Online Court Proceedings and Technostress: A Study of Malaysian Judiciary Employees During COVID-19
摘要
This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on 108 Court of Appeal staff in Malaysia as court proceedings move online. Through convenience sampling, respondents were from Grade 17 to JUSA C. A quantitative approach with three measurement instruments was adopted: the COVID-19 Scale, the Work-Family Conflict Scale, and the Technostress Scale. The findings show a moderate positive correlation between COVID-19 anxiety and technostress among Judiciary staff dealing with online court cases. The increased fears of infection were another primary source of stress during this transition. Although few work-family conflicts arose, there was a statistically significant relationship between work-family conflicts and technostress. Heavy technology use was also significantly related to technostress. In addition, connectivity challenges and inadequate digital infrastructure contributed to employee stress. This study determined the necessity of addressing pandemic-related stressors—most concerning infection fears—because of technostress's complex role in the adjustment to online court procedures. Future research might expand the scope of such studies across court hierarchies to explore the impact of digital proceedings on witness credibility and, by extension, highlight the dynamics of technostress in the continuing digitalization of the judiciary.