The Interaction Effect of Crisis Communication and Social Support on The Emotional Exhaustion of University Employees during the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Although formal communication from an organization’s management is crucial during a crisis to reduce the uncertainties of employee, less is known about the moderating role of social support that could make employees rely less on formal communication to reduce those uncertainties. Grounded in uncertainty reduction theory, this research examines the role of crisis communication on the perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of employees who work at private international universities that have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, this research explores the moderating effect of social support in terms of supervisor support and coworker support on the association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties. Questionnaire data were collected from 300 employees from two private international universities in Thailand. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The analysis shows that perceived uncertainties mediate the negative association between crisis communication and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the moderating effect analysis shows that the association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties is significantly moderated by coworker support, but not by supervisor support. Simple slope analysis also clearly shows that the negative association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties only presents in employees with a low level of coworker support. For employees with high coworker support, crisis communication does not associate negatively with perceived uncertainties. This research implies that the informal communication that employees obtain from social support could play a compensatory role for their need to rely on formal communication to reduce uncertainties during the crisis.

Keywords

coronavirus covid-19 crisis communication social support stress

Introduction

The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on businesses and organizations across the world. One sector particularly affected by the crisis is private international universities. Given that the operations and revenues of private international universities depends heavily on international students, the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis that led to the disruption of normal class activities and the significant reduction in student enrollment take a toll on the financial condition and vitality of these private international universities. This impact from the COVID-19 crisis that the private international universities are facing has subsequently created many negative psychological impacts on all employees, including faculty and staff, as they faced many uncertainties regarding their workload, job security, and mental health. The uncertainties that employees experience could potentially make them emotionally exhausted, thereby leading to a deterioration in both their work motivation and performance. Therefore, it is crucial for research to examine some organizational factors that could help the universities prevent the problems that occur among employees.

Literature has suggested that the management practice that is most crucial to lessen the psychological impacts that employees experience during the crisis is effective communication (Denner et al., 2019; Nekmat & Kong, 2019; Tkalac Verčič et al., 2019; Zhang & Borden, 2017). Based on uncertainty reduction theory (Hogg & Belavadi, 2017), effective communication during a crisis plays an essential role in reducing uncertainties, thereby reducing the psychological impacts that employees experience (Liu et al., 2016). Despite the existing evidence that has confirmed the importance of communication in various situations (Neuliep, 2017; Xu, 2018), the role of crisis communication under this COVID-19 crisis faced by the private international universities is still noticeably lacking. Beyond the importance of formal communication from management to lessen the uncertainties of employees during the crisis (Xu, 2018), it is crucial to examine whether informal communication that employees obtain from the social support network that they develop with others within the organization could lessen the reliance the employees have on formal communication from management. Two important sources of social support that exist for employees in the workplace are supervisor support and coworker support. Given that supervisors and coworkers could likely play a crucial role in providing information and emotional support to help employees cope with uncertainties during a crisis (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008; Lucia-Casademunt et al., 2018), it is essential to analyze whether the role of crisis communication provided by management could be essential to the same extent for the employees who do or do not receive this valuable support from supervisors and coworkers during the crisis.

The main objective of this research is to examine the role of crisis communication and social support on the perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of university employees during the COVID-19 crisis. In addition to the direct effect of crisis communication, the study tests whether crisis communication from the university management could be more important for employees who lack social support to reduce the uncertainties, as compared to those who already have high levels of social support. Overall, this research is crucial for educational institutions responding to the COVID-19 crisis, which is the emerging phenomenon that needs research evidence to clarify solutions to manage the problems. The results are expected to provide recommendations for universities regarding policies that should be implemented to sustain employees’ psychological wellbeing during the crisis.

