Telecommuting during COVID 19: A Moderated-Mediation Approach Linking Job Resources to Job Satisfaction

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has led to sudden and significant changes in the work and family roles of the employees. Due to the unprecedentedness of the situation, academicians and practitioners have limited knowledge of the effect permanently working from home during this crisis can have on employees. Developing the role and work-life balance theories and using the job demands and resources model, the authors study the role of availability of job autonomy and family supportive supervisory behaviors (FSSBs) directly on work-life balance and indirectly on job satisfaction through work-life balance for Industry 4.0 based employees. Using work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS) as a first-level moderator and prior telecommuting experience (PTE) as a second-level moderator, the authors also check for the moderating effect on work-life balance and job satisfaction, respectively. The data were analyzed using CFA and SEM in AMOS v21.0 and model 21 in PROCESS Macro for SPSS. The study found that job autonomy and FSSBs have significant positive direct and indirect effects on work-life balance and job satisfaction, respectively, and these relationships are positively moderated by WFPS and PTE, respectively. The study focuses on the human factor of Industry 4.0, adds empirical insights to the work-family interface literature, and has implications that will help both employees and organizations during such critical times.</p>