Technostress among technical university librarians in Kenya

Abstract

Technostress is the feeling of anxiety or mental pressure caused by working with multiple and rapidly changing computer systems, and mediating between these systems and the demands of one’s organisation, staff, customers, and personal life. This study investigated the nature and extent of technostress among technical university librarians in Kenya; the factors causing technostress among the librarians; the effect of technostress on their professional and social lives; as well as how the technical university librarians in Kenya are coping with technostress. Primary data was collected from all professional librarians at the Technical University of Kenya and Technical University of Mombasa using semi-structured online questionnaires. Additional data was collected from secondary sources using documentary analysis. The data was analysed and presented using descriptive statistics. The findings reveal that technostress is widespread amongst technical university librarians in Kenya since all the respondents confirmed that they have experienced technostress; technical university librarians have experienced physical, cognitive, affective and behavioural forms of technostress; technostress is largely caused by technological dynamism and rapid change in their work environment; and that the effect of technostress on the personal and professional lives of the librarians is serious. These findings may be used by technical universities to develop strategies and policies which facilitate librarians to avoid, adapt to, or mitigate technostress