ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic forced sociotechnical systems (STS) to highly integrate remote work. Large-scale analyses show that the positivity of tweets about work from home decreased until COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO and re-increased in the weeks that followed. Nevertheless, it is unclear if this reaction is due to personal and organizational developments or if it mirrors the realignment of entire STS. The present study uses Q methodology to identify differences in how STS realign to the externally enforced integration of remote work. Only STS that reach a state of high alignment to remote work conditions by successfully shifting communication and procedures to digital spheres can be considered resilient. The results show that employees describe their personal experiences with remote work as more positive the higher their level of sociotechnical realignment. Furthermore, personal digital resilience is correlated to successful STS realignment as well. The results confirm the importance of realigning not only the technical and social components of STS but above all their sociotechnical interaction. Negative sentiments relate in particular to the low realization of humanistic objectives in STS. © 2023, The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has led to immense impacts on the hospitality sector, putting millions of jobs at risk. The uncertainty has resulted in significant psychological effects on service staff. Developing on micro-level interpersonal interactions between line managers and service staff, this article aims to propose a bottom-up approach to alleviate service staff's anxiety and enhance their work resilience during and after the pandemic. The proposed conceptual framework synthesised the personal uncertainty constructs, self-determination theory (SDT) and leader-member exchange (LMX) to address the psychological issues that emerged from a prolonged ambiguous and unsettled period. The framework proposes that interpersonal exchanges at the micro-level can strengthen service staff's intrinsic motivation and resilience. This article offers new insights into crisis management research and practice in the hospitality sector by developing a people-centred approach. At the micro-level, this framework offers a holistic strategy, including a flat team structure, uncertainty-embracing organisational environment, transparent decision-making process and sympathetic behaviours from leaders to facilitate service staff to develop greater coping mechanisms for the unknown future. Furthermore, this framework provides organisations preliminary guidelines to establish a longitudinal preventive strategy to strengthen employees' work resilience. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
Social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic are at risk due to exposure to varied populations in need, which may impact their resilience, burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion satisfaction. The study assessed resilience at work, burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion satisfaction among social workers in Israel during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (May to June 2020). A convenience sample of 332 social workers (291 women (87.6%)) filled out an online, structured questionnaire that included demographics, a professional quality of life scale (ProQOL) (including three subscales), and resilience at work (RAW) (including seven subscales). The overall mean of the RAW was medium (M = 71, SD ± 8.9) compared to standardized scores. The mean scores of two of the subscales of the RAW, maintaining perspective and staying healthy, were low. The mean scores of the sub-scales of ProQOL were: compassion satisfaction was close to the 50th percentile (M = 48.25); burnout (M = 30.18) and secondary trauma (M = 26.27) were below the 25th percentile. Significant low to medium positive associations were found between all the dependent variables, except for staying healthy. A negative association was identified between compassion satisfaction and burnout, as well as between compassion satisfaction and secondary trauma. High levels of compassion satisfaction and contentment, low levels of secondary trauma, and having a managerial position were predicted to be 40% of the RAW. Lower levels of maintaining perspective, secondary trauma, and being younger predicted 27% of burnout. Higher levels of finding your calling, living authentically, maintaining perspective, interacting cooperatively, being older, and not being a manager predicted 58% of compassion satisfaction. Lower levels of burnout, maintaining perspective, and being younger predicted 36% of secondary trauma. As the COVID-19 pandemic still challenges most societies, policymakers should consider ways to integrate mechanisms that will enhance social workers' resilience at work.