Theorising the impact of macroturbulence on work and HRM: COVID‐19 and the abrupt shift to enforced homeworking

Abstract

This paper is among the first to fuse Social Exchange Theory (SET) with Boundary Theory (BT) to expand the knowledge of HR scholars and practitioners on the repercussions of macroturbulence for the management and experience of work. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 102 academics from UK universities to examine the nexus between COVID‐19 and changes to work at meso and micro levels. The findings extend SET and BT by elucidating how complex internal and external social exchange relationships interact more intensely and provoke tensions with a wider array of work‐life boundaries during a profound global crisis. Based on these findings, we advance a new analytical framework which provides a deeper and more integrated theorisation of the interrelationship between macroturbulence and changing work‐life boundaries. Moreover, we identify implications for practice, which have widespread and ongoing significance given that different types of macro‐level change will continue to disrupt working lives.

“Who am I? What am I doing?” The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work identities

“…This study focused on how employees in the London Insurance Market experienced and navigated their work identities during a period of significant macro-level changes in work practices (Hughes and Donnelly, 2022). The findings were examined through Goffman's theories to determine how participants perceived the impact of this global phenomenon on their professional selves.…”

“…, 2020; Carillo et al. , 2021; Hughes and Donnelly, 2022) to help recognise the critical importance of employees to contemporary organisations (Collings et al ., 2021a, b). This was achieved by placing a central focus on employees' perspectives to understand the evolving relationship between their work identities and the pandemic.…”

“…This study contributes to the existing literature in three major ways. First, it expands the growing academic focus on the ramifications of COVID-19 for knowledge workers (Adisa et al, 2023;Akkermans et al, 2020;Carillo et al, 2021;Hughes and Donnelly, 2022) to help recognise the critical importance of employees to contemporary organisations (Collings et al, 2021a, b). This was COVID-19's impact on work identities achieved by placing a central focus on employees' perspectives to understand the evolving relationship between their work identities and the pandemic.…”

“…Seeking help on virtual platforms was difficult. Many found the sole dependence on technology to interact with others to be challenging (Hughes and Donnelly, 2022; Hafermalz and Riemer, 2021).…”

Guest editorial: Work from anywhere: implications for employees and organizations

“…On one side it is important to address this issue because of the digitization presenting fresh employee- and employer-level challenges, and on the other side, it is urgent as well because of the increased pace of digitization facilitated by macro-economic turbulence. As a result, scholars such as Hughes and Donnelly (2022) extended social exchange and boundary theories to accommodate homeworking as a consequence of the changed work–life boundaries. They observed that social exchange theory needs to be re-looked given the possibility of increased tensions between social exchange relationships and boundaries causing micro-level spillovers in case staff chooses to remain silent.…”