Diane Pelly

Digital technology is the great disrupter of the 21st century. While it affords numerous educational, social and entertainment benefits, it is often blamed for contributing to negative health outcomes such as depression, anxiety and addiction. Despite the fact that extant research suggests these concerns may be overblown, the narrative of toxic digital technology persists, triggering a heated debate over whether, and how, it should be regulated. In this chapter, I explore the links between digital technology and wellbeing. I examine whether measures to safeguard the wellbeing of digital technology users are warranted based on the current evidence, and if so, how this might be achieved. I begin by defining the key constructs and outlining the conceptual mechanisms which link them. I then review the current, inconclusive state of knowledge. I highlight existing knowledge gaps and methodological weaknesses and propose a road map for future research. Finally, I examine governmental and market digital technology interventions to date and suggest actionable points for enhancing future research and policy design. I conclude that while a definitive account of the wellbeing consequences of digital technology still eludes us, current evidence suggests that, on balance, its negative impact on wellbeing is likely to be negligible and heavily usage dependent. Future policy initiatives would benefit from an increased recognition of individual differences and a greater focus on positive interventions aimed at harnessing digital technology to foster individual and societal wellbeing.

The links between worker well-being and quit intentions have been well researched. However, the vast majority of extant studies use just one measure, job satisfaction, to proxy for worker well-being as a whole, thus ignoring its documented multidimensionality. This paper examines whether this approach is justified. Using novel survey data, I compare the extent to which alternative well-being indicators (job satisfaction, affect, engagement and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs) individually, and jointly, explain variation in the quit intentions of 994 full-time workers. I find systematic differences in the personal and well-being profiles of workers who intend quitting and those who do not. Furthermore, well-being indicators explain four to nine times more variation in quit intentions than wages and hours combined. The engagement measure performs best, explaining 22.5% of variation in quit intentions. Employing a composite model (job satisfaction + affect + engagement) significantly increases explanatory power. My results suggest that the standard single-item job satisfaction measure may be good enough for organisations who merely wish to identify categories of workers who may be most at risk of quitting. For organisations seeking to develop proactive quit prevention strategies however, supplementing job satisfaction with other indicators such as engagement should increase explanatory power and yield valuable, potentially actionable, insights.

Organisations are investing significant resources in promoting the physical, emotional, and psychological well-being of their employees. In hybrid working environments, virtual worker wellness events are increasingly being used to combat social isolation and boost employee morale. Yet attendance at such events is often low. Using a randomised control trial, this study tests whether four behaviourally informed nudges (i) simplification, (ii) changing the messenger, (iii) using social proof and (iv) setting a default, can increase the registration and attendance rates of 6,998 public sector employees at three EDI (Equality Diversity Inclusion) wellness events. We find evidence that defaults matter. Pre-registering employees more than trebles the attendance rate, from 2.8% to 9.5%. While providing social proof and changing the messenger increase registration rates, they have no impact on attendance. We find little evidence of treatment heterogeneity, suggesting that defaults may have wide applicability. Our results have important implications for organisations seeking to enhance the impact and return on investment of their worker wellness initiatives.