Let's work together, especially in the pandemic: finding ways to encourage problem-focused voice behavior among passionate employees

Abstract

PurposeThis study seeks to unravel the relationship between employees' passion for work and their engagement in problem-focused voice behavior by identifying a mediating role of their efforts to promote work-related goal congruence and a moderating role of their perceptions of pandemic threats to the organization.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses were tested with quantitative data collected through a survey instrument administered among 158 employees in a large Portuguese-based organization that operates in the food sector, in the midst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The Process macro was applied to assess the moderated mediation dynamic that underpins the proposed theoretical framework.FindingsEmployees' positive work-related energy enhances their propensity to speak up about organizational failures because they seek to find common ground with their colleagues with respect to the organization's goals and future. The mediating role of such congruence-promoting efforts is particularly prominent to the extent that employees dwell on the threats that a pandemic holds for their organization.Practical implicationsThe study pinpoints how HR managers can leverage a negative situation—employees who cannot keep the harmful organizational impact of a life-threatening virus out of their minds—into productive outcomes, by channeling positive work energy, derived from their passion for work, toward activities that bring organizational problems into the open.Originality/valueThis study adds to HR management research by unveiling how employees' attempts to gather their coworkers around a shared work-related mindset can explain how their passion might spur reports of problem areas, as well as explicating how perceived pandemic-related threats activate this process.

Pandemic fears, family interference with work, and organizational citizenship behavior: Buffering role of work‐related goal congruence

“…We also assessed the validity of the study's focal constructs by performing a confirmatory factor analysis on a four‐factor measurement model (Hair et al, 2010). The fit of the model ( χ 2 (251) = 774.15, confirmatory fit index = .85, incremental fit index = 0.86, root mean squared error of approximation = 0.02) was acceptable (Hu & Bentler, 1999) and in line with previous research on pandemic threats in the relatively unexplored country of Portugal (De Clercq & Pereira, 2021a). As reported in Table 1, the convergent validity of the constructs was evident in the strongly significant factor loadings of each of the measurement items on their associated factors ( p < 0.001; Table 1; Gerbing & Anderson, 1988) and in the average variance extracted (AVE) values, which exceeded the benchmark of 0.50 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988)—except pandemic fears, for which the value (0.48) was only slightly lower than this benchmark.…”

Pandemic crisis and employee skills: how emotion regulation and improvisation limit the damaging effects of perceived pandemic threats on job performance

“…We propose that these two resource sets may serve as protective shields against the negative thoughts that employees experience due to perceived pandemic threats. This consideration of emotion regulation and improvisation as buffers is consistent with COR theory (Hobfoll et al, 2018), in that these resources enable employees to avoid a scenario in which pandemic threats escalate into concerns about unstable employment (De Clercq & Pereira, 2022b;Hite & McDonald, 2020). In particular, emotion regulation skills allow employees to avoid negative feelings and remain relaxed in difficult circumstances (Chi & Liang, 2013); improvisation skills help people cope because they can react promptly to such circumstances (Nisula & Kianto, 2016).…”

“…We complement these insights by postulating that employees' convictions that their job is in jeopardy mediate the relationship between their perceptions of pandemic threats and job performance. As explicated previously, these perceptions may fuel concerns about the competitive positioning or survival of their employer, such that employees become concerned about the sustainability of their job situation (De Clercq & Pereira, 2022b;Lin et al, 2021). This sense of job insecurity may cause employees to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot, by adopting work behaviors that undermine their performance ratings and cause even more hardships (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1993).…”

“…As mentioned, COR theory postulates that employees' job-related beliefs in resource-depleting situations establish motivations to find ways to deal with the challenges that protect their remaining resources (Hobfoll & Shirom, 2000). For example, in the presence of a pandemic crisis, employees likely suffer drained resources in terms of unstable employment (Hobfoll, 2001), because they fear that the crisis may compromise the competitive positioning of their employing organization (De Clercq & Pereira, 2022b). We do not examine this fear of competitive hardship directly, but we address it indirectly by theorizing about its consequences for employees' beliefs about the insecurity of their job situation.…”

When passionate employees engage in voice behavior

“…These relationships are confirmed in study conducted by De Clercq and Pereira (2022) among representatives of a Portuguese food company. Data was obtained during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when infections and fatalities were both increasing and lockdown measures remained in place.…”