The Compensatory Protective Effects of Social Support at Work in Presenteeism During the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic

Jia Wun Chen,Cary L Cooper,Luo Lu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643437

Abstract

The present study investigated the lasting effects of sickness presenteeism on well-being and innovative job performance in the demanding Chinese work context compounded with the precarities of the post-pandemic business environment. Adopting the conservation of resources (COR) theory perspective, especially its proposition of compensation of resources, we incorporated social resources at work (supervisory support and collegial support) as joint moderators in the presenteeism–outcomes relationship. We employed a panel design in which all variables were measured twice with 6 months in between. Data were obtained from 323 Chinese employees working in diverse industries in Taiwan. We found that after controlling for the baseline level of well-being, presenteeism did not have a lasting effect on employees' exhaustion. However, presenteeism did have a negative lasting effect on employees' innovative behavior 6 months later. Moreover, we found a significant three-way interaction of presenteeism, supervisory support, and collegial support on employees' innovative job performance, after controlling for the baseline level of performance. Specifically, when working under illness, employees displayed the best innovative performance with high levels of both supervisory and collegial support, the worst performance with both support being low, and the intermediate when any one of the support being high. This can be taken as the preliminary evidence to support the COR proposition of resource caravans, showing that supervisory support and collegial support compensated for each other as critical resources in alleviating the impact of working under sickness on employees' innovative performance. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed, taking into account the macro-cultural context of the East Asian Confucian societies. We also reflected on the managerial implications of the lasting damages of sickness presenteeism and benefits of mobilizing social resources on employees' well-being and performance.

Highlights

Year 2020 has witnessed the unprecedented triple pandemic rampaging the entire world, e.g., the health crisis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the economic recession caused by restrictions and lockdowns, and the social revolution triggered by amplified social injustices when the going gets tough
Building on the idea of resource caravans, we focused on supervisory support as a salient work feature for the Chinese employees to examine a specific form of resource caravan; namely, when a key social resource is low or absent, a second resource may substitute for it and perform the compensatory role in coping
Contributing to the inclusiveness of scientific contents in the post-pandemic era, our study was conducted in the understudied Asian populations who are more prone to commit sickness presenteeism and suffer worse consequences of the behavior (Lu et al, 2013a)

Summary

Introduction

Year 2020 has witnessed the unprecedented triple pandemic rampaging the entire world, e.g., the health crisis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the economic recession caused by restrictions and lockdowns, and the social revolution triggered by amplified social injustices when the going gets tough. In the post-pandemic business world, repeated lockdowns and the continuing “working from home” practice have blurred the demarcation between the work and home space, causing more excessive engagement in work activities (Cigna, 2020). Facing the precarities of the post-pandemic business environment, employees are compelled to commit more excessive work behaviors to protect job prospects and to catch up with increasing work demands. Contributing to the inclusiveness of scientific contents, our study targeted the under-represented Asian populations in the extant presenteeism literature. This is because in the East Asian societies, presenteeism is more prevalent and poses graver impacts on the employees. This is because in the East Asian societies, presenteeism is more prevalent and poses graver impacts on the employees. Lu et al (2013a) found that Taiwanese employees reported significantly higher rates of presenteeism, and suffered greater exhaustion and lower job satisfaction, compared with their British counterparts

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