Keeping Employees Safe During Health Crises: The Effects of Media Exposure, HR Practices, and Age.

Occupational health and safety are critical in promoting the wellness of organizations and employees. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most life-threatening viruses encountered in recent history, providing a unique opportunity for research to examine factors that drive employee safety behavior. Drawing from terror management theory, we propose and test a moderated mediation model using data collected from employees working during a peak of the pandemic. We identify two sources of influence - one external (i.e., media exposure), and one internal (i.e., HR practices) to the organization - that shape employees' mortality salience and safety behaviors. We find that COVID-19 HR practices significantly moderate the relationship between daily COVID-19 media exposure and mortality salience, with media exposure positively associated with mortality salience at lower levels of HR practices but its effects substituted by higher levels of HR practices. Moreover, our results also show that mortality salience spurs safety behaviors, with age moderating this relationship such that younger - but not older - employees are more likely to engage in safety behaviors due to mortality salience. Taken together, we offer theoretical implications for the safety behavior literature and practical implications for organizations faced with health crises or having employees who commonly work in hazardous conditions.

Force majeure and changed circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic: the case of sports service contracts and judicial responses in China

This paper aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of sports service contracts in China from a legal and judicial perspective. It attempts to contribute to the discussion on the applicability of the doctrines of force majeure and change of circumstances in the cases of impracticability of performance or obstructed performance due to COVID-19 and consequent government enforced pandemic control policies and measures. It reveals that courts in China have adopted a differentiated, pluralist, and practical approach according to the degree of the impact of COVID-19 preventive and control measures on the performance of contracts. The juridical responses by judges tend to favour the amendment of contract under the principle of changed circumstances with a view to balancing the interests of both parties to the contract and reducing the impact on the operations of the sport service industry. China’s experience suggests that it is important that courts adhere to the principle of fairness, the principle of balance of interests, and the principle of encouraging transaction in dealing with contract performance disputes caused by COVID-19, while the applicability of force majeure should be carefully examined in judicial practice.