Literature Review and Hypotheses

Emotional Exhaustion among University Employees during the Covid-19 Crisis

A crisis is “a sudden and unexpected event that threatens to disrupt an organization’s operation and poses a financial and reputational threat” (Coombs & Holladay, 2005, p. 264). Previous literature shows that crises normally cause a high degree of uncertainty among employees directly affected by them (Liu et al., 2016). Uncertainties caused by crisis situations generally create negative consequences for employees, leading to a deterioration of mental health (Charoensukmongkol, 2017; Liu et al., 2016). In particular, emotional exhaustion is one common psychological issue that employees experience when they encounter uncertainties associated with crises. Emotional exhaustion is the key aspect of the job burnout that occurs when employees are exposed to psychological tensions for a long period of time and cannot effectively cope with the stressors (Charoensukmongkol, 2013; Thompson et al., 2020). Basically, employees at private international universities affected by the COVID-19 crisis can be expected to experience emotional exhaustion problems. Given that the crisis abruptly disrupted normal work activities, planning, financial conditions, and even the survival of the universities, it can cause many uncertainties among universities’ employees regarding subsequent impacts on their job security, workload, and wellbeing, thereby making them feel emotionally exhausted.

Crisis Communication

The concept of crisis communication has been broadly explored in the workplace setting (Denner et al., 2019; Nekmat & Kong, 2019; Tkalac Verčič et al., 2019; Zhang & Borden, 2017). The quality of crisis communication reflects the clarity and accuracy of information that the organization provides to its employees regarding the current situation affecting the organization, as well as the actions the organization takes in response (Allen et al., 2007). Organizations that provide thorough communication during the time of crisis also listen to employees’ feedback and concerns about the situation and provide information to directly address them (Claeys et al., 2010). Scholars emphasize that crisis communication is a practice that needs to be managed effectively by the organization’s management during the time of crisis (Liu et al., 2018; Luoma-aho et al., 2017). Effective crisis communication provided by organizations is crucial to improve employees’ perceptions about the uncertainties caused by the crisis and the subsequent impacts experienced by them (Neuliep, 2017). Immediate and effective communication is essential to reduce uncertainty during crises because it allows employees to gain a clear understanding about the situation and to know what to do to cope with the situation. It also boosts employees’ confidence in regards to management’s handling of the situation at hand (Bordia et al., 2004).

The Effect of Crisis Communication on Emotional Exhaustion during the COVID-19 Crisis

Regarding the COVID-19 crisis that private international universities are facing, the quality of crisis communication from the universities’ management is expected to lessen the degree of perceived uncertainties among employees about the impacts of the crisis and to reduce the subsequent emotional exhaustion. The goal of communication in this case is to ease the concern that employees have about the crisis (Deng et al., 2019), thereby reducing the risk of them developing psychological tension. From the theoretical perspective, the importance of crisis communication can be explained by the uncertainty reduction theory, which suggests that individuals have a need to reduce uncertainty about unknown situations by gaining more information about them to lessen their concern (Hogg & Belavadi, 2017). Uncertainty reduction theory was presented into the crisis communication topic to explain individuals’ information-seeking behaviors during crises (Liu et al., 2016). The essence of the theory is that individuals tend to feel at ease when they know what to anticipate from existing circumstances (Berger & Bradac, 1982). When individuals are faced with crises, they seek more information to fill the information gap in an attempt to reduce their uncertainty (Xu, 2018).

From the rationale of uncertainty reduction theory and the evidence from prior research, it can be predicted that the quality of crisis communication provided by universities’ management can help employees reduce uncertainties about the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. When management clearly communicates to employees about the initiatives and policies that the university will implement to address problems, it gives employees a clear understanding about the reality of the situation, thereby easing their concerns regarding uncertainties that will affect their work and wellbeing. When the degree of perceived uncertainty that employees have about the impacts of the crisis is alleviated by effective communication from management, it can lessen the psychological impact that causes employees to develop emotional exhaustion. Therefore, these hypotheses are presented:

H1: The quality of crisis communication provided by university management will negatively associate with the perceived uncertainties of employees regarding the COVID-19 crisis.

H2: Perceived uncertainties will positively associate with the emotional exhaustion of the employees.

H3: Perceived uncertainties will mediate the association between the quality of crisis communication and the emotional exhaustion of the employees.

