Social Isolation and Stress as Predictors of Productivity Perception and Remote Work Satisfaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Concern about the Virus in a Moderated Double Mediation

By Ferdinando Toscano, S. Zappalà. Sustainability, 2020

270 citations recorded by the source corpus.

From mid-March to the end of May 2020, millions of Italians were forced to work from home because of the lockdown provisions imposed by the Italian government to contain the COVID-19 epidemic. As a result, many employees had to suddenly switch to remote work, experiencing both troubles and opportunities. Social isolation from colleagues and the workplace represents a typical aspect of remote work which increased significantly during the social confinement imposed by the government. This study investigates the correlates of social isolation in terms of stress, perceived remote work productivity and remote work satisfaction, proposing the sequential mediation of stress and perceived remote work productivity, and the moderating role of concern about the new coronavirus. An online survey was conducted, and the responses of 265 employees showed the deleterious role of social isolation in stress, which leads to decreased perceived remote work productivity that, in turn, is related to remote work satisfaction. Furthermore, the results suggest that concern about the virus moderates the relationships between social isolation and remote work satisfaction, from one side, and remote work perceived productivity and remote work satisfaction from the other. This latter result suggests that the indirect sequential effect of social isolation on remote work satisfaction is conditional on concern about the virus. Some conclusions are drawn to support managers and HR officers in the choices to better manage employees’ work during the health emergency.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5037858731242a89ee7dce614e74c7f214548839

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In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

1. Gloria Guidetti
2. Teresa Galanti
3. Ferdinando Toscano
4. E. Mazzei
5. S. Zappalà

In Social Psychology

1. Ferdinando Toscano
2. S. Zappalà

Citations in the corpus

• Work From Home During the COVID-19 Outbreak (2021, methodology): “The pandemic has exposed people to social confinement and thus higher levels of loneliness,(8,33) which may correlate with declining work satisfaction and performance as well as stress enhancement.(4,18) Prior to COVID-19, studies found a negative correlation between time spent telecommuting and ind”