Remote Working During Covid-19 Crisis: Impact of Organizational Support Mechanisms on Employee Engagement and other Work-Related Attitudes

Abstract

Purpose: As the Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated increased remote working, organizations need to use support mechanisms to facilitate new ways of working. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational support mechanisms impact employee work-related attitudes in the context of remote working. As people are anxious about both lives and livelihood during this crisis, the paper also aims to analyze how anxiety impacts the relationship of employee engagement with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Methodology: For this purpose, responses were collected between March 25 and April 30, 2020 from a heterogeneous sample of employees (N=181) working remotely during the pandemic. Employees’ perspectives on work-related attitudes and organizational support mechanisms throughout lockdown in India were captured. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings: This study reported findings in two areas: how organizational support mechanisms (effective structure, supportive leadership, caring culture and technology) impact employees’ work-related attitudes in the context of remote working during the pandemic; and how anxiety due to the crisis impacts the relationship of employee engagement with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Practical Implications: An immediate managerial implication of the findings suggest that it is not just technological infrastructure that facilitates remote working during a pandemic like Covid-19 but other organizational support mechanisms also have a significant impact on employee engagement. Also, there is a need for managers to create a caring, supportive, and open culture to reduce employee anxiety Originality: The article makes two main contributions. First, this study suggests and tests a model for boosting employee engagement leading to job satisfaction and organizational commitment for remote working in times of a pandemic. Second, the study provides suggestions for managers to apply the theoretical model.