van Zoonen Ward, Rice Ronald E, Ter Hoeven Claartje L
Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (ESSB), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Communication, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Manag Commun Q. 2022 May;36(2):318-349. doi: 10.1177/08933189221087633.
This study examines the implications of categorizing workers into essential and non-essential groups due to disruptions in work associated with-and the quality of organizational change communication about-the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examine how these cues trigger identity threats and influence the meaningfulness of work, consequently affecting the mental health of workers (anxiety, distress, and depression). The results show that change communication reduces identity threat, while also increasing meaningfulness of work, for both work categories. However, the disruptions increase identity threat only for non-essential workers. Conversely, identity threat increases two of the three mental health issues while meaningfulness of work reduces two of them. The study contributes to our growing understanding of the pervasive, though subtle, implications of COVID-19 for the workplace by showing how a process of employee sensemaking and organizational change communication directly and indirectly influence important dimensions of mental health.
本研究探讨了由于与新冠疫情相关的工作中断以及组织变革沟通的质量，将员工分为必要和非必要群体所带来的影响。具体而言，我们研究了这些线索如何引发身份威胁并影响工作的意义，进而影响员工的心理健康（焦虑、痛苦和抑郁）。结果表明，变革沟通减少了身份威胁，同时也增加了两类工作的工作意义。然而，工作中断仅增加了非必要员工的身份威胁。相反，身份威胁增加了三个心理健康问题中的两个，而工作意义则减少了其中两个。该研究通过展示员工意义建构和组织变革沟通的过程如何直接和间接影响心理健康的重要维度，有助于我们进一步理解新冠疫情对职场普遍但微妙的影响。
