Version 1
: Received: 18 February 2024 / Approved: 6 March 2024 / Online: 20 March 2024 (09:48:30 CET)
How to cite:
Magwegwe, F.; Sithole, S. Redefining the Narrative: How Work from Home Job Demands Elevate Workplace Anxiety but Enhance Psychological Capital. Preprints2024, 2024030356. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0356.v1
Magwegwe, F.; Sithole, S. Redefining the Narrative: How Work from Home Job Demands Elevate Workplace Anxiety but Enhance Psychological Capital. Preprints 2024, 2024030356. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0356.v1
Magwegwe, F.; Sithole, S. Redefining the Narrative: How Work from Home Job Demands Elevate Workplace Anxiety but Enhance Psychological Capital. Preprints2024, 2024030356. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0356.v1
APA Style
Magwegwe, F., & Sithole, S. (2024). Redefining the Narrative: How Work from Home Job Demands Elevate Workplace Anxiety but Enhance Psychological Capital. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0356.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Magwegwe, F. and Snenhlanhla Sithole. 2024 "Redefining the Narrative: How Work from Home Job Demands Elevate Workplace Anxiety but Enhance Psychological Capital" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0356.v1
Abstract
Globally, workplace stress and anxiety are at an all-time high, with 42% of employees experiencing daily work-related stress and anxiety. Drawing from workplace anxiety (WA) theory (Cheng & McCarthy, 2018), we advance a model that considers four job demands – role ambiguity, work overload, job insecurity, and work-home conflict – as sources of daily WA, and in turn the downstream effects of WA on psychological capital (PsyCap). Our model posits gender as a moderator of the association between job demands and WA, and digital technology characteristics as moderators of the association between WA and PsyCap. We tested our predictions on a sample of 162 South African employees. Consistent with our predictions, we found positive effects of job demands on WA, with the relationship being stronger for females. Contrary to expectations, we found positive effects of WA on PsyCap, suggesting an adaptive function of WA. Perceived ease of use of digital technology moderated the association between WA and PsyCap, such that the association was strong at higher levels of perceived ease of use. This research advances our understanding of the sources of WA, the adaptive function of WA, and predictors of PsyCap. Broadly, our study adds to understanding emotions’ impact on workplace behavior.
Keywords
COVID-19; digital technology characteristics; job demands; job insecurity; psychological capital; work from home; workplace anxiety
Subject
Social Sciences, Psychology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
