• Deposit Date: Jun 10, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 9, 2021
• Journal: Computers in Human Behavior
• Print ISSN: 0747-5632
• Publisher: Elsevier BV
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 128
• Article Number: 107118
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.107118
• Keywords: Digital workplace; Technostress; Overload; Addiction; Integrative literature review
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5653788
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563221004416?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The digital workplace and its dark side: An integrative review; Journal Title: Computers in Human Behavior; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.107118; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.