Technostress and employee well-being: A systematic review of empirical evidence

As technology continues to reshape industries, understanding the effects of technostress on employee well-being becomes imperative. While research on technostress has grown substantially in recent years, existing studies are often fragmented in scope and limited in cross-contextual depth. In this systematic review, we synthesized the findings of 201 (after the double screening) peer-reviewed empirical studies, primarily retrieved from the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, to map technostress along the four analytical dimensions: its core components, its impact on well-being, key mediating and moderating variables, and contextual variations. Our findings demonstrated that the relationship between technostress and employee well-being has been most frequently studied in Germany, Italy, and India, with education and healthcare emerging as the most commonly examined sectors. Furthermore, techno-overload and techno-invasion were the most reported technostressors linked to adverse well-being indicators across the studies. Our analysis revealed an underrepresentation of cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons in the existing literature. Drawing on these insights, this review advances the literature by introducing the Demands-Resources-Individual Effects (DRIVE) model as a coherent integrative framework for studying technostress and well-being. The model provides a theoretically grounded explanation of how digital demands, personal resources, and individual differences interact to shape well-being outcomes. Combined with the Well-being Process Questionnaire (WPQ), it also offers a practical, validated approach for assessing these mechanisms in diverse organizational contexts. • Technostress damages overall well-being, engagement, and life satisfaction. • Techno-overload and invasion are the primary drivers of negative outcomes. • The DRIVE model is a promising framework for future technostress research. • Future research should compare various cultures, industries, and occupational roles.