Understanding the joint effect of ICT-induced invasion and autonomy on strain from a person-environment fit perspective

Purpose This study tries to unravel the autonomy paradox by shedding light on the joint effects of ICT-induced invasion and ICT-induced autonomy through a moderated mediation analysis. Design/methodology/approach The research model is empirically tested by a survey of 230 employees who use mobile ICTs after working hours for work purposes. Partial Least Squares (PLS) and PROCESS tools were used to validate the proposed hypotheses. Findings This research showed that ICT-induced overload mediated the relationship between ICT-induced invasion and strain. Besides, ICT-induced autonomy was found to strengthen the relationship between ICT-induced invasion and ICT-induced overload, as well as the mediating effect of ICT-induced overload. On the other hand, ICT-induced autonomy was found to have a positive effect on ICT-induced overload when ICT-induced invasion was high, while it had a negative effect when ICT-induced invasion was low. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional design of this study hinders the detection of causal relationships and the snowball sampling may raise concerns regarding generalizability. Practical implications Organizations should pay attention to the trade-off between ICT-induced invasion and autonomy to prevent employees from feeling strained. Originality/value Unlike prior studies, which address a demand-centric perspective, this study draws the demand-ability (D-A) imbalance perspective by explicitly considering the ability construct related to ICT-induced autonomy and the D-A imbalance construct captured by ICT-induced overload. Based on the person-environment (P-E) fit theory of stress, this study proposes a moderated mediation model that postulates the mediating effect of ICT-induced overload and the moderating effect of ICT-induced autonomy.