The Moderating Effect of Social Support

This research proposes that the effect of crisis communication could be mitigated by the quality of social support that employees obtain from their supervisor and coworkers. Firstly, supervisor support signifies the level of support that employees receive from their direct supervisor. Supervisor support represents the quality of the relationship, social interaction, and information exchange between the supervisor and employees (Guang & Charoensukmongkol, 2020; Orgambídez & Almeida, 2020; Phungsoonthorn & Charoensukmongkol, 2019). The role of supervisor support tends to be more crucial to lessen the psychological impacts that employees experience during a crisis (Park et al., 2005). Research has shown that employees usually increase their reliance on supervisors as the sources of information to reduce their uncertainty during unpredictable periods. For example, Lucia-Casademunt et al. (2018) confirmed that high levels of supervisor support played a crucial role in reducing uncertainties of workers during the change process and helping the organization maintain wellbeing among their workers during the organizational change process.

From the perspective of uncertainty reduction theory, supervisors might be the source of information that reduces employees’ degree of uncertainty. Supervisors can play a compensatory role in the employees’ need for formal communications from the organization to reduce uncertainties caused by the crisis. Thus, it could be possible that the role of crisis communication provided by the organization may not have much effect on the perceived uncertainties of employees with good supervisor support, because they can depend on support from their supervisor to reduce the uncertainty they have. On the other hand, the role of crisis communication provided by the organization could be particularly essential for employees with a low level of supervisor support. Given that employees with a low level of supervisor support are less likely to obtain information from the supervisor to ease their concern about the crisis, they must rely heavily on formal communication from the organization to alleviate their uncertainties. Therefore:

H4: The effect of crisis communication on perceived uncertainties is moderated by supervisor support.

The experience employees have during a crisis is also greatly impacted by the support of one’s coworkers. Coworker support represents the degree of caring and support that employees receive from coworkers (Tews et al., 2013). Research has shown that coworker support is regarded as a key social resource that buffers employees from work stress (Charoensukmongkol et al., 2016; Halbesleben & Wheeler, 2015). Literature also suggests that coworkers can be a source of information for employees to rely on to ease the uncertainties and ambiguities they experience in the workplace (Goldsmith, 2004; Miller et al., 1990). Fonner (2015) backs up this claim, suggesting that coworkers are one of the most vital sources of information that employees rely on to obtain information to reduce uncertainty in their jobs. Bordia et al. (2006) contend that during uncertain or stressful situations in which formal communications from the organization is unavailable, people tend to rely on informal sources of information, such as rumors among coworkers, to ease uncertainty. However, there are mixed findings on whether coworker support can effectively reduce uncertainty and anxiety during stressful events. On the negative side, some studies found that informal communication among employees can create more stress and anxiety during uncertain conditions, as it could lead to the speculation of possible job loss or other negative outcomes (Bordia et al., 2006; Jimmieson et al., 2004). Thus, it is important to note that not all support received from informal communication helps to ease anxiety and uncertainty among employees; the message content of the informal communication must also be taken into consideration (Bordia et al., 2006).

Despite the mixed findings about the role of coworker support, research postulates that coworker support can play a compensatory role for formal communication from the organization to reduce uncertainties. In this regard, employees can rely on support, guidance, and suggestions from their coworkers to reduce the uncertainties that they have during a crisis. For this reason, the role of crisis communication provided by the organization can be especially essential for employees with a low level of coworker support to lessen feelings of uncertainty. Given that the employees with a low level of coworker support tend to lack the opportunity to obtain support or exchange information with coworkers to ease their concerns, they must rely heavily on formal communications from the organization to alleviate their uncertainties. Therefore:

H5: The effect of crisis communication on perceived uncertainties is moderated by coworker support.

Methods

Sample Selection and Data Collection Procedure

This research was conducted using employees who are lecturers and staff of two private international universities in central Thailand. There was a total of 438 employees from both universities, all of whom were contacted to voluntarily participate in the survey data collection. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey. The permission for data collection was approved by each university’s management. Questionnaires were distributed to participants in person. The participants were informed about the objectives of the research, as well as given assurances that all information they provided would be kept confidential and anonymous. The researcher then arranged the time to collect the questionnaires back from the participants a couple of days later. Data collection took nearly 3 weeks. At the end of the data collection period, 300 usable questionnaires were obtained, which yielded a 68 percent response rate. This sample size exceeds the recommended minimum sample size of 160 and 146 as indicated by the inverse square root and gamma-exponential methods, respectively (Kock & Hadaya, 2018). The demographic characteristics of the respondents are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Characteristics of the Respondents.

