Impact Analysis of Work Culture and Transformation during COVID-19

A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Authors

  • Sneh Bhiwaniwala Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India 576104
  • Vishwanath Bansal Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India 576104
  • Babita Singla Chitkara Business School, Chitkara University, Chandigarh, Punjab, India 140401
  • Namesh Malarout Materials Yanfeng Automotive Interiors, Mississauga, Canada L5R 4J6
  • Sonia Vaz Department of Economics, Rosary College of Commerce and Arts, Navelim, Goa, India 403707
  • Prithvi Hegde Jagdish Sheth School of Management, Electronic City, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 560100
  • Nisha S. Tatkar Department of Postgraduate Diploma in Management, Institute of PGDM, Mumbai Education Trust, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India 400050
  • Anshika Sharma Department of Psychology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India 201313

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57159/gadl.jcmm.1.1.22020

Keywords:

COVID-19, Employees, Organization, Work Culture, Pandemic

Abstract

Staff members use tried-and-true procedures when completing workplace visits, delivering services, and completing tasks for clients. However, the COVID-19 pandemic compelled employers to change the work styles of individual employees to ensure good communication, work-life balance, and flexibility for employees while maintaining optimal work productivity levels. In addition, the World Health Organization established social separation guidelines to combat COVID-19. The pandemic thus, challenged the work culture and also resulted in employees being quarantined in their homes. As a result of this transformation, employees were being encouraged to use digital tools to facilitate work-from-home opportunities. The current study aims to analyze employees' psychological and productive effects of work-from-home culture. It also looks for coworker bonding that is threatened by this transformation and suggests a way to keep it intact. Through a thorough review of the literature, the authors developed a comprehensive model to assess the pandemic's impact on employees' lifestyles. The conceptual model was empirically tested by applying the model to data collected from 233 employees from various backgrounds. The model result was validated using Partial Least Squares Methods- Structural Equation Modeling. The inferences highlight the factors influencing employee morale and work culture, as well as the parameters closely related to employee functioning in the organization that should not be affected.

References

R. Bhat, V. K. Singh, N. Naik, C. R. Kamath, P. Mulimani, and N. Kulkarni, "COVID 2019 outbreak: The disappointment in Indian teachers," Asian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 50, p. 102047, Apr 2020.

W. De Preter, "High demand for teleworking among employees," Apr 2020.

T. Knutson, "Telecommuting Surge Likely To Last Past COVID-19 Crisis, Predicts Brookings Report.," Forbes, Apr 2020.

N. Krasulja, M. Vasiljevic-Blagojevic, and I. Radojevic, "Working from home as alternative for achieving work-life balance," Ekonomika, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 131-142, 2015.

S. Lewis and C. L. Cooper, "Balancing the work/home interface: A European perspective," Human Resource Management Review, vol. 5, pp. 289-305, Dec 1995.

S. Mann, R. Varey, and W. Button, "An exploration of the emotional impact of tele‐working via computer‐mediated communication," Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 15, pp. 668-690, Nov 2000.

S. Montreuil and K. Lippel, "Telework and occupational health: A Quebec empirical study and regulatory implications," Safety Science, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 339-358, 2003.

R. Davis, "Home alone.," Revolution (Oakland, Calif.), vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 22-27, 2000.

J. D. Andrew, "Comparison of the job satisfaction and productivity of telecommuters versus in-house employees: A research note on work in progress," Psychological Reports, vol. 68, no. 3c, pp. 1223-1234, 1991.

D. M. Vitorio and W. Linda, "Telework: A New Way of Working and Living," International Labour Review, vol. 129, no. 5, pp. 529-544, 1990.

A. Nandi, D. Jahagirdar, M. C. Dimitris, J. A. Labrecque, E. C. Strumpf, J. S. Kaufman, I. Vincent, E. Atabay, S. Harper, A. Earle, and S. J. Heymann, "The Impact of Parental and Medical Leave Policies on Socioeconomic and Health Outcomes in OECD Countries: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature," The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 96, pp. 434-471, Sep 2018.

S. Clark, "Presentees: New Slaves of the Office Who Run on Fear," Oct 1994.

M. J. Gray, "Supporting teleworking with multimedia," British Telecom technology journal, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 105-112, 1995.

P. M. Leonardi, "Social Media, Knowledge Sharing, and Innovation: Toward a Theory of Communication Visibility," Information Systems Research, vol. 25, pp. 796-816, Dec 2014.

N. B. Ellison, "Social Impacts," Social Science Computer Review, vol. 17, pp. 338-356, Aug 1999.

A. Bibby, "Telework: Are Journalists Heading for Honeysuckle Cottage?," The Journalist, Sep 1993.

D. Mustajab, A. Bauw, A. Irawan, A. Rasyid, A. M. Aldrin, and H. M. Amin, "Covid-19 Pandemic: What are the Challenges and Opportunities for e-Leadership?," Fiscaoeconomia, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 483-497, 2020.

