Abstract
Although remote working can involve positive outcomes both for employees and organizations, in the case of the sudden and forced remote working situation that came into place during the COVID-19 crisis there have also been reports of negative aspects, one of which is technostress. In this context of crisis, leadership is crucial in sustainably managing and supporting employees, especially employees with workaholic tendencies who are more prone to developing negative work and health outcomes. However, while research on the role of the positive aspects of leadership during crises does exist, the negative aspects of leadership during the COVID-19 crisis have not yet been studied. The present study aimed to explore the role of authoritarian leadership in a sample of 339 administrative university employees who worked either completely from home or from home and the workplace. The study examined the moderating effect of a manager on this relationship and the connections between workaholism and technostress through conditional process analysis. Results pointed out that high authoritarian leadership had an enhancing effect, whereas low authoritarian leadership had a protective effect on the relationship between workaholism and technostress, only in the group of complete remote workers. Thus, authoritarian leadership should be avoided and training leaders to be aware of its effect appears to be essential. Limitations, future directions for the study, and practical implications are also discussed.
Highlights
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, administrative staff at universities as well as many other service employees suddenly shifted from traditional working modalities to remote working
Since they are deprived of forms of physical control in the workplace, leaders might exaggerate the authoritative style they use to control the performance of employees. This can manifest as an invasion into the private life of employees, relying upon the situation of being “always-on” that is created by the constant use of communication technologies when remote working. In line with these speculations, with special reference to the peculiar working conditions imposed by the spread of COVID19, which are mostly based on mandatory remote work, and the hierarchic work organization of the academic context, this study aimed to investigate if and to what extent authoritarian leadership behaviors could be a moderator of the relationship between workaholism and technostress in employees
The current study, based on the self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000), aimed to test if and to what extent an authoritarian leadership style might moderate the relationship between workaholism and technostress in a sample of university administrative staff who worked either totally or partially remotely during the COVID-19 emergency during summer 2020
Summary
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, administrative staff at universities as well as many other service employees suddenly shifted from traditional working modalities to remote working. Remote working can have some positive outcomes, such as improved performance, cutting the costs of “home-work-home” traveling, saving time, and organizational resources, and increasing employee satisfaction (Barbuto et al, 2020; Thulin et al, 2020), some negative consequences have been highlighted, in relation to wellbeing, and it can cause stress, discomfort, and anxiety due to the constant use. Molino et al (2020) reported on the effects of technology use on wellbeing during COVID-19 mandatory remote working, or technostress, namely “the stress that users experience as a result of application multitasking, constant connectivity, information overload, frequent system upgrades and consequent uncertainty, continual relearning and consequent job-related insecurities, and technical problems associated with the organizational use of ICT” The effects of wellbeing on a sudden change in working processes might have been detrimental for workers who are addicted to their job, since they might have perceived the change as hindering their usual job routine, with an amplified feeling of guilt, anger, anxiety, and frustration, and, in general, a more stressful experience
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