Defensive Routines as a Coping Mechanism Linking Technostress and Job Control to Technology-Enabled Performance
Abstract
Digital payment operations require continuous monitoring and rapid response, exposing employees to repeated alerts, system changes, and error-sensitive tasks. Over time, these demands may deplete attentional resources, heighten concerns about mistakes or skill obsolescence, and encourage self-protective coping. However, little is known about whether defensive routines transmit the effects of technology-related job demands and job control on technology-enabled performance in high-reliability service settings. Guided by the Job Demands–Resources model and the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study examined the relationships among technostress creators, job control, defensive routines, and technology-enabled performance. Survey data were collected from 163 employees in Greater Jakarta who worked in information technology or digital payment operations, routinely used operational systems, and had direct experience with monitoring, incident handling, system changes, or escalation. Partial least squares structural equation modeling showed that technostress creators were positively associated with defensive routines, whereas job control was negatively associated with defensive routines. Job control was positively associated with technology-enabled performance, while defensive routines were negatively associated with technology-enabled performance. Defensive routines provided a significant indirect pathway between technostress creators and technology-enabled performance, with no significant direct association, and partially mediated the positive association between job control and technology-enabled performance. These findings support the interpretation of defensive routines as a maladaptive coping pattern through which sustained technology-related demands may weaken effective technology use. Job control, by contrast, may support performance both directly and by reducing defensive routines.
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References
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