Emotional exhaustion, emotional intelligence and task performance of employees in educational institutions during COVID 19 global pandemic: a moderated-mediation model

PurposeThe objective of the present study is to investigate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance. During the present coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic, as the world has come to a standstill and more than 200 countries have been seriously affected, the level of emotional exhaustion experienced by people worldwide is beyond one's imagination. But how organizations were coping with emotional exhaustion and maintaining performance has remained an important question. To address this, the authors developed a conceptual model suggesting that organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can act as a mediator, and leadership style and emotional intelligence (EI) can act as moderators in alleviating the dysfunctional consequences of emotional exhaustion.Design/methodology/approachUsing a structured survey instrument, data were collected from 384 respondents from the faculty and administrative personnel in the Mangalore Diocese educational institutions. The authors used stratified sampling and tested the psychometric properties of the instrument using Lisrel software. To test the hypotheses involving two-way and three-way interactions, the authors used Hayes (2018) PROCESS as a statistical technique.FindingsThe results revealed that OCB mediated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance. To alleviate the dysfunctional consequences of emotional exhaustion, EI and transformational leadership interact to influence OCBs. The authors found that at lower and higher levels of EI, employees exhibited OCBs when leaders exhibited a greater level of transformational leadership. Furthermore, the transactional leadership style interacted with emotional exhaustion to reduce the adverse effects of later on performance.Research limitations/implicationsAs with any research based on self-report measures, the present study has inherent limitations of social desirability and common method bias. However, the authors have sufficient care to minimize, if not eliminate, these limitations. The research highlights the importance of EI, a contingency leadership style in organizations, to reduce the adverse effects of emotional exhaustion caused by the global pandemic.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to both organizations and literature on personnel psychology and organizational behavior. The study suggests that individuals need to invest resources in developing the skills of controlling and regulating their emotions and engaging in extra-role behaviors. In addition, leaders in organizations need to exercise transformational and transactional leadership styles to combat the present COVID-19 global pandemic situation.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights into the importance of EI, leadership style, and OCBs in restoring the loss of resources because of emotional exhaustion. The conceptual model developed and tested is the first of its kind in India, to our knowledge, and contributes to both theory and practice.

Demystifying the effectiveness of emergency remote teaching during global pandemic: Evidence from India

Given the adverse impacts of the global pandemic COVID-19 on higher educational institutions worldwide, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of emergency remote teaching (ERT), especially in the developing country context, India. In addition, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of academic performance and explores social media use as a moderator in these relationships. A carefully crafted survey instrument was distributed. Data was collected from 719 respondents from the affiliated arts and science college of a renowned university in southern India. After checking the psychometric properties of the constructs using the Smart Partial Least Squares (Smart-PLS) of structural equation modelling, and hierarchical regression was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The results of this research indicate that course content, instructor-learner interaction, and student expectation are positively associated with academic performance;social media use moderate the relationship between (i) course content and academic performance, (ii) student expectation and academic performance, and (iii) learning platforms and academic performance. The results also support the positive relationship between academic performance and students' satisfaction with ERT. https//doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2022.14.022

A moderated-mediation model of individual learning and commitment: evidence from healthcare industry in India (part II)

Purpose>This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between individual learning, organizational learning and employee commitment in the context of health-care industry.Design/methodology/approach>A survey instrument was distributed, and data was collected from 346 employees in the health-care industry in the Southern part of India. Hayes’s PROCESS macros were used to test the mediation, moderated moderated-mediation hypotheses.Findings>The results reveal organizational learning as a mediator in the relationship between individual learning and continuance commitment, normative commitment and affective commitment moderate the relationship between organizational learning and continuance commitment and three-way interaction between organizational learning, normative commitment and affective commitment to influence continuance commitment of employees.Research limitations/implications>As with any survey-based research, the present study suffers from the problems associated with self-report measures: common method bias and social desirability bias. However, the authors attempted to minimize these limitations by following appropriate statistical techniques.Practical implications>The study suggests that managers in work organizations need to promote a climate for enhancing learning so that employees remain committed to completing their job and contribute to organizational effectiveness. The results highlight the importance of all three dimensions of organizational commitment: affective, normative and continuance.Originality/value>This study provides new insights in understanding complex interactions between three dimensions of commitment in contributing to organizational performance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the multilayered model showing three-way interactions between three dimensions of organizational commitment is the first of its kind and is a novel idea.

Self-efficacy and Emotion Regulation as Moderators in the Relationship Between Learning Strategies of Students and Academic Performance: Evidence from India

This study aims to explore the learning strategies employed by students in response to web-based teaching during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Data collected from 373 students from the southern part of India were analysed using the Hayes? PROCESS macros. The results suggest that learning strategies significantly predict (a) academic performance and (b) growth mindset. The findings also indicate the positive relationship between students? growth mindset and academic performance. Most importantly, students? self-efficacy has strengthened the positive association between learning strategies and a growth mindset. As the global pandemic has created stressful situations for the students by suddenly switching to web-based teaching, the study found that emotion regulation is an essential moderator in the relationship between learning strategies and a growth mindset. The conceptual model developed, based on the achievement goal theory, was tested in the Indian context. The theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

Knowledge management process, infrastructure, and system quality as resilient strategies to respond to COVID-19 pandemic challenges: Evidence from higher educational institutions in India

The COVID-19 global pandemic has adversely affected educational institutions worldwide, resulting in frequent mandatory lockdowns and social distancing rules. After waiting for a brief period, most organizations, including educational institutions, moved their operations from traditional in-class to virtual, web-based teaching-learning. As a result of unprecedented change, faculty, students, and administrators faced several challenges. However, how the educational institutions were coping with this challenging situation remained an important question. To address this, we present Knowledge Management Process (KMP), Knowledge Management System Infrastructure (KMSINF), and Knowledge Management System Quality (KMSQU) as resilient strategies to convert the challenges into opportunities. Using the KM processes and practices, a complex model is constructed to positively influence employee commitment, performance, and job satisfaction. A survey instrument was used to collect data from 747 faculty members from 14 higher educational institutions in the southern part of India. After testing the measurement properties using the Lisrel package of structural equation modeling, the complex model was tested using Hayes PROCESS macros. The results indicate (i) KMP is positively related to performance and employee commitment, (ii) employee commitment mediates the relationship between KMP and performance, (iii) KMSINF moderates the relationship between KMP and employee commitment, (iv) KMSQU moderates the moderated relationship between KMP and KMSINF in influencing the employee commitment, and (v) performance is positively related to job satisfaction. The results suggest that KM processes, system infrastructure, and system quality are effective, resilient strategies to bring educational institutions to normal functioning during the present global pandemic. The implications for KM, employee commitment, and job satisfaction are discussed.