Jean-François Stich - Tag publication

Publication: Email stress: Towards a new understanding of its causes and impacts

Jean-François STICH — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 10:55:00 +0100

Email is a source of ambivalence for its users, who report feeling divided between the opportunities for productivity gains it offers and threats of overload it poses. This conceptual article seeks to shed light on how email use (for both receiving and sending correspondence) generates perceptions of both threat (stress or distress) and challenge (eustress). It summarizes the main ideas of previous research in a transactional model of email stress distinguishing the experiences of senders from those of receivers and, in so doing, opens new avenues for future empirical research and for more stimulating and less negative use of this communication tool.

Author Accepted Manuscript

Note: This is the full translation proposed by the author accepted by the journal for publication complementary to the original article. The original article is available in French here.

Publication: Stress de l’e-mail : vers une nouvelle compréhension de ses causes et impacts

Jean-François STICH — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 10:50:00 +0100

Le courrier électronique est source d’ambivalence pour ses utilisateurs, partagés entre opportunités de productivité et menaces de surcharge. Cet article conceptuel entend éclairer comment l’usage de l’e-mail (réception comme envoi) engendre des perceptions à la fois de menace (stress ou détresse) et d’opportunité (eustress). Il résume les lignes de force de la littérature en un modèle transactionnel du stress de l’e-mail distinguant les expériences des expéditeurs de celles des destinataires et, ce faisant, ouvre de nouvelles pistes pour des recherches empiriques futures et un usage plus stimulant et moins négatif de cet outil de communication.

Manuscrit auteur

Note: Une traduction intégrale de l’article a été proposé par l’auteur, acceptée pour publication par la revue et disponible en complément de l’article original. La traduction en anglais est disponible ici.

Publication: Holiworking: Perspectives on New Ways of Integrating Holiday and Work

Jean-François STICH — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:55:00 +0100

Digitally enabled work arrangements such as remote work, mobile work and digital nomadism have increasingly been researched. More recently, a distinct form of work arrangement has emerged that allows employees to relocate temporarily to a foreign destination where they simultaneously engage in both professional work and leisure activities. This study develops an empirically grounded, substantive theory of this emerging novel arrangement termed ‘holiwork’. Employing grounded theory methodology, the research draws upon the experiences of six individuals engaged in holiwork. The findings illustrate that holiwork constitutes a complex blend of ambivalent feelings and experiences split between the novelty and alluring appeal of unfamiliar cultural environments and the continuous demands of their full-time professional responsibilities. These insights contribute to the literature on the sociology of digitally mediated work, offering theoretical implications for understanding new work arrangements shaped by digital connectivity and global mobility.

Author Accepted Manuscript

Publication: Talent Development in Higher Education Institutions: Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

Jean-François STICH — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 14:29:00 +0200

This systematic literature review examines talent development (TD) as part of the talent management (TM) approach taken by higher education institutions. The aim is to consolidate the conceptualisation of TD, its main themes and challenges, and potential TD research at higher education institutions (HEIs). Scopus and Web of Science databases were used for the article search. Employing a PRISMA protocol and meticulous rejection criteria, 57 articles were ultimately included in the review. The contribution of the review is that it systemises current knowledge about TD within higher education institutions and identifies transverse themes and tensions in the literature. The themes reveal contextual influences, higher education managerialism triggering new skills development, institutional support and alignment, the role of line managers, and underutilised and unstructured talent development. The potential avenues for future research include examining the socio-political and contextual factors that affect TD, adopting a multidimensional approach involving stakeholders and various actors, and exploring the systematic implementation of TD practices.

Author Accepted Manuscript

Publication: Combining work and vacation: workation as an attractive work arrangement

Jean-François STICH — Tue, 20 May 2025 14:21:00 +0200

Purpose: The fulfilling blend of work and leisure experienced by digital nomads has inspired some organizations to offer “workation” (work-vacation) as a new fringe benefit, allowing employees to work remotely from international locations while simultaneously engaging in travel and leisure activities. This study seeks to understand to what extent and under what conditions this workation arrangement is attractive to candidates compared to other work arrangements.
Design/methodology/approach: The research employs two vignette experiments that manipulate work arrangements, involving a total sample of 351 participants. The data and results were analyzed using multilevel regressions, moderation tests, and simple slope tests.
Findings: The results indicate that job offerings featuring workation demonstrate significantly higher organizational attractiveness compared to those featuring other work arrangements. The appeal of workations is especially pronounced and attractive among candidates with previous international experience and positive attitudes towards such experiences, contingent upon their degree of community embeddedness.
Originality/value: Within the evolving landscape of changing work arrangements, this study contributes to the literature by distinguishing workation as an innovative and attractive work option. Additionally, the findings offer insights for HR practices by identifying the specific reasons that make workation particularly enticing for certain candidates.

Author Accepted Manuscript

Publication: Techno-eustress creators: Conceptualization and empirical validation

Jean-François STICH — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 17:20:00 +0200

Technostress is an inevitable part of work life. This paper takes a step toward mastering it by focusing on positive stress that Information Systems (IS) creates for IS users, known as techno-eustress. Factors that create techno-eustress are known as techno-eustress creators, which we conceptualise as cognitions experienced by IS users, that IS positively challenges and motivates them to enhance their work. They are important to study because they represent foundational opportunities for professional achievement and growth emanating from IS use. Drawing from theories of psychological eustress, self-determination and proactive work, this paper theorises and validates an instrument to measure techno-eustress creators. We establish the construct's validity and examine its nomological relationships based on data collected from working professionals who used IT for their work. We draw on data from two qualitative studies (N = 35) and three quantitative surveys (N = 980) conducted at different points in time. We validate techno-eustress creators as a second-order reflective construct having four dimensions: techno-mastery, techno-autonomy, techno-enrichment and techno-relatedness. We examine its nomological relationships with factors that create techno-distress, IT strain, and user satisfaction. We contribute to the literature by theorising and validating four ways in which IS users are challenged and motivated by IS to enhance their work. We inform to managerial practice by drawing attention to how organisations can strengthen the different ways employees experience the creators of the ‘good’ stress that use of IS generates.

