How Digital Anxieties Are Shaping the Next Generation's Mental Health

Work conflict: Another trigger to smartphone addiction of individuals with high rumination?

With the widespread use of smartphones, many people spend much time on smartphones for shopping, learning, socializing, and so on, which can affect an individual's mental health and work performance. Especially, individual perceived conflict at work may increase their social anxiety and thus raise the risk of their smartphone addiction. This study collected data from 577 corporate employees in China through convenience sampling to explain the influence mechanism of work conflict on smartphone addiction and to verify the moderating role of rumination. Statistical results show that relationship conflicts, task conflicts, and process conflicts positively affect smartphone addiction by enhancing social anxiety. Moreover, rumination positively moderates the relationship between work conflict and smartphone addiction. People with high rumination are more likely to escape reality due to conflict at work, which further enhances their smartphone addiction behaviors. Our study suggests that a relatively harmonious working atmosphere should be established within organizations, especially for employees with rumination. Work conflict is a predisposing factor for social anxiety and smartphone addiction in individuals with high rumination.

Digitalisation anxiety: development and validation of a new scale

The increasing spread of digital technologies and respective consequences for the way we live, work, and communicate can evoke feelings of tension and discomfort. This so-called digitalisation anxiety is related to existing and future technologies, includes the process of digitalisation in everyday life, and refers to multiple levels (the individual, organisations, and society). Existing scales measuring technology-related fears due not adequately reflect these features. Therefore, we developed the German version of the Digitalisation Anxiety Scale (DAS). Having generated items based on a qualitative interview study (Study 1, n = 26), we demonstrated the DAS's factor structure, internal consistency and construct validity in Study 2a (n = 109) and test-retest reliability in Study 2b (n = 30). In Study 3 (n = 223), the scale's structure was confirmed and correlates of digitalisation anxiety were examined. The final version of the DAS consists of 35 items with a four-factor structure (societal triggers for digitalisation anxiety, triggers related to interaction and leadership, triggers within oneself and triggers resulting from the digitalisation implementation process). Digitalisation Anxiety had negative relationships with well-being and performance. The scale allows practitioners and researchers to measure and benchmark individuals' levels of digitalisation anxiety, and to track changes over time. The scale can inform interventions aiming at reducing digitalisation anxiety and stress resulting from digitalisation.

Fear of Missing Out and Consumer Happiness on Instagram: A Serial Mediation of Social Media Influencer-Related Activities

Mounting research shows negative psychological effects for social media and recognizes fear of missing out (FoMO) as a key driver of social media use. This article focuses on social media influencers (SMIs) and investigates potentially positive forms of usage on psychological well-being (i.e., happiness), including how FoMO impacts consumer response to SMIs. A serial mediation model using survey data (N = 604) indicates SMI-related activities are positively associated with a consumer's happiness. Furthermore, SMI-related activities jointly and positively mediate the relationship between FoMO and happiness. Individuals higher in FoMO more frequently visited SMIs' account profiles leading to more frequent purchasing of products recommended by SMIs, which in turn positively influenced happiness. Implications of the findings are discussed with suggestions for future research.

Employer Branding in the Context of the Company’s Sustainable Development Strategy from the Perspective of Gender Diversity of Generation Z

Applying the principles of sustainable development is an element of building the image of an organisation as an employer. The opinions of young people commencing their professional career in this regard may prove important for companies. The aim of this article is to identify a dependence between generation Z’s opinions on employer branding measures based on sustainable development taken by companies and the respondents’ gender. The article presents the results of primary research conducted on a sample of 291 students of higher education institutions in Poland. The methods include questionnaire surveys and statistical data processing. The results of the research suggest that sustainable development measures undertaken by employers increase the candidates’ motivation to apply for a job in the organisation. The analysis demonstrated that generation Z’s opinions on sustainable development activities carried out by employers and on the significance of employer branding are dependent on the respondents’ gender. The main conclusion is that women are more ecologically oriented than men, and following a sustainable development strategy is more important for them. Companies building employer branding should consider the adoption of various factors identified in the article, such as the Employee Value Proposition (EVP), especially when their workforce is gender-diverse.