With the immense, short/long-term, and multidirectional effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on work performance, industry activities, and the national/global economy, it has adversely affected employees' psychological well-being due to its elevated stress and anxiety that have substantially affected employee innovation performance (deficiency) (EIP(D)). The goal of this empirical paper is to identify how COVID-19 induces EIPD by examining the mediating role of psychological stress (PS) on the relationship between fear of infection with COVID-19 (FIC) and EIPD based on affective events theory (AET) and the moderating effect of organizational career support (OCS) on the relationship between PS and EIPD. Based on 865 survey responses provided by mid-level managers from Chinese manufacturing firms and the covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) technique using AMOS 25, we identified that FIC has a positive relationship with EIPD while PS can fully mediate the link between FIC and EIPD and OCS weakens the positive relationship between PS and EIPD (that is, in the presence of OCS, EIPD decreases despite the presence of PS among the employees). The findings of our empirical study will theoretically and practically contribute to the pandemic-related existing literature by providing an in-depth understanding of these variables. Furthermore, policymakers can also benefit by boosting their EIP from the outcomes revealed and suggestions provided.
Keywords: COVID-19; employee innovative performance; fear of infection; moderated mediation; organizational career support; pandemic; psychological stress.