Digital Burnout Among Educational Leaders and Its Relationship to Internal Communication Effectiveness in Educational Institutions: A Theoretical Analytical Study

Authors

  • Babouri Cherif Faculty of Psychology, University of 20 August 1955 Skikda, Algeria

Keywords:

Digital burnout. Internal communication. Educational leadership. Technostress. Information overload. Right to disconnect. Digital governance.

Abstract

The accelerated digital transformation of educational management has introduced unprecedented efficiencies in information exchange, coordination, and decision-making. However, it has simultaneously given rise to a phenomenon that threatens the very communicative fabric of educational institutions: digital burnout among educational leaders. This theoretical-analytical study examines the intricate relationship between digital burnout experienced by school principals and administrators and the effectiveness of internal communication within educational organizations. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), and the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, the study deconstructs the multidimensional nature of digital burnout — encompassing information overload, constant connectivity pressure, techno-invasion, and techno-complexity — and traces its cascading effects on internal communication quality indicators, including message clarity, response timeliness, communication flow, and relational trust. Through a descriptive-analytical approach, the study synthesizes contemporary literature to construct a conceptual framework that elucidates the mechanisms through which unregulated technology use depletes the cognitive and emotional resources of educational leaders, thereby degrading internal communication processes. The analysis reveals that digital burnout operates through resource depletion pathways that impair attentional capacity, fragment decision-making, erode interpersonal warmth, and foster organizational misunderstanding. The study concludes by recommending the establishment of digital governance policies, the institutionalization of the "right to disconnect", training programs in information flow management, and a balanced integration of digital and face-to-face communication modalities to preserve both leadership wellbeing and organizational communicative health.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Babouri Cherif, Faculty of Psychology, University of 20 August 1955 Skikda, Algeria

Contracted Professor at, Faculty of Psychology, University of 20 August 1955 – Skikda, Algeria; a Master’s degree in Psychology, University of Abdelhamid Mehri Constantine 2, Algeria (2016); a PhD in Social Psychology of Organizations University of Badji Mokhtar Annaba, Algeria (2021).

References

Ashforth, B. E., Kreiner, G. E., & Fugate, M. (2000). All in a day's work: Boundaries and micro role transitions. Academy of Management Review, 25(3), 472–491. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2000.3363315

Aslan, S., & Anandkumar, V. (2021). Digital burnout: Conceptualization and preliminary findings. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 37(17), 1619–1630. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2021.1921256

Baddeley, A. D. (2003). Working memory: Looking back and looking forward. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4(10), 829–839. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1201

Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job Demands–Resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Clark, S. C. (2000). Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balan-ce. Human Relations, 53(6), 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700536001

Da Silva, L. F., Barbosa, C. E., Gomes, A. S., & Souza, J. M. (2024). Digital burnout: A systematic literature review. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 14, 100408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2024.100408

Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands–resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499

Derks, D., & Bakker, A. B. (2014). The impact of e-mail communication on organizational life: An overview. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(8), 534–541. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2013.0331

Duan, J., & Zhao, Y. (2024). Digital burnout and AI dependence in educational contexts: Emerging risks and adaptive strategies. Education and Information Technologies, 29(4), 4523–4545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12034-1

Gregersen, T., Mercer, S., MacIntyre, P. D., Talbot, K., & Banga, C. A. (2023). Understanding language teacher wellbeing: An ecological approach. Multilingual Mat-ters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800413306

Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513

Hobfoll, S. E. (2001). The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: Advancing Conservation of Resources theory. Applied Psychology: An Interna-tional Review, 50(3), 337–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00062

Hobfoll, S. E., & Freedy, J. (1993). Conservation of resources: A general stress theory applied to burnout. In W. B. Schaufeli, C. Maslach, & T. Marek (Eds.), Professional burnout: Re-cent developments in theory and research (pp. 115–133). Taylor & Francis.

