Impact of COVID-19 on Employee Behavior: Stress and Coping Mechanism During WFH (Work From Home) Among Service Industry Employees

Abstract

The continuing crisis of Coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) has changed our lives considerably; imposing the need for various modifications for organizations and individuals to cope up in this testing time. This study is undertaken to have an insight on how organizations and individuals adapt to these changes and challenges. The impact of coronavirus on human body is well known and more research is underway but what it does to the human behavior and the psychosocial effects are yet to be unraveled. To dive deep into the behavioral consequences of such pandemic, 23 in-depth interviews (Male 12; female 13, average age of 39 years) were conducted with middle level managers in public and private service industry of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Using the Conservation of resource theory (COR), this paper explores the employee’s perception of different types of stressors and examine a variety of coping mechanisms including the type of organizational support provided during this crisis. The findings of the interview suggest that the stress levels were moderate to high among all the participants. The main themes emerged from the interviews were categorized into five; (i) Triggers of stress (ii) Organizational support (iii) Coping strategies & resources (iv) Blurred boundaries during WFH and (v) Positivity in this crisis. The study presents an integrated Stress Model with key triggers, coping strategies (resources), organization support and outcome. The triggers inducing stress includes fear of unknown, ineffective communication at work, lack of clarity and direction, interruptions during WFH resulting in loss of resources like time and energy. All this might disturb employee’s mental health leading to prolonged stress or even psychosomatic diseases. Therefore, it is an important issues which need to be given priority in all organizations. The findings support the notion that there is a dire need for psycho-social support, community support and an effective system of organizational support to sustain employee’s emotional and mental wellbeing. The findings of the study are valuable and have urgent policy implications for devising a special EAP for crisis like COVID-19 and any future cases. Although the lockdown would be gradually eased, organizations need to rethink about different alternatives to work. The need of the hour is to be more agile and flexible to foster creativity and innovation.

The Role of Employee Relations in Shaping Job Satisfaction as an Element Promoting Positive Mental Health at Work in the Era of COVID-19

“…As a result of the changes caused by the pandemic, employee anxiety, stress [ 5 , 6 ] changes in risk perception [ 7 , 8 ] experiencing anxiety of isolation, stigma, discrimination [ 9 ] has increased significantly. Stress was caused by new factors such as health and life threats, numerous restrictions and recommendations due to the epidemic state (stay-at-home, closure of many institutions), isolation and lack of social support, disturbed work-home balance, lack of sufficient physical activity lowering overall stress resistance [ 10 ].…”

Analysis of Music Teachers’ Job Satisfaction and COVID-19 Anxiety Levels

“…In fact, it was necessary to use restrictive measures to reduce the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. However, because of these measures, employee anxiety, stress (Rossi et al, 2020;Sahni, 2020), changes in risk perception (Wise et al, 2020;Dryhurst et al, 2020), isolation anxiety, stigma, and discrimination (Baldassarre et al, 2020) increased substantially. Stress stemmed from new factors such as, health and life threats, many restrictions and suggestions related to the epidemic situation (staying at home, closure of many institutions), isolation and lack of social support, and impaired work-home balance.…”

Antecedents and Consequences of Work Stress Behavior

“…The variables identified are antecedents of work stress and are factors that come from individuals, namely fear of the unknown (Sahni, 2020), self-efficacy (Hu et al, 2019, Park andJang, 2017), organizational citizenship behavior/ OCB (Rabenu et al, 2017), and emotional intelligence (Revzani and Pouria, 2019). In the research of Hu et al (2019), self-efficacy plays a role as a mediation for the influence of leadership pressure on work stress, whereas Park and Jang's research (2017) shows a negative relationship between self-efficacy and stress.…”

“…Relationships in the organization are a source of work stress. In the literature study conducted by the author, the antecedents of work stress are related to relationships in organizations including organizational structure (Naoum et al, 2018), leadership (Elomaa et al, 2020;Manoppo, 2020;Paeveen and Adeinant, 2019;Yao et al, 2020), social support (Bjaalid, 2020;Foy et al, 2018;Yousaf et al, 2020), communication and management support (Pandey, 2020;Sahni, 2020), culture high power distance (Hampton et al, 2019;Oruh et al, 2020), autonomy (Patel and Wolfe, 2019) and work team coordination (Hampton et al, 2019).…”

“…Strategies for managing work stress at the organizational level can use additional tools such as communication systems and software, access to psychological services, change in leadership, provision of resources for employee welfare such as job training, and better work team coordination (Hampton et al, 2019). In addition, organizations can conduct psychological suggestion training (Chen, 2020) as well as psycho-social support, community support, and an effective system of organizational support (Sahni, 2020). A summary of work stress management can be seen in Table 3.…”