Technostress and information security – A review and research agenda of security-related stress

Technostress is a growing concern for organisations, given the negative impacts of stress on employees' job satisfaction, productivity, and intention to comply with or violate policies. Security-related stress (SRS), a dimension of technostress, addresses how security-related activities, such as information technology compliance, can impact an individual's stress. Addressing security-related stress research is vital, given it can help identify factors that can both enhance employee well-being and strengthen an organisation's security posture. In this paper, we systematically review the literature from the past two decades addressing security-related stress and identify twenty-seven relevant studies for analysis. We make contributions in three areas. Firstly, we discover the predominant theoretical frameworks and models that address security-related stress while examining key factors and constructs that examine security-related stress. Secondly, we describe how security-related stress is measured and what interventions have proven effective in reducing it. Finally, based on our comprehensive analysis, we present a research agenda to inform future research directions of security-related stress.