Recently, a growing number of public and private organizations has been developing a concern with excessive stress in the workplace and its damages to workers’ organizational well-being. A large body of research shows that public organizations may, nowadays, choose to implement Government-to-Employee (G2E) Services, broadly defined as the Public Human Resource Management (PHRM) policies, practices, and processes integrated with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in public service. Present doctoral dissertation contributes to the ongoing efforts of advancing the inter-disciplinary knowledge on physiolytics in G2E services at the intersection of digital government and organizational psychology.
I look at digital stress coping from two complementary views of digital government and organizational psychology. Physiolytics is defined as a technology based on biosensors and empowered by ubiquitous computing that might support achieving the objectives of stress coping. The “physiolytics” broadly refers to the use of (1) computing devices, linked to the wearable biosensors of external environment, (2) analysis of the data on the physics and physiology and (3) quantified feedback. So, this practice is empowered by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and requires Machine Learning (ML) methods. Consequently, physiolytics implies a two-folded approach to its implementation in an organization: on one side, an organization provides the ICT access for digital stress coping as an employee service, and on the other side, an individual chooses to cope with stress as result of complex transactions in work environment. Consequently, physiolytics should be discussed from both perspectives of digital government and organizational psychology.
I adopt a multi-method quantitative approach by implementing an experimental and survey research strategy. This allows drawing upon strengths both strategies for achieving more credible findings in consistency with positivism research philosophy. The final dataset in the survey study comprised observations on 332 public servants collected in 2019, and experimental research drew upon two small longitudinal datasets including the validation sample for longitudinal evaluation of stress-related states.
My findings on stress identification and measurement supported by a complementary study on the impact of psychological climate on felt stress imply that physiolytics could have significant longitudinal organizational effects in public service. Notably, physiolytics implementation is highly likely to reduce felt stress among public servants in long-term perspective. It could also highly likely prevent negative stress outcomes at individual, organizational, and societal level, while enhancing psychological well-being of public servants, improved organizational performance, and better service delivery to citizens.
In conclusion, I propose a conceptual meta-model of long-term organizational effects associated with physiolytics implementation in Government-to-Employee service, comprised of three functional processes. The first functional process in Digital Government aims to redefine public information management. The second functional process in Public Human Resource Management aims to deploy digital employee assistance program (EAP) under usual confidentiality and anonymity conditions. The third functional process in Public Service Delivery aims to coordinate public servants' digital stress coping. I conclude that the key stakeholders in public service, including public human resource managers, public servants, and citizens, could benefit from greater psychological well-being development that physiolytics may support in long-term perspective.