Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

First Advisor

Yujong Hwang

Second Advisor

David Wang

Third Advisor

Hui Lin

Abstract

April 2020, COVID-19 (COVID) changed the world and how society functions, transforming the means in which we communicate. Face-to-face interactions were abruptly and immediately replaced with technology mediums. The increase in technology use changed our interpersonal communication habits, placing greater reliance on new and existing electronic methods. Although new forms continue to evolve, the predominate electronic communication method utilized is email. This research uses grounded theory on stress and technology acceptance, and further assesses perceived email volume changes to analyze the relationship of these constructs to job satisfaction during COVID. The data was collected from 147 employees of a mid-sized bank. A task force implemented an automated email reduction program over a 12-month period, culminating with a survey of validated measures completed by employees of the lending department. The results indicate that stress has a strong negative correlation, while perceived usefulness resulted in a positive correlation with job satisfaction. The perceived automated email reduction model that isolated the interaction term explained unique variance in the relationship of perceived usefulness and job satisfaction. Additional discussion regarding the implications of the research and future opportunities are recommended.

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