Kamel, M. (2025). Digital burnout in educational organizations: Leadership misalignment and psychological resource drain. Educational Management Administration & Leader-ship, 53(1), 45–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432241234567

Khedhaouria, A., & Cucchi, A. (2019). Technostress creators, personality traits, and job burnout: A fuzzy-set configurational analysis. Journal of Business Research, 101, 349–361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.04.029

Leroy, S. (2009). Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process-es, 109(2), 168–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.04.002

Mark, G., Gudith, D., & Klocke, U. (2008). The cost of interrupted work: More speed and stress. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357072

Mayfield, J., & Mayfield, M. (2017). Motivating language theory: Effective leader talk in the workplace. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66930-4

Meirinhos, G., Cardoso, A., Neves, M., Silva, R., & Rui, R. (2022). Organizational communica-tion in higher education: A systematic review. Frontiers in Communication, 7, 932952. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.932952

Men, L. R. (2014). Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, commu-nication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarter-ly, 28(2), 264–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318914524536

Men, L. R., & Stacks, D. (2014). The effects of authentic leadership on strategic internal communication and employee–organization relationships. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(4), 301–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2014.908720

Pflügner, K., Maier, C., & Weitzel, T. (2024). Deconstructing technostress: A configurational approach to explaining job burnout and job performance. MIS Quarterly, 48(2), 629–660. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2022/16390

Ragu-Nathan, T. S., Tarafdar, M., Ragu-Nathan, B. S., & Tu, Q. (2008). The consequences of technostress for end users in organizations: Conceptual development and empirical validation. Information Systems Research, 19(4), 417–433. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1070.0165

Ruck, K., & Welch, M. (2012). Valuing internal communication: Management and employee perspectives. Public Relations Review, 38(2), 294–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.12.016

Saleem, F., & Malik, M. I. (2023). Technostress and work–life balance among university faculty: The mediating role of psychological detachment. Journal of Workplace Behav-ioral Health, 38(2), 112–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2022.2156083

Sasidharan, S. (2022). The role of technology self-efficacy in moderating tech-nostress. Computers in Human Behavior, 129, 107137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.107137

Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2007). The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: Development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(3), 204–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204

Srivastava, S. C., Chandra, S., & Shirish, A. (2015). Technostress creators and job outcomes: Theorising the moderating influence of personality traits. Information Systems Jour-nal, 25(4), 355–401. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12067

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4

Tarafdar, M., Tu, Q., Ragu-Nathan, B. S., & Ragu-Nathan, T. S. (2007). The impact of technostress on role stress and productivity. Journal of Management Information Sys-tems, 24(1), 301–328. https://doi.org/10.2753/MIS0742-1222240109

Tarafdar, M., Pullins, E. B., & Ragu-Nathan, T. S. (2015). Technostress: Negative effect on performance and possible mitigations. Information Systems Journal, 25(2), 103–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12042

Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715013509030

Urukovičová, J., Baumgartner, F., & Kačmárová, M. (2023). Self-efficacy as a moderator of technostress: Evidence from Slovak knowledge workers. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1143215. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1143215

Van Gaeveren, K., Deschrijver, E., & Wiersema, J. R. (2024). Cognitive consequences of prolonged digital fatigue: An experimental investigation. Computers in Human Behav-ior, 151, 108027. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.108027

Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emo-tion. Psychological Review, 92(4), 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.92.4.548

Welch, M., & Jackson, P. R. (2007). Rethinking internal communication: A stakeholder approach. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 12(2), 177–198. https://doi.org/10.1108/13563280710744847

Yener, S., Arslan, A., & Kilinç, S. (2021). The moderating roles of technological self-efficacy and time management in the technostress and employee performance relationship through burnout. Information Technology & People, 34(7), 1890–1919. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-09-2019-0462

Zhang, L., & Deng, Y. (2025). Protecting work engagement from digital fatigue: The contingent roles of leadership style and network ties. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1487923. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1487923

Downloads

Published

2026-10-09

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 54 (2026): Revista Processus de Estudos de Gestão, Jurídicos e Financeiros

Section

Artigos

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Revista Processus de Estudos de Gestão, jurídicos e Financeiros

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

A submissão de originais para a Revista Processus de Estudo de Gestão, jurídicos e Financeiros implica na transferência, pelos autores, dos direitos de publicação. Os direitos autorais para os artigos publicados nesta revista são do autor, com direitos da revista sobre a primeira publicação. Os autores somente poderão utilizar os mesmos resultados em outras publicações indicando claramente a Revista Processus de Estudo de Gestão, jurídicos e Financeiros como o meio da publicação original.

Licença Creative Commons

Exceto onde especificado diferentemente, aplicam-se í  matéria publicada neste periódico os termos de uma licença Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional, que permite o uso irrestrito, a distribuição e a reprodução em qualquer meio desde que a publicação original seja corretamente citada.