Leading a post-pandemic workforce: Understanding employees’ changing work ethic

• Published in: Business research quarterly Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 26 - 39
• Main Authors: Arciniega, Luis M, Woehr, David J, González, Luis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-01-2024
• Subjects: research methods; Organizational behavior; event studies; human resource management; analysis; longitudinal/repeated measures analysis
• ISSN: 2340-9444; 2340-9444
• DOI: 10.1177/23409444231208725

A recent cross-cultural study suggests employees may be classified, based on their scores on a measure of work ethic, into three profiles labeled as “live to work,” “work to live,” and “work as a necessary evil.” The present study assesses whether these profiles were stable before and after an extended lockdown that forced employees to work from home for 2 years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To assess our core research question, we conducted a longitudinal study with employees of a company in the financial sector, collecting data in two waves: February 2020 (n = 692) and June 2022 (n = 598). Tests of profile similarity indicated a robust structural and configural equivalence of the profiles before and after the lockdown. As expected, the prolonged pandemic-based lockdown had a significant effect on the proportion of individuals in each profile. Implications for leading and managing in a post-pandemic workforce are presented and discussed.
JEL CLASSIFICATION: M12