The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in Information Systems Journal https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/isj.12515.

Habilitation à diriger des recherches : Psychologie et Gestion du Travail Virtualisé

Jean-François STICH — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 20:05:00 +0200

Ce mémoire d’HDR traite de la psychologie et de la gestion du travail virtualisé, c’est-à-dire de l’étude des individus dans le cadre d’un travail dépendant de l’usage de technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC), et de la gestion de ce travail. Mes travaux, positionnés à la fois en systèmes d’information et en comportement organisationnel et mobilisant des méthodes quantitatives et qualitatives, explorent différents enjeux et phénomènes liés à l’usage des TIC et aux nouveaux modes de travail qui en résultent, tels que le technostress ou le télétravail. Je me suis particulièrement attaché à établir l’importance des perceptions subjectives dans ces phénomènes, par exemple en ce qui concerne l’évaluation du stress issu des TIC ou la désirabilité du travail virtualisé. Mes travaux explorent ainsi les ambivalences et paradoxes qui traversent les individus confrontés au travail virtualisé, partagés entre attitudes de désir et de rejet, entre perceptions d’opportunités et de menaces, entre imaginaires d’utopies et de dystopies. Ce mémoire d’HDR offre un retour réflexif sur mes trajectoires de recherche et mes contributions académiques. Il présente aussi les pistes thématiques et méthodologiques que je souhaiterais poursuivre. Enfin, il synthétise mes années d’enseignement et mon souhait de m’engager dans la formation de doctorants.

Mémoire de synthèse des activités scientifiques en vue de l’obtention du Diplôme d’Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches. Soutenance le 30/08/2022 à l'Université de Strasbourg.

Coordinatrice des travaux : Jessie PALLUD, Professeur à l’EM Strasbourg Business School
Président du jury : Loris GUERY, Professeur à l’Université de Lorraine
Rapporteurs :
- Christophe ELIE-DIT-COSAQUE, Professeur à l’Université des Antilles
- Hajer KEFI, Professeur à l’École de Management Léonard de Vinci
- Isabelle WALSH, Professeur à SKEMA Business School
Suffragant : Laurent TASKIN, Professeur à l’Université catholique de Louvain

Abstract: This HDR thesis deals with the psychology and management of virtualised work, i.e. the study of individuals in the context of work dependent on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and the management of this work. My contributions, positioned in both information systems and organisational behaviour and mobilising quantitative and qualitative methods, explore various issues and phenomena related to the use of ICT and the resulting new ways of working (e.g. technostress, telework). I have been particularly committed to establishing the importance of subjective perceptions in these phenomena, for example with regard to the evaluation of ICT-related stress or the desirability of virtualised work. My research thus explores the ambivalences and paradoxes of individuals confronted with virtualised work, divided between attitudes of desire and rejection, between perceptions of opportunities and threats, between imaginaries of utopias and dystopias. This HDR thesis offers a reflexive review of my research trajectory and academic contributions. It also presents the thematic and methodological avenues I would like to pursue. Finally, it summarizes my years of teaching and my desire to engage in the training of doctoral students.

PhD dissertation: Email Stress and Desired Email Use

Jean-François STICH — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 10:01:00 +0200

This thesis is about workplace stress due to email and computer-mediated communication use. Rather than focusing on email-specific constructs such as email overload, email interruptions or email use outside working hours, it draws an overarching construct of ‘email stress’ based on previous theories of traditional workplace stress. This cross-disciplinary approach emphasizes the individually appraised nature of email stress. As a result, the thesis gives a central importance to individuals using email and, more importantly, to their desired email use. The thesis is based on a three-stage multi-method design involving quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. The results of these studies are part of the four self-sufficient papers composing the thesis. While the papers make their own contributions, they also build on one another to advance the understanding of email stress as being a kind of stress that is individually appraised and that affects workplace well-being. The papers adapt theories of workplace stress, such as Person-Environment Fit and Cybernetics, to the study of email stress, and empirically validate these adaptations. They reveal how email stress can be the result of unfulfilled desires in terms of email use or a reason for desiring fewer emails. As employees do not often have control over their email use, the findings encourage the emergence of a more empathetic organizational culture taking into account individuals’ desires in terms of email use.

This is the final version of my PhD by publication, which I did at Lancaster University Management School from 2013 to 2016 under the supervision of Patrick Stacey, Cary L. Cooper and Monideepa Tarafdar.

This PhD was composed of three papers, which were subsequently published:

Stich, J.-F., Tarafdar, M., Cooper, C. L., Stacey, P. (2017). Workplace stress from actual and desired computer-mediated communication use: a multi-method study. New Technology, Work and Employment, 32(1).
Stich, J.-F., Tarafdar, M., Stacey, P., Cooper, C. L. (2019). Appraisal of Email Use as a Source of Workplace Stress: A Person-Environment Fit Approach. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 20(2).
Stich, J.-F., Tarafdar, M., Stacey, P., Cooper, C. L. (2019). Email Load, Workload Stress and Desired Email Load: A Cybernetic Approach. Information Technology & People, 32(2).