Abstract
The severe COVID-19 pandemic triggered an extraordinary global health crisis, resulting in an economic downturn and negative consequences for employees' work lives, especially employee engagement. An overview of how literature has been tackling the impact of COVID-19 on employee engagement is still missing. Hence, this article illustrates how literature has addressed the development and maintenance of employee engagement in various parts of the world due to the global health crisis. The report discusses individual and organizational roles in fostering employee engagement. The article provides general ideas for researchers interested in extending employee engagement studies under critical situations. It also highlights the consideration for human resource management in both individual and organizational contexts. As well, equips organizational leaders and human resource practitioners with productive and enabling power for informed decision-making about improving employee engagement of their workforce during the ongoing pandemic or other stressful events.
Highlights
1.1 The ProblemThe COVID-19 pandemic caused psychological pressure and uncertainties that could potentially impact employees' work behavior (De-la-Calle-Durán & Rodríguez-Sánchez, 2021)
This paper suggests that employee engagement is a function of the interactions involving individual, organization, and the environment
In a study of surgical residents in The Netherlands, residents deployed in a COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit had a lower work engagement of 4.2 compared to a 4.6 level work engagement for residents working in a COVID ward (Poelmann, Koeter, Steinkamp, Vriens, Verhoeven, & Kruijff, 2021)
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic caused psychological pressure and uncertainties that could potentially impact employees' work behavior (De-la-Calle-Durán & Rodríguez-Sánchez, 2021). This literature review examined how the COVID-19 pandemic is connected to employee engagement and the impact of COVID-19 and the work-from-home format on employee engagement. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the typical assumptions about employee engagement. Researchers have demonstrated that employee success and business success are intricately connected. The struggles and challenges triggered by the global health crisis could potentially affect employees' focus, attention, connection, and integration. According to Kahn (1992), personally engaging behavior consists of being attentive, connected, focused, and integrated into organizational roles and work. Researchers confirmed a plunge in employee engagement at the beginning of the COVID-19 turmoil in the United States (Harris, 2021). As of June 2021, 36% of U.S employees are engaged in their work and workplace, while 20% of employees are engaged at work globally (Harter, 2021)
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