Predictors and Moderator of Telework Adjustment among Labour Union Members During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Conceptual Paper

Abstract

The pandemic catastrophe caused by covid-19 poses unprecedented problems and has farreaching ramifications for how people working life. Digital technologies have been critical in preserving corporate continuity since lockdown tactics drove employees worldwide to telework, frequently leaving them ill-equipped and unprepared. Thus, labour union members as active employees have been forced to adapt to changing work conditions and practices, as articulated in the Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA). This article suggests that gender may be used to moderate the impacts of trade union support and professional isolation on labour union members' telework adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic. This conceptual paper posits that telework adjustment may be researched by utilising a local union sample. Additionally, this article serves as a conceptual framework for future study by drawing on theoretical and empirical findings from essential works in adjacent domains. Keyword: Telework Adjustment, Union, COVID-19, Professional Isolation, Gender Introduction COVID-19's pandemic disaster offers significant health and socio-economic concerns and has far-reaching implications on how people live and work across the world. Throughout this volatile time, digital technologies have been crucial in maintaining social relationships between family units and communities and guaranteeing organisational continuity (Fana, et. al., 2020). From the employee viewpoint, governments' introduction of lockdown measures coupled with an abrupt and sudden move to teleworking frequently putting workers not ready and vulnerable to cope with sensitive family/home situations. Employees have been compelled to respond and adjust to changing work environments and practices, as defined in the TWA (Dawis, et. al., 2000). Prior to the covid-19 pandemic crisis, an organization's capacity to sustain business operations and guarantee business continuity was highly dependent on its workers' capacity to migrate from conventional to more virtual work modes successfully. Adjustment to changing work environments entails adjusting to new environmental demands due to changes in the work is organised and the nature of human relationships. By June 2021, despite hints of progress, and given the gradual easing of lockdown limits in some countries, teleworking is a still daily reality for the most of the workers, as authorities have advocated International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 1 1 , No. 8, 2021, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2021 HRMARS 219 businesses to continue remote-working wherever practicable and for an indefinite duration (Carillo, et. al., 2020). There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark that altered how employees work, reshaped employer-employee relationships, and reaffirmed the crucial importance of information and communication technologies in work practices. The reshaped employee-employer relationship has created a significant avenue for a labour union to play a significant role in the work design aspect, particularly the telework adjustment. In this pandemic environment, finding and understanding what factors influence union members' ability to "adapt" would aid in the establishment of telework solutions (Agba, et. al., 2021). The effective, practical, and empathetic solutions, not just during the current COVID-19 pandemic and the post-lockdown phase, it may also benefit in the event of a new epidemic possibility (Belzunegui-Eraso and Erro-Garcés, 2020; Wang, et al., 2020). By drawing on the TWA, this paper takes an individual adjustment viewpoint on labour union members (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984). The research identified an apparent theoretical gap in the prior research concerning telework adjustment. The theory on telework adjustment is relatively new, and the current studies bear the fruit of this theoretical gap. The TWA has received less attention in the labour union sphere, notably (Allen, et. al., 2021; Chang, et. al., 2021; Carillo, et. al., 2020). This theoretical gap provides an opportunity for future exploration by attempting to address the following research question: What factors affect labour union members' telework adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic? Furthermore, previous theoretical models need to embrace contemporary research in telework adjustment among labour union members during the pandemic to provide a more robust theoretical basis for studies. Also, based on the review of the prior studies, there is a population gap. Some of this sub-population has been under-researched. The telework adjustment appears to be essential and worthy of investigation in the context of labour union members during the COVID-19 pandemic (Benavides, et. al., 2021; Buomprisco, et. al., 2021; Sládek and Sigmund, 2021). Hence, in this paper, the terms employee and labour union members will be used interchangeably. Telework adjustment during COVID-19 has become a concern because of its operational nature. Rodinova, et. al (2021) iterate that in comparison to telework conducted in a typical setting pre-COVID-19, telework triggered by an epidemic possesses intrinsic characteristics. Telework's purported flexibility of location and working hours is no longer permitted in the COVID-19 environment. Home confinement is enforced, teleworking is made compulsory on a full-time basis, and teleworkers frequently face aggravated professional and personal time management concerns (Raghuram, et.al., 2019). Telework generated by a crisis has unique work environment characteristics due to its execution and the crisis setting in which teleworkers operate (Carillo, et. al., 2020). Work adjustment has a lengthy history in the realm of human resource management. Raghuram et al (2001) conceptualised and operationalised virtual work adjustment in the shift from conventional to virtual ways of work. They evaluated this idea by looking at crucial employee adaptability indicators to new work shifts, and they see adaptation to virtual labour as an encompassing criterion of flexibility that most accurately represents people's ability to respond to external stressors. They advocate for conducting telework adjustment research with data from multiple groups, which may include labour union members and in compulsory telework settings that is more relevant for telework adjustment, as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic in a developing country such as Malaysia (Azizan, et. al., 2021; Ma, et. al., 2019). International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 1 1 , No. 8, 2021, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2021 HRMARS 220 Literature and Hypothesis Development Telework Adjustment This study takes a work adjustment approach to examine how workers respond to the changes in the working environment caused by the events in the Covid-19 pandemic that have compelled them to work virtually. Following TWA, the lockdown and following telework surge look like a radical change in the working environment that has changed the interaction between the employee and the environment, leading people to adapt to this challenging scenario. The concepts presented below have conceptual roots in the TWA (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984) and respond to the Corillo et al. (2020), focussing on the organisational and job variables and individual variables affecting subsequent telework adjustment. More specifically, the researchers define mandatory telework adjustment in the course of the COVID 19 pandemic in line with Raghuram et al. (2001) to be the level of adaption of employees to new environmental demands in the emerging setting of a worldwide epidemic crisis (Corillo, et. al., 2020; Caranto, et. al., 2020; Lott, et. al., 2020). Perceived Labour Union Support Even though labour unions do not provide direct technical or operational support in teleworking during the pandemic, the unions have the bargaining power to demand a more humane teleworking arrangement. Also, labour unions can demand special Internet datarelated allowances, continuous training, and technical support from their employers. External efforts in the form of perceived labour union support for change might serve the same function in addition to internal attempts to manage a new situation. In the context of our study, perceived labour union aid for change is defined as perceived facilitation by the union to facilitate the adaptation of the labour union members to new teleworking-related changes. Changing to a new method of working with a new system calls for direction and appropriate learning resources. Enabling change through mechanisms like training and the provision of resources might impact union members' response to new changes in digital technology. With increased support for change for the perceived work union, users might respond less adversely and generate less opposition towards installing a new teleworking system (Ma, et. al., 2019; Berg, et. al., 2014). Just as technology management assistance enhances the simplicity of the technology's use, perceived support from the labour union for changes in training and resources might minimise the perceived difficulty of adjusting to the pandemic-induced teleworking arrangement. More excellent organisational support for change might lessen the time and effort that members need to transition to learn the new functioning method. Therefore, union support for change might indirectly reduce customer resistance by reducing the impression of the switching costs, separate from its direct influence (Chang, et. al., 2021). Professional Isolation Professional isolation is a mental condition or an idea that someone is out of touch at work (Kim, et. al., 2021; Bérastégui, 2021; Bilotta, et. al., 2021). The fundamental effort and need to feel connected to society at work has been suppressed. Although not all teleworking workers report being professionally isolated, research may show that they frequently lack "social barometers" with which to relate t