Demographic factors	Descriptive statistics
Gender	Male: 148 (49.5%) Female: 151 (50.5%)
Age	Mean: 42.83 S.D.: 10.33
Job tenure	Less than 1 year: 14 (5.1%) 1–2 years: 27 (9.9%) 3–4 years: 54 (19.8%) 5–6 years: 45 (16.5%) 7–8 years: 31: (11.4%) 9–10 years: 29 (10.6%) More than 10 years: 73 (26.7%)
Job type	Faculty: 200 (68.5%) Staff: 99 (31.5%)

Measures

Quality of crisis communication was measured by a scale adapted from Bordia et al. (2004) which has seven items: “The university keeps you informed about the policies to deal with the effects of COVID-19 situation at the university.”, “The university provides information to ease the concern about the situation.”, “The university addresses your personal concerns regarding the situation.”, “The university is accurate in communication about the situation.”, “The university gave as much information as possible about the situation.”, “The university involves or seeks feedback from employees.”, and “The university communicates the actions taken to deal with the situation.” The scale was rated on 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Perceived uncertainties were measured by a scale used in the study of Charoensukmongkol and Phungsoonthorn (2020). This scale was adapted from Allen et al. (2007) which was originally designed to measure the degree of the perceived uncertainties of employees during organizational change. The scale items were adjusted to reflect the problems that the university employees were experiencing due to the COVID-19 crisis. The respondents were asked to evaluate how uncertain they were about the effects of the crisis with respect to ten aspects. All items were measured using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Very certain) to 5 (Very uncertain).

Emotional exhaustion was measured by the scale of Maslach and Jackson (1981) which has five items. The items were rated on 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Supervisor support was measured by the scale of Cole et al. (2006) which has four items. The scale was rated on 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Coworker support was measured by the scale developed by Tews et al. (2013). The scale contains 14 items that represent coworker support in terms of instrumental and emotional support. The items were rated on 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Control Variables

This research considers some demographic factors and work characteristics of the employees as control variables, which are age, gender, job tenure, and job type. Age is measured as actual age in years. Gender is measured as a categorial variable (Male = 1; Female = 0). Job tenure is measured by the ranked variable. Job type is measured as a categorial variable (Faculty=0; Staff = 1).

Data Analysis Method

The analytical method for hypotheses testing was partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). PLS-SEM offers more flexibility than covariance-based SEM, because it produces less bias estimation when the sample size is small. Moreover, Hair et al. (2017) recommend using PLS-SEM when analyzing complex models, particularly when there are multiple moderations in the analysis. Given that the sample of this research was quite small and the hypotheses in this research involved two moderating variables, PLS-SEM was considered as a suitable method for analyzing the data in this research. The estimation was conducted in WarpPLS version 6.0.

Results

Validity and Reliability Assessment

Convergent validity was determined by using factor loadings. The analysis confirmed that all factor loadings were above 0.5, confirming satisfactory convergent validity. Discriminant validity was assessed by square root of the average variance extracted (AVE). To support discriminant validity, the square root of AVE for each construct must exceed its correlation with any other construct. The results reported in Table 2 confirm that all of the square roots of AVEs met this requirement. Thirdly, construct reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and composite reliability coefficient. The results in Table 2 indicate that both Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and composite reliability coefficients were above .7, meeting the requirement.

Table 2.

Variable Correlations and Square Root of Average Variance Extracted.

Variables	Cronbach’s alpha coefficient	Composite reliability coefficient	CC	PU	CP	SP	EMX	AGE	GEN	TEN	JT
CC	0.965	0.971	(0.911)	−0.041	0.455**	0.755**	−0.198**	0.138*	0.217**	0.143*	−0.111
PU	0.904	0.921		(0.742)	−0.259**	−0.053	0.371**	−0.001	0.047	0.089	−0.039
CP	0.977	0.979			(0.876)	0.438**	−0.28**	0.04	0.248**	0.221**	−0.012
SP	0.958	0.969				(0.941)	−0.02	0.103	0.171**	−0.016	−0.125*
EMX	0.955	0.965					(0.924)	−0.156*	0.173**	0.28**	0.125*
AGE	n/a	n/a						(1)	−0.037	0.415**	−0.485**
GEN	n/a	n/a							(1)	0.058	0.134*
TEN	n/a	n/a								(1)	−0.263**
JT	n/a	n/a									(1)

Note. *p-value < .05. **p-value < .01.

