Social support and perceived uncertainties during COVID-19: Consequences for employees’ wellbeing

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has drastically affected organizations worldwide, thereby influencing the employees' psychological wellbeing. Since it is a new pandemic, research is sparse in the domain of employees' psychological wellbeing in relation to the phenomenon. Drawing on social support and job demand-resource perspectives, this research adds to the factors affecting employees' wellbeing due to the coronavirus outbreak. Specifically, this study is an investigation of co-workers' instrumental support in predicting employees' emotional exhaustion via employees' perceived uncertainties experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, we tested for the contextual specificity of family support on uncertainties and its link with employees' emotional exhaustion. With data drawn from two universities (n = 275), the findings reveal a negative association between co-worker task support and an employee's emotional exhaustion, and an employee's perceived uncertainties mediate this relationship. Moreover, the moderating analysis exhibits that family support mitigates the negative effect of uncertainty perception on emotional exhaustion. Our study reveals that coworker and family support are extremely important during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings are equally valuable for organizations and society to mitigate the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees' wellbeing.

Protective Factors and Coping Styles Associated with Quality of Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of Hospital or Care Institution and Private Practice Nurses

“…The stress caused by high levels of uncertainty during the current crises may have increased the need for social support [ 51 ]. Undoubtedly, social support (providing assistance and information as needed) allows nurses to cope with both feelings of uncertainty and perceived stress [ 52 , 53 ]. The provision of social support at work can be problematic for NPPs because they cannot receive direct support from their institutions or colleagues.…”

Decreasing Wellbeing and Increasing Use of Negative Coping Strategies: The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the UK Health and Social Care Workforce

“…Amongst respondents in Phase 3 of this present study there was widespread recognition that pandemic-related work responsibilities had affected respondents' quality of home life, with working from home not enabling a break from work for many of this workforce and it was noted that an emphasis should be placed on re/creating a more healthy work-life balance [68]. Overall, evidence suggests that the use of positive coping strategies are essential in reducing stressors, improving wellbeing and work-related quality of life which can then reduce burnout [64,[69][70][71].…”

Return to Work during the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Study on the Role of Job Demands, Job Resources, and Personal Resources upon the Administrative Staff of Italian Public Universities

“…Therefore, it should have a further critical role, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when employees are under additional and atypical stress and are even more socially isolated [ 39 , 40 ]. In line with these arguments, recent studies have contended that among smart workers, both supervisor and co-worker support helped employees reduce emotional exhaustion by lessening perceived uncertainties and organizational crisis communication during the COVID-19 lockdown [ 41 , 42 , 43 ]. According to this evidence, it can be hypothesized that experiencing workplace social support, functional to the best management of difficulties caused by the pandemic emergency, may represent a significant workplace resource, even for those workers who had suddenly returned to work in presence or started to work partly in presence and partly remotely during the first phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”