Faculty of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland.
Polish Japanese Academy of Information Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
PLoS One. 2023 Oct 18;18(10):e0287223. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287223. eCollection 2023.
Despite the unquestionable advantages of digital transformation (DT) in organizations, the very process of DT could have an impact on the level of stress of the employees. The negative effects of the digital transformation process can be observed during the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) solutions. They are further enhanced by the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, as digital transformation has accelerated to allow for remote work. Herein we distinguish between general stress at the workplace and the very specific type of stress, namely digital transformation stress (DTS). We assumed that this type of stress appears when rapid implementation of ICT solutions is introduced with time pressure and incertitude of further results. To quantify this phenomenon, we developed a new self-report scale-the Digital Transformation Stress Scale (DTSS), measuring employees' stress stemming from the process of digital transformation in organizations. The psychometric validity of the scale was evaluated in two studies: Study1 conducted at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (N = 229) and Study 2 in 2021 (N = 558), after a year of mostly remote work. The results confirmed good reliability with Cronbach's Alpha α = .91 in Study 1 and α = .90 in Study 2 and assumed unidimensional factorial validity of the scale in both studies. All items of the scale had good difficulty and discrimination values evaluated in Item Response Theory, i.e., IRT approach. The scale showed predicted convergent validity as the indicator of the digital transformation stress moderately correlated with general stress at work. Moreover, the assumption that even employees with high ICT skills could be affected by DTS was confirmed. Additionally, the results indicated that digital transformation stress was significantly higher among employees who reported both issues: ongoing digital solutions projects at the workplace and high impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their work. The scale could be used in future work on measuring and counteracting digital transformation stress at the workplace.
尽管数字化转型（DT）在组织中具有无可置疑的优势，但 DT 本身的过程可能会对员工的压力水平产生影响。数字化转型过程的负面影响可以在实施信息和通信技术（ICT）解决方案时观察到。由于数字化转型加速以允许远程工作，这些负面影响进一步加剧。在这里，我们将工作场所的一般压力与特定类型的压力（即数字转型压力（DTS））区分开来。我们假设，当快速实施 ICT 解决方案伴随着时间压力和进一步结果的不确定性时，就会出现这种类型的压力。为了量化这种现象，我们开发了一种新的自我报告量表——数字转型压力量表（DTSS），用于衡量员工在组织数字化转型过程中产生的压力。该量表的心理测量学有效性在两项研究中进行了评估：第一项研究在 COVID-19 大流行开始时于 2020 年进行（N = 229），第二项研究于 2021 年（N = 558）进行，这是一年来主要远程工作之后。研究 1 的 Cronbach's Alpha α 值为.91，研究 2 的 α 值为.90，结果证实了良好的可靠性，并在两项研究中均假设了量表的单维度因子有效性。量表的所有项目在项目反应理论（IRT 方法）中均具有良好的难度和区分度值。该量表显示出预测的收敛有效性，因为数字转型压力的指标与工作中的一般压力中度相关。此外，还证实了即使具有高 ICT 技能的员工也可能受到 DTS 影响的假设。此外，结果表明，在工作场所报告正在进行的数字解决方案项目和 COVID-19 对其工作的高影响的员工中，数字转型压力明显更高。该量表可用于未来衡量和抵消工作场所数字转型压力的工作中。
