Does technostress undermine employees’ work-life balance? Testing the moderated-mediation effects of employee resilience and psychological distress

Purpose With the ubiquity of information and communications technologies (ICTs), technostress has emerged as a worrisome phenomenon in today’s workforce. Utilizing the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this research investigates the impact of two dimensions of techno-stress—techno-invasion (TI) and techno-overload (TO)—on employees’ work-life balance (WLB). Furthermore, the intermediary function of psychological distress (PD) is investigated while also examining the buffering role of resilience in the relationship between techno-stressors and PD. Additionally, we examine if employee resilience also moderates the indirect relationship between techno-stressors and work-life balance via PD. Design/methodology/approach Using time-lagged surveys, we collected data from 332 employees working in the Indian IT sector. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted with SmartPLSv4 to analyze the hypothesized relationships. Findings Findings indicate the significant negative association between techno-invasion and techno-overload with employee WLB. PD partially mediates the techno-stressors and WLB relationship. While employee resilience moderates the effect of techno-overload on PD, it does not exhibit the same influence on the TI-PD relationship. However, employee resilience significantly moderates the indirect effect of TO and TI on WLB via PD. Practical implications Our study shows that managing technostressors and boosting employee resilience can reduce their negative effects, enabling timely organizational intervention. Originality/value This study uniquely explores how the two dimensions of technostress individually impact employee PD and WLB, emphasizing the moderating role of resilience within India’s distinct organizational and contextual landscape.