Date

5-1-2025

Department

School of Communication and the Arts

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Communication (PhD)

Chair

Carol E. Hepburn

Keywords

hyper-communication, technostress, digital distraction, workplace productivity, communication channel misalignment, work communication misalignment

Disciplines

Business | Communication

Abstract

Today's workforce is overwhelmed with information delivered by tools designed to make them more productive. In a milieu of distraction and overload, employees are disadvantaged in processing the tremendous volumes of information they receive. This is called hyper-communication, which is associated with stress, overload, communication misalignment, and, ultimately, distractedness that impairs an employee’s work efficiency. This quantitative study presents research conducted through surveys examining hyper-communication's effects on workplace productivity. A sample of 631 respondents, solicited through social media, participated in this study. The participants came from diverse occupational backgrounds, providing cross-sectional insights into how factors like employees' titles, roles, gender, race, and age are affected by hyper-communication. The findings indicated that hyper-communication significantly contributes to workplace distraction and that communication channel misalignment is a key driver of workplace inefficiencies. Additionally, the study identified work communication misalignment, the disconnect between employees' received and preferred communication channels, as a stronger predictor of workplace distraction than message volume or frequency alone. Given that workplace distraction is significantly linked to lower productivity, these results suggest that hyper-communication disrupts employee productivity not only by increasing information overload but also by structurally misaligning communication delivery.

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