Theorizing Employee Stress, Well-being, Resilience and Boundary Management in the Context of Forced Work from Home During COVID-19

Q4 Business, Management and Accounting South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases Pub Date : 2022-06-09 DOI:10.1177/22779779221100281
Akanksha Jaiswal, Simran Gupta, S. Prasanna
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引用次数: 10

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic hit mankind at an unprecedented scale. In their attempt to continue functioning, organizations asked employees to work from home. Though employees experienced stress due to ‘forced’ work from home and blurring of work–family boundaries, they had to cope with the challenging times. The present study aimed to unearth the aspects of boundary management and adaptation in the context of work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we address the research question ‘how did the employees adapt to the sudden forced work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic?’ Since work from home was forced upon employees during the pandemic leading to the violation of boundaries, we invoked the boundary theory that highlights the boundaries that people draw between their personal and professional lives to maintain a balance. Further, we referred to the theory of cognitive adaptation to explain how employees adapted to the challenges while working from home during COVID-19. We conducted in-depth interviews of 30 experienced professionals working in the technology-enabled sectors in India. We applied Gioia’s methodology to analyse the qualitative data. Four aggregate dimensions emerged from the data analysis, as employees involuntarily worked from home: stress due to work disruptions, threats to employee well-being, boundary violation and employee resilience. Our findings contribute to the current theoretical understanding of employee stress, boundary management, adaptation or resilience and employee well-being, in the context of forced work from home. While employees were stressed and boundaries had blurred between work and family, they adapted and demonstrated resilience to the unprecedented changes in their lives. Practical implications of our study include managers’ conscious efforts towards respecting work–family boundaries, enhancing employee well-being and building a resilience-promoting work environment.
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新冠肺炎期间强迫在家工作背景下员工压力、健康、弹性和边界管理的理论化
新冠肺炎疫情以前所未有的规模袭击了人类。为了继续运作,各组织要求员工在家工作。尽管员工因“被迫”在家工作和工作与家庭界限模糊而感到压力,但他们必须应对充满挑战的时代。本研究旨在挖掘新冠肺炎大流行期间在家工作背景下的边界管理和适应方面。因此,我们解决了研究问题“在新冠肺炎大流行期间,员工如何适应突然被迫在家工作?”由于疫情期间员工被迫在家工作,导致了边界的违反,我们援引了边界理论,该理论强调了人们在个人生活和职业生活之间的边界,以保持平衡。此外,我们参考了认知适应理论来解释新冠肺炎期间员工在家工作时如何适应挑战。我们对30名在印度技术赋能行业工作的经验丰富的专业人士进行了深入采访。我们应用Gioia的方法对定性数据进行分析。数据分析显示,由于员工非自愿在家工作,共有四个维度:工作中断造成的压力、员工福祉受到的威胁、边界违规和员工韧性。我们的研究结果有助于当前对强迫在家工作背景下的员工压力、边界管理、适应或恢复力以及员工幸福感的理论理解。尽管员工压力很大,工作和家庭之间的界限也变得模糊,但他们适应了生活中前所未有的变化,并表现出了韧性。我们研究的实际意义包括管理者有意识地努力尊重工作和家庭界限,提高员工的幸福感,并建立一个有韧性的工作环境。
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来源期刊
South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases
South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases Business, Management and Accounting-Management of Technology and Innovation
CiteScore
1.70
自引率
0.00%
发文量
19
期刊介绍: South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases (SAJBMC) is a peer-reviewed, tri-annual journal of Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida (India). The journal aims to provide a space for high-quality original research or analytical cases, evidence-based case studies, comparative studies on industry sectors, products, and practical applications of management concepts. The journal likes to publish problem-solving, decisional and applied types of cases. Such cases must have linkage with theory, at least one dilemma (also known as case issue) and a protagonist around whom the case issue will revolve. Publication of pure research, applied research and field studies with empirical data do not fall under the domain of SAJBMC. Fictitious cases are not welcome.
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