Pandemic Problems in the Ivory Tower: Exploring Employee Engagement During the COVID-19 Crisis

The purpose of this study was to investigate how communication constituted the engagement experiences of employees at research-intensive universities during the COVID-19 crisis. Twenty-one semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with vice presidents of research, research center and institute directors and support staff, and research faculty at research-intensive universities in the U.S. The findings revealed paradoxical engagement experiences. Participants reported blurred boundaries through increased technological access to information and communication that also created no way to shut off work. Overcommunication was reported as both a common informal communication experience and a formal organizational communication strategy during the crisis. Universities seemed to be partially prepared for the crisis, and the results demonstrated that individual personal coping strategies can serve one's negative engagement experience constituted by communication. Implications for internal crisis communication strategy and employee engagement theory are discussed.