Introduction Alvin Toffler first used the term 'information overload' in his 1970 published book 'Future Shock'. Nearly 50 years later, facing work without spatial or temporal boundaries, this concept becomes reality. We conducted a systematic review on the determinants of information overload and on its consequences on health, quality of life, performance and quality of work. Methods We searched EBSCOhost (Academic Search Complete +BusinessSource Complete+PsycARTICLES+ PsycINFO+PSY-YNDEX), PubMed, and Web of Science (until March 2017) using a sensitive search string. Two independent reviewers screened the titles and abstracts for eligible articles and a third reviewer negotiated consensus. Further assessments of eligibility and quality assessment (of quantitative studies only) were conducted in a similar manner. The search resulted in 2535 records. The data of 33 full-text articles representing 16 quantitative and 18 qualitative studies were included and extracted. All quantitative studies were judged as of poor methodological quality: most studies applied a cross-sectional design and reported only univariate correlation coefficients. Due to the high heterogeneity of the studies, a meta-analysis could not be conducted.Results The results of our systematic review point to a relationship between high information amount and perceived information overload. According to the included studies, information overload was positively associated with work time spent with Emails, work-to-family conflicts and negatively associated -inter alia -with technical support, segmentation between work and family life, and appropriate Email management techniques. Discussion The most striking result was a clear lack of methodically sound studies on the determinants and consequences of information overload. Future studies on this important topic should provide a defined study base, should take the temporal sequence into account and should quantify information amount.

IntroductionStress in the workplace has emerged as a significant and universal problem in terms of negative health, loss in productivity and socio-economic turbulence. Latest research concludes that integrated stress management (systems approach) showed benefits both to individuals and organisations. It will help to identify the scope of primary, secondary and tertiary interventions in a given organisation in handling stress to gain overall organisational effectiveness. Against this backdrop, Stress Safety Net, a comprehensive model was conceptualised and tested for its efficacy.MethodsAn experimental study was conducted on 1000 employees in two different workplace settings in two major companies and in each workplace 500 employees participated in the study. Pre and post test was conducted to verify the efficacy of Stress Safety Net Model. Physiological, Bio-chemical, Psychological and Organisational parameters of stress were tested. Data were analysed using SPSS.ResultsEmployees perceived distress was significantly reduced. Bio-chemical parameters i.e. Total Cholesterol and LDL have dropped very significantly (p<0.001). Other parameters such as Serum Cortisol, Orthostatic Tolerance Test (OTT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) which are indirect measures of stress showed a significant decrease with (p<0.01), (p<0.05) and (p<0.05) respectively. Overall Role Stress reduced significantly (p<0.05). Organisational level variables i.e. Management competencies and psychosocial safety climate were improved significantly.ConclusionStress Safety Net (a set of well-defined practices, policies, and competencies) implemented by the organisations that helped to identify and overcome stress triggers, promote stress resilience thus enabled employees to execute their task/deliveries efficiently. The findings demonstrated the efficacy stress safety net model enabled the systems approach in stress management at the workplace.