During the COVID‐19 pandemic, universities worldwide are going into ‘emergency mode’—radically transforming education by switching to online and e‐learning education. In the face of these emergent changes, many academic teachers who are unwilling to use e‐learning or who lack the appropriate competences are suddenly being forced to teach via electronic devices and the Internet. But how will this COVID‐19 forced e‐learning influence academic teachers' motivation and performance? In this conceptual paper, drawing from Job Characteristics Theory—a model of human work motivation, we would like to discuss the possible changes in six motivational job characteristics of the academic teacher's job (task identity, task significance, skill variety, feedback, autonomy, social dimensions of the work) caused by COVID‐19 forced e‐learning. Our concise conceptual elaboration might spark a debate on the possible unintended consequences of COVID‐19 forced e‐learning.

Work engagement as a predictor of health is an emerging concept in occupational science and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) is the most popular work engagement measurement tool. However, despite its popularity, the UWES is not free from controversy concerning its factorial validity. In this paper, 21 research studies on both UWES-9 and UWES-17 factorial validity within the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach have been reviewed in order to answer the question as to which of the UWES factorial structures displays greater validity. The originally proposed threefactor structure of the UWES has been recognized as superior in 6 studies. In further 6 studies, the UWES structure with 1 general factor has been found to be superior. In 8 studies, the authors have concluded that the one-and three-factor structures could be considered equivalent. One study has failed to confirm either the one-or three-factor structure of the UWES. These ambiguous results from studies focusing on the UWES factorial validity are puzzling because they not only indicate a lack of validity for the UWES as a measurement tool but might also challenge the whole concept of work engagement as a three-factor structure of dedication, vigor and absorption. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2017;30(2):161-175

Online learning helps to continue education in the face of Covid-19 lockdowns and social isolation, but it might largely change characteristics of academic teachers’ jobs and, thus, have some unintended consequences for teachers’ motivating job potential. In this study, using a convenience sample of 202 academic teachers, we tested and supported the hypothesis that academic teachers perceived their motivating job potential as lower during the forced Covid-19 e-learning than before it. We also provided evidence that motivating potential of work during the forced Covid-19 e-learning is associated with work engagement and job satisfaction. Moreover, we provided a modicum of evidence that the relationship between the motivating job potential and academic teachers’ job satisfaction might be moderated by teachers’ assessment of university management actions during the Covid-19 situation, such that this association seems to be stronger among teachers who more positively assess university management. Our results provided initial evidence of possible unintended consequences of the pandemic-forced e-learning for academic teachers. Therefore, we suggested that socially sustainable e-learning required not only concentration on students and organizations of the education process but also on improving the teachers’ motivating job potential.

Work engagement, as conceptualized by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), is a work-related positive state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption; however, it still remains unclear how many dimensions work engagement comprises. This study tested the factorial validity of 11 different UWES factorial models that are available in the literature using a confirmatory factor analysis approach on a large sample of multi-occupational Polish employees (N = 1420). The two-factor UWES-6, comprising vigour and dedication, was found to be reliable and remained invariant across samples drawn from four different organizational positions. It also presented a better fit than the three-factor UWES-9, which is a scale used as a standard in contemporary research on work engagement. The findings suggest that the three-factor UWES-9 might not be an optimal measure of work engagement in Poland.