Work Stress Hampering Employee Performance During COVID-19: Is Safety Culture Needed?

Farida Saleem,Saiqa Saddiqa Qureshi,Muhammad Imran Malik

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.655839

Abstract

During uncertain situations, such as the COVID-19 partial lockdown, maintaining satisfactory levels of employee performance (EP) is an important area of concern for many organizations. The current study examines the relationship of work stress due to COVID-19 (COVID-19 STR) and EP. Using social exchange theory (SET), safety culture (SC) is presented as a moderator for stress and performance relationships. A sample of 213 bank employees was collected using a convenient sampling method. Data were analyzed using stepwise linear regression and PROCESS Macro by Hayes (2013). Results revealed that COVID-19 STR has a negative impact on task and contextual performance (CP) and a positive impact on adaptive performance (AP). Similarly, the prevalence of SC significantly moderates the stress and performance relationships.

Highlights

Stressful life situations such as pandemics can have significant negative implications for the mental health and psychological functioning of an individual
Other prior literature has investigated work stress having an impact on various work practices (Ram et al, 2011; Kinyita, 2015; Yunita and Saputra, 2019) under normal conditions, but the literature has not taken into account the effects of work stress on employee performance (EP) in uncertain conditions such as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
Due to the equivocal finding in literature regarding the impact of work stress on the performance of employees, we propose that under uncertain situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, safety culture (SC) acts as a boundary condition and moderator for relationships existing between work stress and performance

Summary

Introduction

Stressful life situations such as pandemics can have significant negative implications for the mental health and psychological functioning of an individual. Anxiety, mental confusion, social deprivation, and depression are a few examples of these mental and psychological issues (Yıldırım and Arslan, 2020). Uncertainty due to COVID-19 is associated with significant changes in our daily routines that can increase stress, depression, and anxiety (Arslan et al, 2020; Talaee et al, 2020; Mergel and Schützwohl, 2021). A recent systematic review on the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health by Vindegaard and Benros (2020) and a narrative review on COVID-19 related mental health effects in the workplace by Giorgi et al (2020) concluded that COVID-19 has resulted in increased levels of depression, anxiety, and poor sleep quality. Other prior literature has investigated work stress having an impact on various work practices (Ram et al, 2011; Kinyita, 2015; Yunita and Saputra, 2019) under normal conditions, but the literature has not taken into account the effects of work stress on employee performance (EP) in uncertain conditions such as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion