Service Employees' Mindfulness and Job Crafting amid COVID-19: The Roles of Resilience, Organizational Health Climate, and Health-Oriented Leadership

Due to changes in the work environment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, service employees' behavior, that proactively reshapes the content and meaning of work (i.e., job crafting), is increasingly important. We identified mindfulness as a key individual trait contributing to job crafting in the pandemic context. The purpose of our study was to examine the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting, and the moderating effects of perceived organizational health climate and health-oriented leadership on the mindfulness–resilience relationship. We administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean service employees after the onset of COVID-19 (January 20, 2020). Data for mindfulness, resilience, perceived organizational health climate, and health-oriented leadership were collected via participants' self-report in March, 2020. One month later (April, 2020), we obtained their self-ratings of job crafting. Results showed that resilience mediated the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting. The positive relationship between these two variables was more pronounced when perceived organizational health climate was high than when it was low. Perceived organizational health climate further moderated the indirect effect of mindfulness on job crafting through resilience.

Daily relationships between job insecurity and emotional labor amid COVID-19: Mediation of ego depletion and moderation of off-job control and work-related smartphone use.

The economic recession in the service sector during the COVID-19 pandemic has jeopardized service employees' job security. While the daily fluctuations of perceived job insecurity may have implications for service employees' emotional labor, the day-to-day relationship between these two variables and their mediating and moderating mechanisms in the pandemic context remain unknown. To fill this gap, our research examined the day-level relationship between job insecurity perceptions, ego depletion, and emotional labor, as well as the moderating effects of overnight off-job control and work-related smartphone use. To assess these relationships, we conducted two daily studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In study 1 (March-April 2020), 135 service employees responded to morning and evening online surveys for five workdays. In study 2 (June 2022), which administered morning and evening online surveys to 90 flight attendants for five workdays, work-related COVID-19 exposure risk was controlled in the analyses. The results of the two studies demonstrated that on a day when service employees perceived a high level of job insecurity, they felt ego-depleted, which, in turn, was associated with decreased deep acting and increased surface acting. Post hoc findings indicated a significant three-way interaction between off-job control, off-job work-related smartphone use, and daily job insecurity, such that the job insecurity-ego depletion-emotional labor was most pronounced when off-job control was low and off-job work-related smartphone use was high. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Supervisor incivility and frontline employees' performance amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A multilevel moderated mediation analysis

Underpinned by conservation of resources (COR) theory, the study examines how supervisor incivility affects in- and extra-role performance by assessing the intermediary role of self-efficacy of frontline employees (FLEs) and moderating role of person-job fit (P-J Fit) at the store-level in the COVID-19 context. The study samples 366 FLEs from 48 retail stores in India. The findings show that the association between supervisor incivility and FLEs' in- and extra-role performance through self-efficacy is only strong when the P-J Fit remains weak. The theoretical model backed by empirical findings provides potential value to the existing literature. Graphical Image 1

A longitudinal investigation of the roles of cognitive and affective job insecurity before and during the pandemic

Background: While an increasing body of research has examined employees' job insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, we know little about the role of cognitive and affective job insecurity in the pandemic context. Methods: We conducted a two-wave study on 211 service employees in South Korea to assess the indirect effect of their cognitive job insecurity that existed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic on their job performance after the onset of the pandemic, via affective job insecurity. Results: Mediation analysis revealed that pre-COVID cognitive job insecurity significantly indirectly affected mid-COVID job performance through mid-COVID affective job insecurity. Further, we found this indirect effect significant only among female employees. Discussion: These findings underscore the long-term effects of cognitive job insecurity on job performance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Struggling to Stay Engaged During Adversity: A Daily Investigation of Frontline Service Employees' Job Insecurity and the Moderating Role of Ethical Leader Behavior.

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study examined the moderating role of ethical leader behavior in the effects of daily perceived job insecurity on work outcomes the next day (i.e., work engagement and customer-directed helping) through occupational regret the next morning among frontline service employees working in adverse work situations (i.e., the coronavirus disease pandemic). Using experience sampling method, data were collected from 135 frontline service employees across five consecutive workdays. The results showed that daily perceived job insecurity had a negative indirect effect on work engagement and customer-directed helping the next day through (increased) occupational regret the next day in the morning. In addition, ethical leader behavior moderated the negative indirect effect of daily perceived job insecurity on next-day work engagement and customer-directed helping through next-morning occupational regret. Specifically, these negative effects were especially stronger among employees who had observed low levels of ethical leader behavior the previous day. The theoretical implications of the present findings for researchers and their practical implications for managers are discussed.

