Disrupting cognitive capacity through excessive technology use among academic staff: examining technostress, ethical decision-making, emotional exhaustion, and ethical climate

The increasing prevalence of technostress among academic staff has raised concerns regarding its impact on ethical decision-making. While extant research has explored the antecedents and consequences of technostress, limited attention has been given to the mechanisms through which it influences ethical decision-making. Specifically, the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in this nexus remains underexplored, as does the extent to which ethical climate moderates the potential mediation effect. Therefore, this study investigates emotional exhaustion as an underlying mechanism in the linkage between technostress and ethical decision-making while examining ethical climate as a boundary condition in the mediated relationship in Ghana. A total of 408 academic staff members were selected using a convenience sampling approach. The participants completed the anonymous and confidential survey once. Process Macro was employed to assess the proposed relationships. The findings revealed a positive correlation between technostress and ethical decision-making among academic staff. Additionally, emotional exhaustion mediated this relationship. Furthermore, ethical climate moderated the mediated effect, with a strong ethical climate reducing the negative impact of emotional exhaustion on ethical decision-making. This paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge on technostress by integrating emotional exhaustion and ethical climate as key factors influencing ethical decision-making among academic staff. It is among the first to examine the interaction between technostress, emotional exhaustion, ethical climate, and personal ethical decision-making within the academic profession in the African context.