Simulating Information and Communication Applications in Employee Interaction Network Models

Information and communication technology (ICT) use has been identified throughout its development and evolution with the Internet boom as a net positive tool for most employees and organizations in the working world. Only recently have studies regarding employees’ well-being begun to come to the forefront of research regarding these rapidly evolving technologies, however these are important issues to discuss in the context of work-life boundary management, emotional exhaustion, overwhelming stress levels, and moral disengagement among other employee well-being dimensions. To explore how employees’ well being might be influenced by ICT use, this study conducted a quantitative survey and analyzed a coupling of agent-based models to investigate employee stress levels, work-life boundaries, job satisfaction, and emotional and mental health. The survey concluded that most of these dimensions of well-being were responded to in a circumstantial nature based on the respondent’s individual case with the exception of ICT use exhibiting a positive correlation with job satisfaction. The simulations of both organizational structure and an employee cohort exacerbated structural truths about graph generation algorithms and emphasized the need for individual consideration of each employees’ circumstance and preferences in regards to their perceived well-being.