The Demands of Communication Media Use and Employee Well-Being: The Role of Personality

• In Event: Organizational Communication Research Escalator - Extended Session (Part 2)

Abstract

Communication media use (CMU) can benefit, but can also strain employee well-being through specific CMU-related demands. These mixed findings might be explained by conditional factors. For example, CMU may not actually result in a comparable increase of demands for every personality. In this study, we systematically study the role of personality on the effects of CMU and its demands, by means of an online questionnaire (N=663). This study supports the proposition that CMU comes with several related demands that strain employee well-being. In addition, this is the first study to show the influence of personality in a context of CMU. Except for neuroticism, all personality dimensions were found to mitigate an indirect relationship between CMU and one of its demands. We can conclude that the personality traits extraversion and openness are most helpful in dealing with the demands related to CMU.

Authors

• Claartje L. ter Hoeven, Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam

• Helen Vossen, U of Amsterdam