Wang, Pengji, Chen, Shaoyuan, Cuifang, Angeline Lim, and Xiuxi, Sophia Zhao (2023) The post-pandemic workplace: Issues and insights for future research and action. In: Ng, Eddy S., Ramsay, Jonathan E., Thirumaran, K., and Wood, Jacob, (eds.) Elgar Companion to Managing People Across the Asia-Pacific: An Organizational Psychology Approach. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 19-46.

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Abstract

Since COVID-19 hit the world, we have seen fundamental changes to the way work is done and its impact on employees. Some of the changes include, but are not limited to, the adoption of remote work arrangements by companies (Delfino & van der Kolk, 2021) and office-place automation such as robotic process automation (RPA) systems, chatbots, virtual assistants or higher-end artificial intelligence (AI) systems (Caselli et al., 2021; Coombs, 2020; Hodder, 2020; Madakam et al., 2019). These changes have resulted in several workplace-related issues. From the employees’ perspective, remote work and flexible work arrangements could affect their work engagement (Mehta, 2021; Ojo et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021) and team effectiveness (Koekemoer et al., 2021). It also poses threats to employees’ job security and career resilience (Hite & McDonald, 2020), work-life boundary (Cho, 2020; Vaziri et al., 2020; Vyas & Butakhieo, 2021), mental health (Mehta, 2021), and ethical concerns when employers use technologies (surveillance software or applications) to monitor employees’ performance (Allyn, 2020; Charbonneau & Doberstein, 2020). Correspondingly, leaders and employers face new challenges in managing and motivating their people remotely. Accordingly, research on the qualities and competencies required for leaders in the new era is blooming (Dirani et al., 2020; Koekemoer et al., 2021). At the organizational level, we also see greater emphasis on inclusion and compassion in the workplace to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic and to take into consideration vulnerable employees who are disproportionately impacted (Gibson, 2020; Jenkins, 2020; Knight, 2020; Vogel & Flint, 2021).

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