The mediatory role of professional fraud in the effect of techno stress, the disease of the digital age, on work performance

Digitalization is a phenomenon historically shaped by various factors and has evolved into the era of digitalism. Although this process offers great advantages for humanity as tools that make life easier, it can also lead people to a virtual lifestyle, leading to the detachment of individuals from their existence, the loss of their cognitive abilities and their performance. Japan is already preparing for the next stage of the information society with the concept of Society 5.0, which aims to use technology for the benefit of humanity by adopting a human-oriented lifestyle and calls this model a "super smart society". Society 5.0 evaluates the social effects of artificial intelligence and digitalization in all aspects and aims to ensure the efficient interaction of individuals with robots and machines1 and to achieve stable growth and development through a human-oriented society model and lifestyle. The purpose of this research is to focus on the unpredictable dark side of the digital age by analyzing in depth the effects of technology-induced stress on employees through burnout and to understand and effectively manage this process with practices and recommendations that are inhibitory in nature to absorb these effects and to provide proactive implications for shaping the future, which is critical for the future of humanity. For this purpose, a survey study was conducted on senior, middle and lower level managers and workers working in different departments of health and financial institutions and enterprises in different sectors where technological intensity, rapid change and competition are intense, located in Izmir province, where the locomotive and leading companies of the country's economy are located, and the data obtained were analyzed by statistical methods and results were drawn. The findings of the thesis show that as a psychosocial negative effect of digitalization on employees, the sub-dimensions of techno-stress, which are techno-burden, techno-complexity and techno-uncertainty according to the relative importance level, affect employee performance negatively and burnout plays a mediating role in this interaction.