Technology Use, Technology Acceptance, and Degree of Employee Burnout

Abstract

The aim of the investigation was to identify the relationship between technology use, technology acceptance and employee’s burnout. The purpose of this was to expand the field of existing knowledge related to the relationship between technology use and employee burnout, by investigating the mediating role of technology acceptance. By adopting a quantitative methodological design, an online survey instrument was used to gather information from a sample of 368 employees. The survey instrument was comprised of three sections focused around technology use factors, burnout factors and technology acceptance factors. These survey instruments were created in line with the prominent theories i.e. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model and Burnout Model. Statistical Package of Social Science was used to analyse the research findings and test the set of 4 research hypothesis through factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation metrics and regression analysis. Results of the study confirmed that there is a positive relationship between the technology use and employee burnout (H1 t = 6.684, p. = 0.000), positive relationship between technology used technology acceptance (H2 t = 15.764, p. = 0.000), positive relationship between technology acceptance and employee burnout (H3 t = 4.806, p. = 0.000). These results, however, did not support the mediating role of technology acceptance in shaping the relationship between technology use and employee burnout (H4 t = 0.877, p. = 0.381). The findings of the study would be helpful in extracting two-way relationship between the burnout and technology acceptance and technology use i.e. increased use of technology can also lead to employees’ burnout. Personal acquaintance with the research participants may have induced an honest opinion. The business organizations should not palter with the use of advanced technology and consider the adverse effects of role ambiguity and workload. The study is first of its kind investigating the two-direction relationship between technology use and burnout.