Results of studies on impact Covid-19

Research findings

• The mental well-being of employees in (non-)essential jobs during the Covid-19 crisis

  The research results are shared in this open access paper.

  The COVID-19 pandemic and outbreak response represent a global crisis that has affected various aspects of people’s lives, including work. Speculation is rife about the impact of the crisis on employees. Countries and organizations worldwide have categorized some work as essential and, by extension, other work as nonessential. This study aims to investigate the impact of the pandemic by examining the relationship between work disruptions (at time 1) and general distress (at time 2) through various work stressors, contrasting the experiences of employees in essential versus nonessential work. For employees with essential jobs, there is a significant indirect effect of work disruptions on general distress through hindrance stressors. This relationship is not found for employees with nonessential jobs. The general distress of these employees is more strongly affected by disruptions through social stressors (here, social isolation). Hence, this study demonstrates how general distress is affected in different ways for employees conducting essential work and those conducting nonessential work. We further highlight the importance of considering social stressors in this relationship, especially for nonessential work. Organizational change communication quality mitigates the relationship between isolation and general distress for employees with nonessential jobs, but not for those with essential jobs.

  This research is led by prof. dr. Claartje ter Hoeven & dr. Ward van Zoonen

  

• The social impact of COVID-19 in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam & the Netherlands

  The results of this research will be shared on www.impactcorona.nl through webinars, policy briefs, infographics, podcasts and a national final symposium.

  This research is led by prof. dr. Godfried Engbersen & dr. Marianne Bochove.

  

• International study on the relationship between personality traits, risk perception of COVID-19 and compliance with COVID-19 measures

  The research results are shared in this open access paper.

  We show that compliance with hygiene measures (e.g. hand washing, coughing behaviour) is uniformly different from compliance with social distancing measures (e.g. keeping a distance, limiting social contact). Compliance with both behaviours is only weakly correlated and differently related to attitude towards measures, social norm, and demography. Moreover, the level of compliance varies between countries. Treating compliance with COVWe show that compliance with hygiene measures (e.g. hand washing, coughing behaviour) is uniformly different from compliance with social distancing measures (e.g. keeping a distance, limiting social contact). Compliance with both behaviours is only weakly correlated and differently related to attitude towards measures, social norm, and demography. Moreover, the level of compliance varies between countries. Treating compliance with COVID-19 measures as a one-dimensional construct risks poorer prediction of compliance and difficulties in developing public health advice and interventions.

  This research is led by prof. dr. Ingmar Franken & Annelot Wismans MSc.

  

• Incremental and radical creativity as a way to deal with the covid-19 crisis at work

  The study tests the idea that creativity may have helped employees deal with the covid-19 crisis at work. Specifically, the study made a distinction between incremental creativity ("small" creativity or minor adjustments to one's work) and radical creativity ("big" creativity or major reinvention of one's work). Preliminary results suggest that increasing one’s incremental creativity (compared to one’s pre-covid-19 levels) goes hand-in-hand with employee growth (e.g., learning "lessons" from the crisis and performing better) and lower levels of exhaustion. Increasing radical creativity relates to employee growth and, to a lesser extent, to lower exhaustion. The resulting publication will further discuss how and when changes in employee creativity related the most with changes in employee growth and exhaustion and it will formulate suggestions to organizations that may want to make their workforce more creative and, therefore, resilient.  

  Read the public summary of this research.

  This research is led by dr. Paraskevas Petrou and dr. Joran Jongerling.

  

• Nudging to promote hand hygiene during the Covid-19 pandemic: a field study.

  The research results are shared in this open access paper.

  This research is led by Robert Weijers MSc.

  

• Dutch lockdown measures led to more confidence in the government and science

  This research shows that the Dutch lockdown measures of mid-March 2020 led to an 18% increase in government confidence and a 6% increase in confidence in science. The impact of the lockdown measures on trust in the government was most significant among those with the highest risk of severe health damage (people over 65 and people with moderate or poor perceived health). The results of this research have been published in an open-access paper.

  Confidence in the government plummeted during the start of the corona pandemic. It was only after the announcement of the lockdown measures that confidence rose sharply. Based on our research and as we discuss it in this blog post, it is a reason for a critical look at the "rally-round-the -flag" principle cited in numerous publications. It often means that government confidence would have increased because the population would rally behind the government in times of threat. Our results show that it was not the crisis that increased confidence in the government, but the measures taken.

  The research was carried out by dr. Joost Oude Groeniger, Kjell Noordzij MSc, prof. dr. Jeroen van der Waal, prof. dr. Willem de Koster