Square root of AVE is presented in parentheses.

CC = crisis communication; PU = perceived uncertainties; CP = coworker support; SP = supervisor support, EMX = emotional exhaustion; AGE = age; GEN = gender (female = 1, male = 0); TEN = job tenure; JT = job type (faculty = 0, staff = 1).

Multicollinearity was assessed by using full variance inflation factor (VIF) statistics. The value of full VIF must not be higher than 3.3. The results showed a range of the full VIFs of the latent variables from 1.113 to 2.743, which implied that multicollinearity may not be a serious issue. Lastly, the study also used Harman’s single factor test to assess common method bias (CMB). The study analyzed all indicators in the model by extracting a single factor in the principal component analysis. The result showed that the one-factor solution explained only 35.13% of the variance, which was substantially smaller than the 50% threshold. The one-factor confirmatory factor analysis model did not fit the data well (χ² = 9,001.108; df = 3,401; p < .001). Overall, the results confirmed that CMB was not a major problem in the data collection.

The results from hypotheses testing are reported in Figure 1.

Hypothesis 1 states that the quality of crisis communication is positively related to job satisfaction. The result confirms their positive association (β = –.147; p = .002), which is statistically significant. The effect size of the association is small (f² = 0.021). Thus, Hypothesis 1 is supported.

Hypothesis 2 states that perceived uncertainties will positively associate with emotional exhaustion of the employees. The result confirms their positive association (β = .338; p < .001), which is statistically significant. The effect size of the association is small (f² = 0.131). Thus, hypothesis 2 is supported.

Hypothesis 3 states that the association between crisis communication and emotional exhaustion is mediated by perceived uncertainties. The mediating effect was analyzed by the Sobel test. The result shows that perceived uncertainties positively mediate the linkage between supervisor support and emotional exhaustion (t = −2.8; p = .005), proving the result statistically significant. Thus, hypothesis 3 is supported.

Hypothesis 4 states that the positive effect of crisis communication on perceived uncertainties is moderated by supervisor support. The positive beta coefficient of the interaction between crisis communication and supervisor support indicates the positive moderating effect (β = .032; p = .257); however, the result is not statistically significant. The effect size is also too weak (f² = 0.006). Thus, Hypothesis 4 is not supported.

Hypothesis 5 states that the positive effect of crisis communication on perceived uncertainties is moderated by coworker support. The positive beta coefficient of the interaction between crisis communication and coworker support indicates the positive moderating effect (β = .199; p < .001); the result is also statistically significant. The effect size is considered small (f² = 0.032). Thus, Hypothesis 5 is supported.

Figure 1.

Results from hypotheses testing.

Figure 2 presents the moderating effect of coworker support that is statistically supported. The regression line that represents the association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties moderated by coworker support was created by plotting crisis communication scores one standard deviation above the mean and one standard deviation below the mean across high coworker support (+1.00 SD) and low coworker support (−1.00 SD). The graph clearly shows that the negative association between crisis communication and perceived uncertainties only presents in employees with low coworker support. For employees with high coworker support, crisis communication does not negatively associate with perceived uncertainties. The graph confirms the argument in the hypothesis, suggesting that crisis communication might be particularly crucial for employees without adequate social support to lessen uncertainties caused by the crisis.

Figure 2.

Moderating effect of coworker support.

In addition to the original model, an alternative model was analyzed to test some indirect effect of supervisor support on the perceived uncertainties of employees. Despite the unsupported results about the direct effect and the moderating effect of supervisor support, it is possible that organizational crisis communication may enable supervisors to provide more support to their subordinates, thereby allowing these subordinates to provide more support to coworkers. To test this alternative model, the direct link was drawn from crisis communication to supervisor support and from supervisor support to coworker support. The goal of this alternative model is to test whether supervisor support could mediate the link between organizational crisis communication and coworker support. The results from the alternative model analysis confirm the positive effect of crisis communication on supervisor support (β = .74; p < .001; f² = 0.547), as well as the positive effect of supervisor support on coworker support (β = .426; p < .001; f² = 0.181). The Sobel test analysis also shows that supervisor support positively and significantly mediates the effect of crisis communication on coworker support (t = 7.588; p < .001). When comparing the model fit indices from the alternative model with those from the original model, the WarpPLS software shows that most indices from the alternative model are better than those from the original model, particularly for average path coefficient (0.146 vs. 0.201), average R-squared (0.287 vs. 0.209), and Tenenhaus GoF (0.49 vs. 0.418). Thus, it can be concluded that the alternative model has a better fit with the empirical data than the original model.

