Survey and experimental study reveals digital overload harms civil servant performance via relative deprivation, highlighting high-performance management as an effective buffer.
As digitalization accelerates, digital overload is placing increasing pressure on civil servants. This study draws on the Job Demands–Resources model and analyzes 3 waves of survey data from 653 civil servants, along with a scenario-based experiment involving 138 participants. Findings reveal that digital overload affects job performance, turnover intention, and burnout through the mediating role of relative deprivation. Furthermore, high-performance human resource management practices moderate this relationship by mitigating the negative effects of digital overload, thus reducing their negative impact. A moderated mediation model is proposed, highlighting strategies to support public employees coping with digitalization.
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Miao et al. (2026) studied this question.
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