Are your smart technologies killing it or killing you? Developing a research agenda for workplace ICT and worker wellbeing

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is an essential part of many jobs, and its importance has become even more evident as many employees worked remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic. Accompanying this increased importance, however, have been questions about the potential detrimental aspects of ICT use on worker wellbeing. Therefore, we developed a framework and identified key research questions based on four mechanisms. That is, in addition to the direct influence of ICT characteristics on one's physical wellbeing (e.g., eye strain; 'tech thumb'), ICT may influence worker health via several avenues. ICT can act as a conduit for demands/stressors (e.g., as a medium to bully coworkers) and resources (e.g., as a channel for supervisors to demonstrate support) that influence wellbeing. Psychosocial ICT demands (e.g., having increased connectivity to the point of overload) and resources (e.g., ICT allowing increased autonomy) can have both direct and indirect effects on wellbeing. Finally, we propose that these relationships may be reciprocal in that wellbeing may influence ICT use.