Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected all spheres of services-related business, including the higher education sector. As a pre-emptive measure, almost all traditional educational institutions have been transformed into virtual organizations. This pandemic-induced work transition has created stress among academic staff and has hampered their performance. The present study aims to examine the impact of leadership behaviors, e-training, and employment security on the stress management process, consequently improving employee performance during and after the pandemic. Based on the IPO (input–process–output) model, this study examines the effect of leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security on teaching staff’s tasks and adaptive and contextual performance, mediated by stress management. To test the conceptual model, data were collected from the teaching staff of Malaysian universities. The structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis, while bootstrapping with the maximum likelihood estimator was used to confirm the mediational role of stress management. The study revealed that task- and relation-oriented leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security positively influence stress management and employee performance in virtual organizations. Moreover, stress management acts as a full mediator in the relationship between leadership behavior and employee performance, while partial mediation occurs between e-training, employment security, and employee performance. This study offers valuable insights into the literature by proposing leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security as input in the stress management process to attain the performance output of teaching staff. Higher education institutions should come forward to assist their teaching employees in managing their stress levels for better outcomes.
Highlights
The present study aims to examine the impact of leadership behaviors, e-training, and employment security on the stress management process, improving employee performance during and after the pandemic
Performance improvement with the parameters of stress management is centered around the necessity to assist employees in managing stress by providing leadership support, secured employment (Katić et al 2019), and training. Considering these findings, this study proposed that leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security are input factors in the process of stress management to yield better performance
This study aimed to investigate the influence of leadership behavior, e-training, and the Estimations effect of employment security on employee performance mediated by stress management Path
Summary
Pandemic-induced work transformations have compelled educational institutions to reconsider their leadership practices toward staff (Wolor et al 2020), have raised the concern about staff training to cope with the challenges of technological emergence (UNESCO 2020), and have created uncertainty to endure secure employment (Onyema et al 2020). The traditional education system’s transformation into virtual organizations has increased academic staff stress (García-González et al.2020) that influenced their performance. The present study aims to examine the impact of leadership behaviors, e-training, and employment security on the stress management process, improving employee performance during and after the pandemic. The study proposed that e-training and employment security allow employees to manage their stress levels and improve the performance of teaching staff while working in a virtual environment during and after the pandemic. This study attempts to integrate the JD–R theory with the input–process–output model to examine the influence on performance
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