Ugwu Fabian Onyekachi, Enwereuzor Ibeawuchi K, Mazei Jens
Department of Psychology, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State Nigeria.
Institute for Psychology, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany.
Appl Res Qual Life. 2023;18(1):341-364. doi: 10.1007/s11482-022-10084-6. Epub 2022 Jul 22.
As COVID-19 pandemic made its incursion into the world of work in early 2020, many employees were compelled to work from home to slow down the transmission of the disease. Since then, it has been asked whether working from home is a blessing or a burden. We respond to this question by building on the Affective Events Theory to examine whether work engagement is related to work-life balance (WLB), and whether home demands mediate this relationship, using data from 219 knowledge workers drawn from universities in the South-eastern region of Nigeria primarily working from home when they were surveyed. Results of regression analysis using PROCESS macro showed that work engagement related positively to home demands; in turn, home demands related negatively to WLB. The results further revealed that work engagement related negatively to WLB and that home demands mediated the negative work engagement-WLB connection. Theoretical as well as practical implications of the study are discussed, limitations are highlighted, and suggestions for future research are outlined.
2020年初，随着新冠疫情侵入职场，许多员工被迫居家办公，以减缓疾病传播。自那时起，人们一直在问居家办公是福还是祸。我们以情感事件理论为基础来回答这个问题，通过对来自尼日利亚东南部地区大学的219名知识型员工的数据进行分析，这些员工在接受调查时主要居家办公，以此来检验工作投入是否与工作生活平衡（WLB）相关，以及家庭需求是否在这种关系中起中介作用。使用PROCESS宏进行回归分析的结果表明，工作投入与家庭需求呈正相关；反过来，家庭需求与工作生活平衡呈负相关。结果还进一步表明，工作投入与工作生活平衡呈负相关，且家庭需求在工作投入与工作生活平衡的负面联系中起中介作用。本文讨论了该研究的理论及实践意义，强调了局限性，并概述了对未来研究的建议。
