Researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis: Theoretical and methodological considerations and implications for human resource management

Abstract

Over the past 2 years, numerous empirical studies in the fields of human resource management, organizational behavior, and industrial, work, and organizational psychology have investigated employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this paper is to take a step back and to outline several theoretical and methodological considerations when researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis more generally. These insights may be useful when developing conceptual models, designing empirical studies, and managing people in the context of future crises. We first review theoretical approaches that could be applied to explain changes in employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis, including stress theories, theories of adjustment to work-related changes, career construction theory, event system theory, transition-adaptation theories, the crisis management and resilience framework, and the social identity model of identity change. Second, we outline methodological considerations and best practices regarding the research design of quantitative empirical studies, sampling, measurement, and analytic strategies. Throughout, we highlight empirical studies on employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic that have adopted these theoretical approaches and methodological best practices. We conclude with several suggestions for future theory development and empirical studies on employee experiences and behavior as well as human resource management in times of crisis.

A self‐verification perspective on customer mistreatment and customer‐directed organizational citizenship behaviors

“…Due to data collection difficulties during the pandemic(Zacher & Rudolph, 2022), we were unable to obtain a sufficient number of high-quality responses in our data collection attempt (316 daily observations from 90 participants), so we also collected additional data 6 months later (181 daily observations from 50 new participants). To provide insight into sampling heterogeneity, we conducted additional checks.…”

Age-Differentiated Leadership and Healthy Aging at Work: Evidence from the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Using a three-wave longitudinal research design, we examined the role that age-differentiated leadership and LMX played in the prediction of work ability during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 50 ]. The results suggest that work ability did not change systematically over time during the early stages of the pandemic, but did exhibit a notable degree of within-person variability over time.…”

The future of work post Covid-19: key perceived HR implications of hybrid workplaces in India

“…The employees and the management who were initially sceptical and hesitant about the idea of remote working quickly became more comfortable and productive while working at home. Now as the pandemic recedes, employees are unwilling to come to the office daily across the globe (Anderson and Kelliher, 2020;Aroles et al, 2021;Carnevale and Hatak, 2020;International Labour Organization, 2020;Mangla, 2021;NASSCOM, 2021;Kulik, 2021;Zacher and Rudolph, 2022). Therefore, businesses globally as well as in India are trying to embrace hybrid workplaces that will allow the employees to work remotely on some days and come physically to the office on other days (Petani and Mengis, 2021).…”

“…The existing literature states that the human resources policies of the organizations will play a strategic role in the adoption of the hybrid work models (Bennett and McWhorter, 2021; Carnevale and Hatak, 2020; Harney and Collings, 2021; Jooss et al. , 2021; Pataki-Bitto and Kapusy, 2021; Zacher and Rudolph, 2022). These policies would define different procedures in the new reality for handling recruitment, selection, onboarding of new employees, training, rewarding, recognizing employees, resolving unique issues of employees working at home or at distant locations, redesigning organizational control, organizational identity and organizational learning (Newman and Ford, 2021; Petani and Mengis, 2021).…”