Resumo

Remote work involves the use of a variety of technological resources and digital platforms, such as: internet, wireless networks, computers, smartphones and software (Riedl, 2022). The literature shows that although technologies can bring benefits such as increased productivity and reduced costs to organizations; however, the way that they are inserted, as well as the ways in which technologies are perceived by professionals, can cause undesirable effects (Califf & Brooks, 2020; Lei & Ngai, 2014; Ragu-Nathan et al., 2008; Tarafdar et al., 2007).

Considering the possible impacts of technostress on individuals and organizations and the remote work regime imposed on education employees during the pandemic that intensified the use of technologies, the aim of this paper was to analyze underling factors related to role ambiguity, their effects and forms of mitigation. Therefore, the research question that guided this study was: what are the factors underlying role ambiguity during remote work?

The additional effort in understanding and using new technological resources can create a conflict of what activity to do first (Suh & Lee, 2017): learn about technology or develop the regular work. Computer self-efficacy can mitigate this conflict. Moreover, if the work developed by employees require a higher level of attention, making task transitions can present a negative effect on such level of attention (Luqman et al., 2021). We argue that an intense level of task changes can increase Cognitive Load.

The final sample is comprised of 691 complete responses. The data were collected electronically between August, 2021 and November, 2021. For convergent validity, we observed the following indicators: Cronbach’s Alpha; Composite Reliability; Average Variance Extracted. Regarding discriminant validity, we compared the correlation between each pair of constructs with the root square of its own AVE. We also used the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) criterion to access discriminant validity. To test the study hypotheses, we adopted the Structural Equation Modeling.

Computer Self-Efficacy can mitigate the effects of Role Ambiguity and, indirectly, Computer Self-Efficacy also has a negative effect on Cognitive Load. We also observed that Role Ambiguity presented a positive effect on Cognitive Load. The variable Resilience moderated the relationships: i) between Computer Self-Efficacy and Role Ambiguity; and ii) between Role Ambiguity and Cognitive Load.

By addressing the relationships between Self-Efficacy, Role Ambiguity and Cognitive Load in the context of universities, this paper presents an important contribution to facilitate the management of educational institutions. When technological resources are imposed to employees, their use can negatively affect the activities developed by teachers and administrative employees, creating barriers to the performance of these institutions and also having the potential to affect the learning environment.

Luqman, A., Talwar, S., Masood, A., & Dhir, A. (2021). Does enterprise social media use promote employee creativity and well-being? Journal of Business Research, 131. Singh, P., Bala, H., Dey, B. L., & Filieri, R. (2022). Enforced remote working: The impact of digital platform-induced stress and remote working experience on technology exhaustion and subjective wellbeing. Journal of Business Research, 151. Tarafdar, M., Tu, Q., Ragu-Nathan, B. S., & Ragu-Nathan, T. S. (2007). The Impact of Technostress on Role Stress and Productivity. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(1).