Effects of digital transformation on stress-relevant working conditions and employees’ psychophysiological stress: A longitudinal, quasi-experimental control group study

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Chronic stress is a major risk factor for impaired health among employees and represents a significant economic burden on organizations and society as a whole. The implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) holds considerable potential to improve stress-relevant working conditions and reduce chronic stress among employees. However, methodologically sound research examining effects of ICT implementation on stress-relevant working conditions, chronic stress, and stress-related health outcomes remains limited. This longitudinal, multi-method, control-group biopsychological implementation study sought to address this gap by examining (1) how the introduction of an electronic lab notebook (ELN) influences stress-relevant working conditions, (2) how these changes affect biopsychological stress indicators of chronic stress (measured via questionnaires, heart rate variability, hair cortisol/cortisone concentrations) and health, and (3) the potentially moderating role of individual and ELN-related characteristics. Over 17-months, we studied two medical research laboratories from different German university hospitals at four measurement points (T0–T3). The ELN was implemented in one laboratory (lab 1 ; T0: n  = 23 employees; M  = 33.35 years, SD  = 8.61 years, 39.1 % male), while the second laboratory (lab 0 ; T0: n  = 21 employees; M  = 36.43 years, SD  = 9.44 years, 23.8 % male) served as a control group and did not adopt the ELN between T0 and T1. Multi-level analyses revealed (1) significant ELN-related changes in stress-relevant working conditions, (2) corresponding changes in biopsychological stress indicators, and (3) moderating effects of individual and ELN characteristics. Although not all effects remained significant after Benjamini-Hochberg correction, the findings provide initial evidence of the influence of ELN implementation on stress-relevant working conditions and chronic stress. These results offer valuable insights for optimizing future ICT implementation processes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number100839
Number of pages12
JournalComputers in Human Behavior Reports
Volume20
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-6932-333X/work/203072171
ORCID /0000-0002-1997-1689/work/203072480

Keywords

Keywords

  • Chronic stress, Hair steroids, Heart rate variability,1-7, ICT implementation, Working conditions