Examining generational differences as a moderator of extreme-context perception and its impact on work alienation organisational outcomes—implications for the workplace and remote work transformation

There is no doubt that extreme contexts (e.g. warzones and pandemics) represent substantial disruptions that force many companies to rethink the way they do business. With so much workforce now working remotely and concerns about resulting work alienation, the question becomes: how can this be translated into the generational divide in workplaces based in extreme contexts? Using COVID-19 as an example trigger of extreme-context experience, therefore, we investigate generation as a moderator of the effects of extreme-context perception upon anxiety leading to alienation with subsequent behavioural outcomes on job insecurity, job satisfaction, and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). A time-lagged survey procedure yielded 219 valid responses from a three-generation sample of employees working in multiple service organisations. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Our analysis suggested that intense extreme-context perception led to elevated anxiety and alienation, which, in turn, heightened job insecurity and worsened job satisfaction and OCB outcomes. Finally, during the experience of extreme-context times, generation was found to moderate our model, such that both Generation Y and Generation Z experienced higher anxiety due to extreme-context perception and hence higher job insecurity due to alienation compared to Generation X respondents. Our results endorse the criticality of implementing agile and generationally-non-sectarian management for effectively functioning generationally-diverse workforces in pandemic times.