In today′s rapidly evolving technological landscape, understanding how new technologies affect employees is essential. While previous research has largely emphasized the negative impact of technostressors on well‐being and performance, less attention has been devoted to the protective role of technology‐related moderators. This study introduces and preliminarily validates a new scale to assess such moderators. Thirteen items were initially developed through inductive and deductive methods and administered to 1781 Italian employees via an online survey. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses—conducted across three samples, including an EFA sample ( n = 1781), a first CFA sample ( n = 1805), and an independent second CFA sample ( n = 888)—supported a three‐factor, 12‐item structure encompassing technology self‐efficacy, organizational resources in technology adoption, and technology‐related control. The model showed good fit and reliability. Correlations confirmed that higher scores were associated with lower psychophysical distress and higher job satisfaction. Gender differences emerged, with men reporting higher technology self‐efficacy and perceived organizational resources than women, highlighting potential gender‐related disparities in access to and confidence with digital tools. As data were collected from Italian employees, the findings should be interpreted within this cultural and occupational context. Future research should replicate the validation across countries and sectors to establish cross‐cultural generalizability and normative benchmarks. Overall, the scale provides a reliable instrument for identifying technology‐related protective factors, enabling organizations to design targeted interventions to prevent technostress and promote employee well‐being.
Finstad et al. (Thu,) studied this question.