COVID-19 Fear, Compliance, and Counterproductive Behavior: A Curvilinear Relationship

Abstract

Drawing from the emergent literature on functional view of fear, we develop a research model explaining a U-shaped curvilinear relationship of fear of contracting COVID-19 on employees’ workplace compliance, in turn influencing their counterproductive work behavior (CWB). We theorize for the moderating role of consistency in COVID-19 fear over time on the effect of virus-contraction fear on compliance. A diary study of 181 full-time working professionals (total daily matched morning-evening observations = 1,340) during the initial stage of COVID-19 spread in February 2020 was conducted in a metropolitan city-state when it transitioned to a proactive stance to contain the virus spread. The results provided evidence of impact of COVID-19 fear on compliance in a U-shaped curvilinear pattern affecting employees’ CWB. The effect of COVID-19 fear on compliance was contingent on consistency in COVID-19 fear over time such that COVID-19 fear reduced compliance when such fear is experienced sporadically. Our findings illuminate duality embedded in (dis) functional responses to fear in a crisis. We provide timely recommendations to managers and organizations to harness the benefits of negative emotions such as fear in a crisis in curtailing deviant behaviors at work.