Abstract
During the first months of 2020, the world, and Italy at an early stage, went through the COVID-19 emergency that had a great impact on individual and collective health, but also on working processes. The mandatory remote working and the constant use of technology for employees raised different implications related to technostress and psycho-physical disorders. This study aimed to detect, in such a period of crisis and changes, the role of organizational communication considering the mediating role of both technostress and self-efficacy, with psycho-physical disorders as outcome. The research involved 530 workers working from home. A Structural Equations Model was estimated, revealing that organizational communication is positively associated with self-efficacy and negatively with technostress and psycho-physical disorders. As mediators, technostress is positively associated with psycho-physical disorders, whereas self-efficacy is negatively associated. As regards mediated effects, results showed negative associations between organizational communication and psycho-physical disorders through both technostress and self-efficacy. This study highlighted the potential protective role of organizational communication that could buffer the effect of technostress and enhance a personal resource, self-efficacy, which is functional to the reduction of psycho-physical disorders. This study contributed to literature underlying the role of communication in the current crisis and consequent reorganization of the working processes.
Highlights
This study focused on organizational communication to understand its role in relaThis study onsource organizational toto understand its role in relationfocused to a new of stress,communication the technostress, an important personal resource, such tion to a new as source of stress, the technostress, to an important personal resource, such as the workers’
COVID-19 pandemic, imposed by the Government to deal with the emergency of the COVID-19 pan-area of study findings contributed to extend both the literature and knowledge on this demic, findings contributed to extend both the literature and knowledge on this area of which is rapidly growing
This study contributed to literature since it confirmed the importance of communication in organizational processes and its role in the management of stress, and its crucial role in decreasing the particular type of stress coming from the use of technology in the specific period of remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency
Summary
Communication during the Health Emergency of COVID-19. During the first months of 2020, the world, and in particular Italy at an early stage, went through an event, the COVID-19 health emergency, that has changed the lives of all of humanity. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on health, economy, and society, causing difficulties and uncertainty for many people in several areas. The security measures adopted by the government, aimed at protecting, as far as possible, the health of everyone, mostly involved social distancing, which is considered the most effective way to manage the spread of the virus. From an economic point of view, to avoid the blocking of the productivity of both private companies and public administration, workers have turned to teleworking and remote working, in some cases even without a proper training, leading to some negative implications, in terms of work load management and.
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