ICT effect on employees-related outcomes: higher education as a context

Abstract

Purpose: Increased concern about the extensive use of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to widespread research on its effects on employees. This study aims to examine the effect of ICT use and demand on employee-related outcomes, particularly work-life balance, job satisfaction, personal burnout and intention to leave. Design/methodology/approach: The developed model was tested using a survey questionnaire distributed among academics and administrative employees working in the higher education (HE) sector in Qatar. New statistical tools were adopted to analyze the study data (i.e. PLSpredict and partial least squares structural equation modeling for unobserved heterogeneity). Findings: The results confirmed that ICT use affects ICT demand and ICT demand significantly influences employee-related outcomes. Practical implications: The findings will help HE institutes to carefully examine the negative effect of ICT use and come up with practical ways to avoid such effects. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the rare papers that inspect the negative effect of ICT use in the HE sector. Furthermore, it is the only paper inspecting such relationship in Gulf region.