Discussion and Conclusion

Discussion of the Research Findings

Grounded in uncertainty reduction theory, this research examined the effect of crisis communication on the perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of employees at two private international universities in Thailand, which have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. This research also examined whether the effect of crisis communication on employees’ perceived uncertainties could be moderated by the quality of supervisor support and coworker support. Firstly, data analysis confirmed the negative association between the quality of crisis communication and perceived uncertainties. Moreover, the analysis showed that perceived uncertainties fully mediated the effect of crisis communication and emotional exhaustion. The results imply that the employees who obtained high-quality crisis communication from the management of their university tended to show less uncertainty regarding the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and subsequently experienced low emotional exhaustion. This result is congruent with the gist of uncertainty reduction theory. It also provides extra support to the prior crisis literature, which emphasizes the role of crisis communication that the management should implement to ease employees’ uncertainties during a crisis (Denner et al., 2019; Nekmat & Kong, 2019; Tkalac Verčič et al., 2019; Zhang & Borden, 2017). This result also provides extra evidence to support the findings from prior studies which confirmed the effect of crisis communication in helping employees maintain psychological wellbeing during a crisis (Liu et al., 2018; Luoma-aho et al., 2017).

Secondly, this research found that the positive effect of crisis communication on perceived uncertainties was significantly moderated by having supportive coworkers. When employees with low levels of coworker support gained a higher quality of crisis communication, their perceived uncertainties were lower. However, for employees with high levels of coworker support, crisis communication did not have a negative association with perceived uncertainties. This implies that crisis communication from organizations might be essential only for employees who lack coworker support. This result is consistent with prior studies that argued that the quality of coworker support employees received can help them buffer the impacts of unfavorable situations and uncertainties (Charoensukmongkol et al., 2016; Halbesleben & Wheeler, 2015). This result shows that the role of coworker support from the perspective of uncertainty reduction theory, which suggests that employees can also depend on their coworkers as a source of information to reduce the uncertainties experienced (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008; Fonner, 2015; Goldsmith, 2004; Miller et al., 1990). With strong coworker support, employees may rely less on formal communication from university management to lessen uncertainties caused by the crisis. This finding is consistent with prior research, which shows employees may rely on informal communication from colleagues to help them cope with uncertainties in the workplace (Bordia et al., 2006; Fonner, 2015). With that said, given that the employees without coworker support were unable to rely on coworkers to lessen the uncertainties they had during the crisis, official crisis communication from the university management tends to be particularly crucial for them to reduce uncertainties.

However, this research did not confirm the significant moderating effect of supervisor support, particularly when the moderating effect of coworker support was taken into consideration. This result contradicts the results from prior research, which suggested that supervisors might play a crucial role in providing support, specifically in terms of resources and information to lessen the impact of the crisis experienced by employees (Lucia-Casademunt et al., 2018). Some plausible causes for this unsupported finding could be explained by the varying type of crisis that employees experienced. For example, the COVID-19 is considered to be an external non-preventable and non-intentional crisis, comparable to a natural disaster (Marsen, 2020). According to Morris and Goldsworthy (2012), a disaster crisis will therefore cause organizations to suffer negative consequences equivalent to an accident or natural disaster. Basically, because COVID-19 is a new natural disaster phenomenon, the effects of this particular crisis remain unknown and unpredictable. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is a new crisis for the organizations and their employees, staff may not expect the supervisors to provide support, understanding the inherent uncertainty even for their superiors. Similarly, this unsupported finding can be explained from the views of the attribution theory of crisis management which predicts how individuals make sense of a negative incident of the crisis (Weiner, 1985). According to Coombs (2014), the attribution theory can be used to identify whether the organization should be blamed for the crisis and to what extent should they take responsibility. Coombs (2010) categorized crises into three clusters according to the level of crisis responsibility: victim crisis, accidental crisis, and preventable crisis (Coombs & Holladay, 2002). It can be inferred that the COVID-19 pandemic falls under a victim crisis, suggesting that the organization itself is also a victim and receives negative consequence from the crisis. For victim crises, the organization is least responsible and cannot be blamed for the crisis (Zhou & Ki, 2018). Therefore, employees tend to be more understanding and may not expect their supervisors to take action to handle the uncertainties of the crisis. Overall, this may explain why the role of supervisor support does not significantly matter during the COVID-19 crisis at the universities.

