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Grounded in the job demands–resources (JD-R) theory, this study investigates how the difficulty in social distancing at work, resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, may lead to intention to quit and career regret and how and when these effects may be attenuated.

Three-wave survey data were collected from 223 frontline service workers in a large restaurant company during the COVID-19 crisis.

The results show that difficulty in social distancing reduced employees' work engagement, and consequently, increased their turnover intention and career regret. These relationships were moderated by external employability, such that the influence of difficulty in social distancing weakened as external employability increased.

Social distancing measures have been applied across the globe to minimize transmission of COVID-19. However, such measures create a new job demand for service workers who find it difficult to practice social distancing due to the high contact intensity of service delivery. This study identified personal resources that help service workers cope with the demand triggered by COVID-19.

Grounded in the theory of person-organisation fit, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which instrumental work values influence the relationship between HR practices and employee well-being (measured by job satisfaction) in a sample of Chinese workers.

Questionnaire data for this cross-sectional, quantitative study were collected from 371 front-line workers in a Chinese manufacturer. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that work instrumentalism significantly reduces the positive effect of training on job satisfaction while boosting the positive effect of remuneration on job satisfaction. In contrast, there is no evidence for an interaction between instrumentalism and employee involvement.

The results imply that the degree to which HR practices are effective in promoting job satisfaction among these Chinese workers depends both on their work-value orientations and on the implications of the particular HR practice. Managers concerned about job satisfaction in China need to consider the impact of work values and the goals of particular HR practices.

China makes an enormously important contribution to world manufacturing output but the authors need a better understanding of how Chinese workers are likely to interpret and respond to HR practices if employee well-being in Chinese enterprises is to be fostered.

High-involvement work processes (HIWPs) are associated with high levels of employee influence over the work process, such as high levels of control over how to handle individual job tasks or a high level of involvement at team or workplace level in designing work procedures. When implementations of HIWPs are accompanied by companion investments in human capital – for example, in better information and training, higher pay and stronger employee voice – it is appropriate to talk not only of HIWPs but of “high-involvement work systems” (HIWSs). This chapter reviews the theory and practice of HIWPs and HIWSs. Across a range of academic perspectives and societies, it has regularly been argued that steps to enhance employee involvement in decision-making create better opportunities to perform, better utilization of skill and human potential, and better employee motivation, leading, in turn, to various improvements in organizational and employee outcomes.

However, there are also costs to increased employee involvement and the authors review the important economic and sociopolitical contingencies that help to explain the incidence or distribution of HIWPs and HIWSs. The authors also review the research on the outcomes of higher employee involvement for firms and workers, discuss the quality of the research methods used, and consider the tensions with which the model is associated. This chapter concludes with an outline of the research agenda, envisaging an ongoing role for both quantitative and qualitative studies. Without ignoring the difficulties involved, the authors argue, from the societal perspective, that the high-involvement pathway should be considered one of the most important vectors available to improve the quality of work and employee well-being.