Impacts of customer incivility and abusive supervision on employee performance: a comparative study of the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods

The purpose of our study was to assess the effects of customer incivility and abusive supervision on employee performance during the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods. Our two-wave panel data collected from South Korean frontline service employees revealed that the indirect effect of customer incivility on job performance through emotional exhaustion became more pronounced after the onset of the pandemic. Furthermore, during the pandemic, customer incivility exerted a greater indirect effect on job performance through emotional exhaustion than abusive supervision. These findings offer insights for effectively managing frontline service employees’ stress in times of crisis, including pandemics.

Multilevel analysis of resonant leadership and subordinate’s work performance during COVID-19: a study of the indian software industry

This study examined the multilevel model that explains how the interaction effect of resonant leadership and gender identity influences proposed outcomes through the mediating role of psychological capital. We performed a multilevel analysis by conducting an online survey using multisource data from the 104 team/project leaders and 527 team members of nine major Indian IT companies. The results demonstrated that psychological capital positively and significantly mediated the relationship between resonant leadership and work performance. The mediation role was stronger when androgynous identity attenuated the relationship between resonant leadership and psychological capital at a higher level. The study adds a unique lens to the literature of resonant leadership and proposes outcomes by validating it through the hierarchical linear modelling principle and efficient statistical procedures. This is the first study to empirically confirm the multilevel moderation mediation process wherein psychological capital mediates the relationship between resonant leadership and work performance, subject to the leader’s androgynous identity level.

Do Organizational Health Climates and Leader Health Mindsets Enhance Employees' Work Engagement and Job Crafting Amid the Pandemic?

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many health- and stress-related symptoms among employees, surprisingly few studies have assessed the effect of a health-promoting organizational climate or leadership on employee work outcomes. To fill this gap, our research proposed and tested a moderated mediation model involving perceived organizational health climate (POHC), leader health mindset (LHM), work engagement, and job crafting. Our propositions were tested using two-wave data collected from 301 South Korean employees. As predicted, POHC was positively related to employees' job crafting, and this relationship was mediated by work engagement. Moreover, the positive relationship between POHC and work engagement and the indirect effect of POHC on job crafting through work engagement were more pronounced when LHM was high than when it was low. These findings support the job demands-resources model and social exchange theory and have implications for helping employees maintain their work attitudes and behavior in times of crisis.

The Power of Family Support: The Long-Term Effect of Pre-COVID-19 Family Support on Mid-COVID-19 Work Outcomes.

While COVID-19 has triggered a vast amount of research on the effect of the pandemic on employee outcomes, little information is known about how the family-to-work interface affects long-term work outcomes during the pandemic. Drawing on the work-home resources model, this study proposes that family support provided before the onset of COVID-19 has a positive indirect effect on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) after the onset, by decreasing emotional exhaustion. To test this proposition, we collected two-wave data from 211 South Korean employees over a 17-month period. As predicted, after controlling for employees' pre-COVID-19 emotional exhaustion, job performance, and OCB, pre-COVID-19 family support was found to exert a significant indirect effect on mid-COVID-19 job performance (b = 0.024, 95% CI = [0.003, 0.071], abcs = 0.027) and OCB (b = 0.031, 95% CI = [0.001, 0.084], abcs = 0.033), through mid-COVID-19 emotional exhaustion. This finding suggests that family support has a positive longitudinal effect on work outcomes for employees during the pandemic.

Emotional exhaustion among the South Korean workforce before and after COVID-19.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea in January 2020, many South Korean employees have been experiencing work stressors, threats of job insecurity, and feelings of isolation, which together lead to emotional exhaustion. The present study aimed to compare the emotional exhaustion of South Korean employees before and after the pandemic, as well as to examine how the demographic characteristics of employees affected their emotional exhaustion. We administered surveys to 276 employees before the COVID-19 pandemic (from July to October 2019) and 301 employees after its onset (from March to April 2020). A series of t-tests demonstrated that both employee samples were similar demographically. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that even when controlling for baseline emotions, the employees assessed after the COVID-19 experienced significantly higher emotional exhaustion than those assessed before. Furthermore, in reaction to COVID-19, female employees felt more emotionally exhausted than their male counterparts. Finally, after the COVID-19 pandemic, younger and short-tenured employees reported higher emotional exhaustion than older and more experienced employees. These findings provide insight into managing the mental health of employees during the COVID-19 crisis. PRACTITIONER POINTS: The emotional exhaustion of the South Korean workforce increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. After the pandemic, female employees experienced a higher level of emotional exhaustion than their male counterparts. After the pandemic, younger and short-tenured employees experienced a higher level of emotional exhaustion than older and long-tenured employees.