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

Abstract

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.

Assessing the employees’ efficiency and adaptive performance for sustainable human resource management practices and transactional leadership: HR-centric policies for post COVID-19 era

“…According to various studies, improving employees' work experience improves their motivation and job devotion. In addition, work enrichment significantly enhances selfcontrol, self-actualization, and self-respect (D'Souza et al, 2022).…”

“…As a result, transactional leadership is more likely to lead to desired objectives (Abbas & Ali, 2021). As a result, transactional leaders 1) are reactive rather than proactive, 2) operate within the organization's culture, 3) ensure that people accomplish their objectives via a rewards-andpunishment system, and 4) demonstrate the style of management by exception (D'Souza et al, 2022).…”

The Effect of Job Crafting on Performance and Satisfaction: Physical Engagement as a Mediator and Cognitive and Emotional Engagement as Moderators

“…As things stand now, after nearly 2.5 years, the invisible coronavirus (COVID-19) has gripped the world and adversely affected almost all sectors, including higher-educational institutions (Lonska et al, 2021; Sivagnanam et al, 2022; Sohrabi et al, 2020). One significant aftermath of the pandemic is that academic institutions worldwide shifted teaching from in-class to web-based instructions, and India is not an exception (D’Souza et al, 2022; Usman et al, 2021). As developed nations spontaneously adjusted to the change, the shift was not easy for the educational institutions in developing countries like India.…”

“…As developed nations spontaneously adjusted to the change, the shift was not easy for the educational institutions in developing countries like India. The faculty, students and administrators were unprepared for an immediate transition from in-class to web-based instructions because of the lack of adequate infrastructure, training, support staff and experience with the online mode of instruction (Almaiah et al, 2020; D’Souza et al, 2022; Irshad et al, 2021). Though some studies conducted during COVID-19 included e-learning of students in educational institutions (Choudhury, 2022), voluntary development of employees (Deosthali & Johnson, 2021), women empowerment during the pandemic (Kumari & Eguruze, 2022), studies focusing on resilient strategies employed in educational institutions are very sparse.…”

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 reduction of economic activity severely affected all the manufacturing and service sectors (retail, banks, educational institutions, real estate, IT, recreation, media, and healthcare) except only “front‐line” workers who were fully engaged. The social distancing norms increased the use of the internet and internet‐based services for communications and work‐from‐homes (D'Souza et al, 2022 ).…”