A sequential model of event strength’s influence on employee workplace psychological needs, emotional exhaustion, and counterproductive behaviors: an evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic event

Abstract

Drawing upon the Event System Theory (EST), this study examines the impact of event strength on two workplace psychological needs (including work-related loneliness and job insecurity) which in turn induce emotional exhaustion and then leads to minor counterproductive behaviors of employees. With the data collected from 301 employees working in different industries in big cities in South Vietnam. The technique of Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) with a two-stage approach is employed to test the research hypotheses. The findings reveal that event strength with three dimensions (event novelty, event disruption, and event criticality) significantly increases workplace loneliness and job insecurity. The depletion of these two psychological needs then strongly provokes employees’ emotional exhaustion, thus leading to the undesired consequence of minor counterproductive workplace behaviors. This study also acknowledges and considers the disproportionate impacts that an event like COVID 19 may have on employees depending on their demographic characteristics.