Remote Working for Sustainability of Organization during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediator-Moderator Role of Social Support

Predictors of Perceived Healthcare Professionals' Well-Being in Work Design: A Cross-Sectional Study with Multigroup PLS Structural Equation Modeling

The growing attention paid to employee well-being in the healthcare system, along with the reinforcement of factors that drive change in the work environment, provides a strong foundation for studying the relationship between work design and its related outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the elements of work design and the overall well-being of healthcare professionals, particularly the differences across multiple groups of various genders and age brackets. A cross-sectional study design was employed, and a convenience sampling method was used. The study participants were healthcare professionals, and a total of 427 valid surveys were collected. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was deployed to test the relationship between the determinants of work design and the perceived well-being of healthcare professionals. The results indicate a strong positive relationship between the social characteristics of work and overall well-being, as well as a positive contribution of the work context to the perceived well-being of healthcare professionals. The findings validated that knowledge characteristics had no beneficial impacts on overall well-being; nor did the task characteristics of work design. Although the mentioned associations failed to demonstrate statistical significance, the results nonetheless have significant practical consequences that are comparable to those of the relationships that demonstrated statistical significance.

Is Smart Working Beneficial for Workers' Wellbeing? A Longitudinal Investigation of Smart Working, Workload, and Hair Cortisol/Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Building on the job demands-resources (JD-R) and allostatic load (AL) models, in the present study we examined the role of smart working (SW) in the longitudinal association between workload/job autonomy (JA) and a possible biomarker of work-related stress (WRS) in the hair-namely, the cortisol-dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA(S)) ratio-during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, 124 workers completed a self-report questionnaire (i.e., psychological data) at Time 1 (T1) and provided a strand of hair (i.e., biological data) three months later (Time 2, T2). Results from moderated multiple regression analysis showed that SW at T1 was negatively associated with the hair cortisol/DHEA(S) ratio at T2. Additionally, the interaction between workload and SW was significant, with workload at T1 being positively associated with the hair cortisol/DHEA(S) ratio at T2 among smart workers. Overall, this study indicates that SW is a double-edged sword, with both positive and negative consequences on employee wellbeing. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the hair cortisol/DHEA(S) ratio is a promising biomarker of WRS. Practical implications that organizations and practitioners can adopt to prevent WRS and promote organizational wellbeing are discussed.

Factors Affecting Employees Use and Acceptance of Remote Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From the Jordanian Insurance Sector

Remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic comes as an "enforced experiment," where companies and individuals have turned to work from home to preserve business continuity. Drawing on a theoretical framework that integrates the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Social Capital Theory (SCT), and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research uses a sample of 134 survey responses to assess the factors affecting the acceptance and use of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic among workers of the insurance industry in Jordan. The results suggest that social trust, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use can help elevate employee's acceptance and use of remote work, whereas social norms have no significant effect. Considering these results, we further discuss implications and recommendations for the insurance sector.

Determinants of improving the relationship between corporate culture and work performance: Illusion or reality of serial mediation of leadership and work engagement in a crisis period?

The disease COVID-19 has had an impact on the lives of all people in the world. It also had a great impact on the world economies themselves. There are several scientific publications on the impact of the COVID-19 disease on the work performance of employees, while researchers have focused on less traditional factors such as corporate culture, leadership, or work engagement as well. Corporate culture influences the shared values or behavior of employees at the workplace and creates an environment in which employees work. Through leadership, managers should be able to motivate their employees and thereby ensure their better work performance. It can be assumed that if employees are more engaged, their work performance will be higher. The main goal of the paper is to examine whether corporate culture has an impact on the work performance of employees through the mediators of leadership and work engagement. The data necessary for the goal set in this way were obtained through a questionnaire survey, which was attended by 489 respondents during the year 2022. After the data reliability analysis, by using serial mediation with two mediators, the influence of corporate culture on work performance was verified independently, but also through the mediators of leadership and work engagement. Based on the results, it can be claimed that individual factors have a significant impact on work performance, while the influence of corporate culture mediated by leadership and work engagement was also confirmed. The influence of corporate culture, mediated only by leadership, and the independent influence of corporate culture through work engagement on work performance were also confirmed.

Development and validation of the Remote Working Benefits & Disadvantages scale

The changes that are constantly occurring in the labour sector have led organisations and companies to move towards digital transformation. This process was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and  conducted to a massive recourse to the practice of remote working, which in this study is understood as the term for the way of performing work outside the usual workplace and with the support of ICT. Currently, there are no flexible scales in the literature that allow measuring the benefits and disadvantages of remote working with a single instrument. Thus, the distinction between the positive and negative consequences of working remotely, substantiated by a solid literature, provides a framework for a systematical understanding of the issue. The aim of the present study is to develop and validate a scale on remote working benefits and disadvantages (RW-B&D scale). For this end, a preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with 304 participants, a tailored EFA with a sample of 301 workers and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with 677 workers were conducted. Participants were all Italian employees who worked remotely during the period of the COVID-19 health emergency. Data were collected between October 2020 and April 2021. The psychometric robustness of the model was assessed through bootstrap validation (5000 resamples), fit indices testing and measurement of factorial invariance. The statistical analyses demonstrated the bifactorial nature of the scale, supporting the research hypothesis. The model showed good fit indices, bootstrap validation reported statistically significant saturations, good reliability indices, and convergent and discriminant validity. Measurement invariance was tested for gender and organisational sector. The results suggested that the novel scale facilitates the quantitative measurement of the benefits and disadvantages associated with remote working in empirical terms. For this reason, it could be a streamlined and psychometrically valid instrument to identify the potential difficulties arising from remote working and, at the same time, the positive aspects that can be implemented to improve organisational well-being.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind? A Longitudinal Investigation of Smart Working and Burnout in the Context of the Job Demands–Resources Model during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The academic interest in smart working, a form of flexible work characterized by the use of technology to conduct one’s work, has dramatically increased over recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on the job demands–resources (JD-R) model, in this study we investigate whether smart working affects the longitudinal association between perceived work characteristics, such as workload and social support (SS), and workers’ health and well-being, in terms of exhaustion. Overall, 185 workers completed a self-report questionnaire at two time points (four-month time-lag) during the COVID-19 outbreak. The results from moderated multiple regression analysis partially support our predictions. The longitudinal association between workload and exhaustion was positive—although marginally significant—for smart workers, but nonsignificant for in-person workers. Contrarily, the longitudinal association between SS and exhaustion was negative for in-person workers, but nonsignificant for smart workers. Overall, this study suggests that, to support employees’ health and productivity, work characteristics—both physical and psychosocial—should fit the new way of working as well as remote workers’ specific needs and expectations. Hence, to promote sustainable work, interventions should be aimed at helping smart workers to manage their workload effectively, as well as reducing professional and social isolation.