Work as replenishment or responsibility? Moderating effects of occupational calling on the within-person relationship between COVID-19 news consumption and work engagement.

Abstract

As the result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), individuals have been inundated with constant negative news related to the pandemic. However, limited research examines how such news consumption impacts employees' work lives, including their ability to remain engaged with their work. Integrating conservation of resources theory and insights from the media psychology literature with research on occupational calling, we propose that weekly COVID-related news consumption heightens employees' anxiety levels, thereby frustrating their ability to remain engaged with work and that this process is differentially moderated by different facets of occupational calling. Specifically, we postulate that those who are called to their work primarily because it gives them personal meaning and purpose (i.e., higher in purposeful work) will remain more engaged with work in the face of the anxiety that arises from consuming COVID-related news, as their work may facilitate resource replenishment for these individuals. Conversely, we postulate that those who are drawn to their work primarily because it allows them to help others (i.e., higher in prosocial orientation) will experience the opposite effect, such that their inability to help others during the pandemic will strengthen the negative effect of anxiety on work engagement. Results from an 8-week weekly diary study with a sample of 281 Canadian employees during the pandemic provided support for our hypotheses. Implications are discussed for maintaining employee work engagement during the pandemic era, and beyond.

Why do you look familiar? - Exploring the role of employee-customer identification in adapting the service offering

“…, 2020; Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001). Similarly, the study found a significant impact of work orientation (calling) on the adaptability of service offering, supported (H6) (Andel et al. , 2021; Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001; Wrzesniewski et al.…”

“…, 1997). Researchers have been calling for increased efforts to understand the significance of work meaning due to its implications for individual and organisational outcomes (Andel et al. , 2021; Dik and Duffy, 2007).…”

“…When individuals attribute meaning to their work rather than considering it as just paid employment, they experience greater job satisfaction (Wang et al, 2020), increased psychological well-being (Allan et al, 2019;Lysova et al, 2019) and a lower level of absenteeism (Allan et al, 2019;Wrzesniewski et al, 1997). Researchers have been calling for increased efforts to understand the significance of work meaning due to its implications for individual and organisational outcomes (Andel et al, 2021;Dik and Duffy, 2007). In particular, researchers are interested in discovering what happens when individuals attach a more profound sense of meaning, i.e.…”

Organizational and vocational behavior in times of crisis: A review of empirical work undertaken during the COVID‐19 pandemic and introduction to the special issue

“…In this same research, work engagement of new hires was more pronounced in regions that had implemented more robust COVID‐19 policies, indicating that a more favorable external environment during the crisis helped to contribute to individuals' engagement at work. In this context, Andel et al (2021) explored how COVID‐19‐related news consumption impacted employees' work engagement during the crisis. The authors found that COVID‐19‐related news consumption overall reduced work engagement by heightening employees' anxiety levels.…”

Adapting careers to the COVID crisis: The impact of the pandemic on employees' career orientations

“…Finally, our paper adds to conceptual work ( Akkermans et al, 2020 ; Autin et al, 2020 ; Cho, 2020 ; Spurk & Straub, 2020 ) and to empirical papers ( Andel et al, 2021 ; Lin et al, 2021 ; Trougakos et al, 2020 ) on the career- and work-related outcomes of the pandemic. Our results reveal that the pandemic blends concerns about security, work-life balance, and health, and makes these career orientations more salient for employees than those related to the job content.…”