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Telework, also known as telecommuting, is an alternative, remote work arrangement in which workers perform work tasks from locations not provided by employers, using information and communication technologies (Bélanger, Collins, & Cheney, 2001). The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in telework, as many organizations turned to remote work to continue operations (Carman & Nataraj, 2020). Some predict that telework and other alternative work arrangements may represent a “new normal” in which telework is more common and more widely accepted by workers and employers (Sinclair et al., 2020).
Because of the rise in telework, it is increasingly important to understand teleworkers’ psychological responses to telework, and the consequences of those reactions. In this study, we are interested in telework stress and its outcomes. The effect of telework on stress is not clear. Some studies indicate that telework may reduce stress (e.g. Gajendran & Harrison, 2007; Allen, Golden & Schockley, 2015), but there is also reason to believe that telework may increase stress due to the uncertainties involved. We examine two forms of stress responses, telework distress (detrimental stress) and telework eustress (beneficial stress).
Due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, telework has become an increasingly global phenomenon, making it important to conduct telework research in various countries. As a growing economic force, China is an important context in which to study telework. China has lagged Western countries in the use of telework (Bloom, Liang, Roberts, & Ying, 2015; Long, Kuang, & Buzzanell, 2013; Luo,2015a), but recent events have led to substantial growth in teleworking in China. Unfortunately, there is scant research into the psychological aspects of telework in the Chinese context. Understanding telework in China is important because country-level factors may affect how virtual environments are received (Chen, Wu, & Chung, 2008; Palvia et al., 2018).
When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, many organizations turned to telework in order to maintain operations. This led to a tremendous increase in the extent of telework. This sudden shift in the nature of work occurred contemporaneously with other challenges and changes related to the pandemic. The multi-faceted change brought on by COVID-19 led to considerable uncertainty for people’s work and personal lives, which created stress for many. Those workers who shifted to telework were faced additional stress. For these workers, telework represented a situation that was novel, but not entirely new; they were performing the same job in new ways. Situations that are novel, but not entirely new are likely to bring about stress responses (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Because of this, understanding stress among teleworkers is an important area of research.
Three other factors make studying telework during a pandemic interesting. First, for many workers, the shift to telework occurred suddenly1. Because of this, there was often insufficient time to prepare workspace at home or acquire new equipment or furnishings that would make telework easier. Second, many households had multiple family members who had to rapidly move to working or learning at home. This led to competition for resources, such as workspaces, technology, and Internet bandwidth. Third, organizations had little time to prepare employees for telework or to reorganize work and communication processes to accommodate telework. This often resulted in disorganized work processes (Chong, Huang & Chang, 2020). All of this made for a degraded telework environment, which further contributed to an already stressful situation.