M. Groth, Y. Wu, H. Nguyen, and A. Johnson, "The Moment of Truth: A Review, Synthesis, and Research Agenda for the Customer Service Experience," Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, vol. 6, pp. 89-113, Jan 2019.

H. Bouziri, D. R. M. Smith, A. Descatha, W. Dab, and K. Jean, "Working from home in the time of COVID-19: how to best preserve occupational health?," Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 77, pp. 509-510, Jul 2020.

S. Baert, L. Lippens, E. Moens, P. Sterkens, and J. Weytjens, "How Do We Think the Covid-19 Crisis Will Affect Our Careers (If Any Remain)?," GLO Discussion Paper, 2020.

B. B. Baltes, T. E. Briggs, J. W. Huff, J. A. Wright, and G. A. Neuman, "Flexible and compressed workweek schedules: A meta-analysis of their effects on work-related criteria.," Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 84, pp. 496-513, Aug 1999.

T. D. Allen and K. M. Shockley, "Flexible Work Arrangements: Help or Hype?," in Handbook of Families and Work: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, p. 265, 2009.

L. K. Barber and J. S. Jenkins, "Creating technological boundaries to protect bedtime: Examining work-home boundary management, psychological detachment and sleep," Stress and Health, vol. 30, pp. 259-264, Aug 2014.

S. Carolan, P. R. Harris, and K. Cavanagh, "Improving Employee Well-Being and Effectiveness: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Web-Based Psychological Interventions Delivered in the Workplace," Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 19, p. e271, Jul 2017.

J. M. Berg, A. M. Grant, and V. Johnson, "When callings are calling: Crafting work and leisure in pursuit of unanswered occupational callings," Organization Science, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 973-994, 2010.

D. W. McCloskey, "An Examination of the Boundary Between Work and Home for Knowledge Workers," International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals, vol. 9, pp. 25-41, Jul 2018.

S. Joyce, L. Tan, F. Shand, R. A. Bryant, and S. B. Harvey, "Can Resilience be Measured and Used to Predict Mental Health Symptomology Among First Responders Exposed to Repeated Trauma?," Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, vol. 61, pp. 285-292, Apr 2019.

E. E. Kossek and R. J. Thompson, "Workplace Flexibility: Integrating Employer and Employee Perspectives to Close the Research-Practice Implementation Gap," in The Oxford Handbook of Work and Family, pp. 255-271, 2016.

R. Chainey, "This is how COVID-19 could change the world of work for good," World Economic Forum, p. 1, 2020.

A. D. Dubey and S. Tripathi, "Analysing the sentiments towards work-from-home experience during COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 8, pp. 13-19, Apr 2020.

S. L. D. Restubog, A. C. G. Ocampo, and L. Wang, "Taking control amidst the chaos: Emotion regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Vocational Behavior, vol. 119, p. 103440, Jun 2020.

C. Hanson, "Indigenous Research Methodologies," vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 93-95, 2012.

S. Chadha, M. Ennen, R. Parekh, and G. Pellumbi, "Reimagining medtech for a COVID-19 world," 2020.

W. C. Clapp, M. T. Rubens, J. Sabharwal, and A. Gazzaley, "Deficit in switching between functional brain networks underlies the impact of multitasking on working memory in older adults," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 108, pp. 7212-7217, Apr 2011.

M. İmren and H. G. Tekman, "the Relationship Between Media Multitasking, Working Memory and Sustained Attention," Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, vol. 20, pp. 1075-1100, Jul 2019.

R. L. Jacobs, "Knowledge Work and Human Resource Development," Human Resource Development Review, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 176-202, 2017.

T. D. Weerasinghe and A. K. L. Jayawardana, "Flex-Work and Work-Life Balance: Effects of Role Conflicts and Work-Life Support Organizational Culture," Sri Lankan Journal of Management, pp. 49-76, Dec 2019.

X. Ma, "The effect mechanism of work flexibility on employee job satisfaction," Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 1053, p. 012105, Jul 2018.

C. Magnusson, "Flexible time–but is the time owned? Family friendly and family unfriendly work arrangements, occupational gender composition and wages: a test of the mother-friendly job hypothesis in Sweden," Community, Work and Family, vol. 24, pp. 291-314, May 2021.

D. J. Maume, "Can men make time for family? Paid work, care work, work-family reconciliation policies, and gender equality," Social Currents, vol. 3, pp. 43-63, Mar 2016.

J. Ferdous, "SWOT Analysis of CodersTrust Bangladesh," tech. rep., Dhaka, 2019.

Downloads

Published

31-10-2022

How to Cite

[1]
S. Bhiwaniwala, “Impact Analysis of Work Culture and Transformation during COVID-19: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach”, J. Comput. Mech. Manag, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 48–59, Oct. 2022.

Issue

Section

Original Articles

Categories

Received 2022-10-04
Accepted 2022-10-31
Published 2022-10-31

Most read articles by the same author(s)