Social and psychological resources moderate the relation between anxiety, fatigue, compliance and turnover intention during the COVID-19 pandemic
International Journal of Workplace Health Management
ISSN: 1753-8351
Article publication date: 15 February 2022
Issue publication date: 9 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The workplace health management lessons to be learned from the pandemic are important. However, few studies have examined the relationship between workplace anxiety, resources and behaviors during the pandemic. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between anxiety, fatigue, compliance, turnover intention and social and psychological resources during the COVID-19 pandemic by applying the conservation of resources (COR) theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Path analysis was carried out using data obtained from a questionnaire survey conducted on 2,973 Chinese employees of Japanese companies in China.
Findings
The analysis showed that anxiety had a positive correlation with compliance, but simultaneously had a positive correlation with fatigue and turnover intention; psychological resources moderated to weaken the relationships between anxiety and compliance/fatigue; social resources moderated to strengthen the negative correlation between compliance and willingness to leave.
Research limitations/implications
This study targeted employees of Japanese companies in China. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to verify generalizability as to whether it applies to employees of companies of other nationalities in other countries. Also, the authors used newly developed scales instead of the general psychological scales. Therefore, it is necessary to verify the reproducibility using a more general scale.
Practical implications
Anxiety encourages compliance practices but also increases fatigue and willingness to leave. Therefore, a method of inciting anxiety and making employees follow rules reduces the strength of an organization. To overcome this dilemma, managers need to provide psychological and social resources.
Originality/value
This study is the first to show how effective social and psychological resources are in the management of anxiety and fatigue in achieving high performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted in the very early days of the COVID-19 pandemic with the cooperation of employees working for Japanese companies in China. However, the importance of utilizing resources in a crisis revealed by this study can be applied to all kinds of disasters.
Highlights:
-The current study is the result of a survey conducted on employees of Japanese companies in China in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
-Anxiety had a positive effect of promoting compliance and a negative effect of increasing fatigue and willingness to leave the job.
-Psychological resources mitigated these effects of anxiety and, as a result, reduced fatigue and willingness to leave.
-Social resources enhanced the effect of compliance on reducing willingness to leave.
-Workplace health problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic should be addressed by increasing employee resources on a regular basis, rather than aggravating anxiety.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this treatise is published on the following preprint server: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.07963 (accessed on January 26, 2022).
Author contributions: KK performed the data analysis, wrote the main manuscript text, prepared the figures and tables, and conducted the supervisory work. YI and KI were responsible for project administration. All authors reviewed, edited and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Conflicts of interest: YI and KI were employed by IEWRI Japan Co., Ltd. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The raw data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher
Citation
Kokubun, K., Ino, Y. and Ishimura, K. (2022), "Social and psychological resources moderate the relation between anxiety, fatigue, compliance and turnover intention during the COVID-19 pandemic", International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 262-286. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-07-2021-0142
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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