title: Selective attention as a protagonist in contemporary workplace stress: implications for the interruption age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The ubiquity of instant messages and email notifications in contemporary work environments has opened a Pandora's Box. This box is filled with countless interruptions coming from laptops, smartphones, and other devices, all of which constantly call for employees' attention. In this interruption era, workplace stress is a pervasive problem. To examine this problem, the present study hypothesizes that the three-way interaction among the frequency with which interrupting stimuli appear, their salience, and employees' deficits in inhibiting attentional responses to them impacts mental workload perceptions, ultimately leading to stress. The study, further, probes a related form of self-efficacy as a potential suppressor of interruption-based stress.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study used a 2 (low vs. high frequency) × 2 (low vs. high salience) mixed model design.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 128 subjects completed a test of their inhibitory deficits and rated their mental workload perceptions and experiences of stress following a computer-based task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Inhibitory deficits and increased interruption salience can alter the perception of mental workload in contemporary work environments for the worse, but interruption self-efficacy can help offset any resulting interruption-based stress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study extends the literatures on work interruptions as well as on stress and coping in the workplace.
authors: a Department of Information Technologies , HEC Montréal , 3000 chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal , QC H3T 2A7 , Canada.
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Tams
authors: Jason
authors: J
authors: Thatcher
authors: Varun
authors: V
authors: Grover
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Pak
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001288:Attention; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D034742:Electronic Mail; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D014937:Work; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: cognition; interruptions; selective attention; self-efficacy; stress; technology