In the literature on the antecedents and mediators of employee well-being, there is little or no acknowledgement of sudden changes in the social and environmental context in which perceptions of well-being are formed. Contextual influences are rarely so impactful and unexpected as those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. To continue operating within lockdown restrictions, many organizations, apart from those unable or unwilling to initiate such changes, abruptly adopted a work from home (WFH) or hybrid working pattern. These circumstances raise novel questions about the influence of impactful, unanticipated contextual factors on employee well-being outcomes. To address these questions in the context of a shift to WFH, we tested a model adapted from aspects of Event Systems Theory (EST) and the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT). Central to our theoretical adaptation was a unique perspective on PWT “decent work” perceptions based on principles of empowerment. In a study of 337 employees during the lockdown period, we applied a Bayesian multilevel model to investigate the contrast between in-lockdown perceptions relative to current pre-lockdown perceptions. Results suggested the contextual shift to WFH related negatively to relative perceptions of well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Empowerment significantly mediated all well-being outcomes. Organizational support, neuroticism, and home readiness related directly to empowerment and indirectly to well-being outcomes via empowerment. We discuss how sudden contextual changes interacted with relationships observed in our model, and how our findings progress a context-responsive adaptation of EST and PWT in the new world of WFH.

中文翻译：

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突然转向在家工作对幸福感和赋权的看法


在有关员工幸福感的前因和中介因素的文献中，很少或根本没有承认形成幸福感的社会和环境背景的突然变化。背景影响很少像与 COVID-19 大流行相关的影响那样具有影响力和出乎意料。为了在封锁限制下继续运营，除了那些无法或不愿意发起此类变革的组织之外，许多组织突然采用了在家工作（WFH）或混合工作模式。这些情况提出了新的问题，即有影响力的、意想不到的背景因素对员工福祉结果的影响。为了在转向在家办公的背景下解决这些问题，我们测试了一个根据事件系统理论 (EST) 和工作心理学理论 (PWT) 改编的模型。我们理论调整的核心是基于赋权原则对 PWT“体面工作”观念的独特视角。在一项针对封锁期间 337 名员工的研究中，我们应用贝叶斯多层次模型来调查封锁期间的看法与当前封锁前的看法之间的对比。结果表明，在家办公的环境转变与幸福感、工作满意度和组织承诺的相对认知呈负相关。赋权显着调节所有福祉结果。组织支持、神经质和家庭准备程度与赋权直接相关，并通过赋权间接与幸福结果相关。我们讨论了突然的情境变化如何与模型中观察到的关系相互作用，以及我们的研究结果如何在 WFH 新世界中推进 EST 和 PWT 的情境响应适应。