COVID-19 is a moderating variable with its own moderating factors

Abstract

The full scope of COVID-19's effects on workplaces all over the world is equivalent to the scope of many textbooks in industrial and organizational psychology. As co-organizers of a parallel team of researchers (Kniffin et al., 2021) who recently pursued a similar focus-to apply the frontiers of work and organizational psychology to making sense of the pandemic and charting a roadmap for future research and action-we certainly agree with the urgency and priority attention that Rudolph et al. ( 2021) have applied to COVID-19. Our own review aligns in certain crucial ways with Rudolph et al., but it also differs in meaningful ways. As elaborated in the five points that we raise below, it is clear that COVID-19 is a disruptive moderator of workplace dynamics with its own set of important moderating factors.The massive and abrupt requirement for millions of people to work from home (WFH) during various phases of the pandemic seems likely to moderate a very wide array of relationships between employees and employers across the world. The authors' review of literature relevant to working from home provides a service to readers who are interested to learn more; however, one point that merits closer attention is that working from home when one's workplace is shut down due to quarantine is likely to be different-and have different effects-than WFH before COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic, WFH reflected a mix of employee and employer preferences as well as a degree of trust between the relevant parties. Consequently, it is difficult to confidently extrapolate scientific knowledge about pre-COVID-19 WFH to the current experience in which massive numbers of people have been forced to work from home. In our own review, we suggest that "mandatory work from home" warrants its own acronym, MWFH, given that it is a different and (for almost everyone) novel kind of WFH. This necessitates the development of new research and intervention programs.Rudolph et al. ( 2021) plead for analysts to avoid using COVID-19 as grounds for the proliferation of theories of even more leadership types and-in light of Glynn and Raffaelli's (2010) assessment that leadership research has a history of being "incommensurate" or disjointedwe are happy to endorse this plea. There is already too much focus on differentiation of new "theories" in the organizational sciences (Antonakis, 2017), and we share Rudolph et al.'s concerns that COVID-19 will be used as a basis for a new layer of theories. Nevertheless, as the pandemic is first and foremost a public health crisis, it differs in crucial ways from other types of crises such as the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States or the financial crisis of 2008. Therefore, we expect more theorizing on the concept of health-oriented leadership that emphasizes the role of leaders in taking responsibility for the health status of workplaces and their workers. These aspects are especially important as various organizations are asking their employees to return to the workplace and presenteeism may be a challeng...

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“…Teachers were also among these employees who were forced to teach from home using online channels of communication. This was in line with the findings of Kniffin et al (2021a , b ). These measures and restrictions were made to prevent the outspread of the pandemic.…”

“…Without the priorities of employees, working as an option from home was made mandatory due to COVID-19 crisis ( Kniffin et al, 2021a , b ). During the initial period of COVID-19, almost 80% of employees in half of the companies were working from home.…”

“…These issues included family size, living space, etc. ( Kniffin et al, 2021a , b ). Teachers were also among these employees who were forced to teach from home using online channels of communication.…”

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“…During such a lengthy crisis, it is likely that long-term demands will exceed the personal strengths and employment resources (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017 ) of school leaders, thus making them vulnerable to their leadership roles; home-school navigation; weariness; and high burnout risks of both administrative and managerial roles (Kniffin et al, 2021 ). The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented, and most school principals do not have expertise in dealing with such protracted-complex crises (Varela and Fedynich, 2020 ).…”

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