How and When Telework Improves Job Performance During COVID-19? Job Crafting as Mediator and Performance Goal Orientation as Moderator

Longjun Liu; Wenhai Wan; Qing Fan

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S340322

How and When Telework Improves Job Performance During COVID-19? Job Crafting as Mediator and Performance Goal Orientation as Moderator

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2021 Dec 23:14:2181-2195. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S340322. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Longjun Liu¹, Wenhai Wan², Qing Fan³

Affiliations

¹ School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
² School of Business Administration, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai, Of China.

Abstract

Purpose: Literature shows that it is a paradox whether employees can achieve performance in telework, especially during COVID-19. Our aim is to clarify the relationship between telework and employees' job performance through a moderated mediation model.

Methods: This study employed two-wave surveys with the aim of reducing the potential risk of common method bias. The 1309 participants of the survey were mainly employees who used telework during COVID-19, and they were mostly in positions such as product design and scheme planning. SEM was used to test the hypotheses.

Results: Results from two-wave surveys of 1309 Chinese employees indicated that telework positively influenced job performance via job crafting. That is, job crafting played a mediating role between telework and job performance. And performance-prove goal orientation positively moderated the relationship between telework and job crafting but performance-avoid goal orientation negatively moderated the relationship between them.

Conclusion: This study shows that telework can improve job performance through job crafting in COVID-19, in response to the paradox implied in the literature. In addition, we use COR theory to explain the role of performance goal orientation and job crafting in telework. We add these variables to the theoretical framework of COR theory, thereby enriching the theoretical research from the COR theory perspective.

Keywords: COVID-19; job crafting; performance; performance goal orientation; telework.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71672080; 72072086) and the MOE Layout Foundation of Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant No. 19YJA630070).