Far Away, So Close? The Role of Destructive Leadership in the Job Demands–Resources and Recovery Model in Emergency Telework

Valentina Dolce, Emilie Vayre, Monica Molino and Chiara Ghislieri
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Valentina Dolce: Research Group in Social Psychology (GRePS), Institute of Psychology, University Lumière Lyon 2, 69676 Bron, France
Emilie Vayre: Research Group in Social Psychology (GRePS), Institute of Psychology, University Lumière Lyon 2, 69676 Bron, France
Monica Molino: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy
Chiara Ghislieri: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy

Social Sciences, 2020, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-22

Abstract: During the Covid-19 pandemic, people started teleworking intensively, which has led to some benefits in terms of economic continuity, but also some complaints. International teams of scholars have pointed out the new work-related challenges, underlining leaders’ role in successfully managing them. This study aimed at investigating the role of destructive leadership in the job demands–resources and recovery model during the Covid-19 pandemic. In detail, this study intended to assess (1) whether destructive leadership is positively associated with off-work-hours technology-assisted job demand (off-TAJD) and cognitive demands, as well as whether it decreases autonomy, (2) whether two demands—off-TAJD and cognitive demands—and two resources—social support and autonomy—are respectively negatively and positively related to recovery, and (3) whether recovery mediates the relationship between demands, resources, and exhaustion. A total of 716 French remote workers (61% were women) took part in this study. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire. A multi-group structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses. The findings confirmed a significant association between destructive leadership, the two job demands, and autonomy; furthermore, all three variables mediated the relationship between destructive leadership and recovery. The findings showed the key role played by recovery as a mediator between, on one hand, off-TAJD, cognitive demands, autonomy, and social support, and, on the other hand, exhaustion. This study highlighted the role of destructive leadership, job resources, job demands, and recovery as determinants of exhaustion, illustrating their relationships in a sample of remote workers. Practical implications are discussed.

Keywords: emergency telework; Covid-19; job demands–resources model; recovery; exhaustion; destructive leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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