Technostress, transformational leadership, and academic performance of university students in South Colombia

Abstract

The study aims to establish the moderation of transformational leadership in the relationship between technostress and academic performance of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was of a quantitative nature with the support of the deductive method and of an explanatory correlational type. Technostress was measured with an instrument adapted from the RED-Technostress scale; transformational leadership was measured with an instrument adapted from the short version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X model; and academic performance was measured with a scale developed by the authors. A non-probabilistic convenience sampling was used, and the constructs were evaluated using SEM and SPSS AMOS software. In total, 245 questionnaires were administered. The results show a negative and significant relationship between transformational leadership and technostress (–0.338; p <0.00), a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership and academic performance (0.472; p <0.00), a negative and significant direct relationship between technostress and academic performance (–0.553; p <0.00), and moderation of transformational leadership of the relationship between technostress and academic performance (–0.159; p <0.00). Thus, teacher leadership moderates the relationship between technostress and students' academic performance, i.e., a high level of transformational leadership practices of teachers allows a lower impact of technostress and its manifestations on the students' academic performance. Likewise, technostress manifested by students was relatively low, lower than the levels expected and evidenced in other studies carried out in the business environment, possibly explained by their age and their being in a context of continuous learning.