Nonetheless, the results from the alternative model analysis implies that supervisor support may play some essential role in helping employees lessen uncertainties by facilitating their subordinates to provide better support to their coworkers during the crisis. This facilitating role of supervisors may somehow be promoted by the quality of crisis communication provided by the organization. In this regard, effective communication from the organization may help supervisors to have a more clear understanding about the crisis and the problems that their subordinates encounter, thereby encouraging them to promote helping behaviors in their department or staff.

Research Contributions

This research provides additional contributions to the literature in the areas of crisis communication and management. Firstly, the study adds support regarding the importance of crisis communication, which can be applied to the COVID-19 crisis that employees at the international private universities in Thailand have encountered. More importantly, the overall results from this research contribute to knowledge about the interplay between the role of formal crisis communication from organizations and the quality of social support during the time of crisis. From the uncertainty reduction perspective, this research suggests that the effect of crisis communication on uncertainty reduction could be contingent on the quality of social support in the organization. The quality of social support that involves communication and information exchange might play some role in helping employees to rely less on formal communication from the organization to alleviate their uncertainties. Particularly in the context of this research that collected data from employees at two universities in Thailand, the role of coworker support tends to be more important than the role of supervisor support in mitigating the effect of crisis communication on the uncertainty reduction of employees. This suggests that coworker support should play a compensatory role for the need of employees to rely on formal communication from the organization to reduce their uncertainties. Thus, this research adds that employees could rely more on support from coworkers to compensate for official communications from the organization to help them reduce uncertainties, particularly in some workplaces where interpersonal relationships with colleagues matter to employees. This could be particularly important during a time of crisis, when an organization may not be able to provide prompt and effective communications to address their employees’ concerns.

Implications for Management

Given that the COVID-19 outbreak has greatly affected employees’ work and psychological wellbeing, this research suggests that communication from the universities’ management regarding updates on the crisis and how the universities will address or ease employees’ concerns and uncertainties during the crisis could be crucial in helping employees cope more effectively. In particular, effective communication from the universities’ management is necessary to enable employees to gain more confidence in management’s intentions to help them cope with the crisis. When communication is not effectively handled, employees may need to rely on some source of social support at the organization to help cope with their experience during the crisis. In addition, it is equally important for supervisors to encourage employees to provide support and assistance to each other in order to address the problems that they experience during the crisis. In particular, the support that employees obtain from their coworkers could be crucial for them to deal with the uncertainties caused by the crisis when the quality of crisis communication from the universities is ineffective or inadequate to ease their concerns. In conclusion, it is not just the top management of the universities that must provide effective communication to employees during a crisis, but also employees within work units, who must support each other to minimize the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Limitations

This research contains some limitations that need to be noted. First, the study is based on the case of two private international universities located in Thailand. The generalizability of the results could therefore be limited to the context of private international universities in Thailand. Future research may need to extend the scope of data collection to confirm the generalizability of the findings in other contexts. Moreover, the results of the study were derived from cross-sectional data analysis. Therefore, the potential to infer causality from the findings could be limited. Lastly, some organizational factors and individual characteristics of employees that could influence the attitudes and perceptions of employees toward the crisis were not captured in the data collection. Thus, there could be some confounding factors that were not controlled for in the data analysis. Lastly, it is crucial to consider the time element as the limitation of this study. Given that the COVID-19 crisis is still an ongoing phenomenon at the time of writing, it is difficult to make a solid claim about its impacts on the organization at this time, as well as the solutions to deal with the problems. Therefore, the results from this research should be considered to be preliminary findings that still need future studies to provide more understanding about the phenomenon.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research received financial support from the National Institute of Development Administration

ORCID iD

Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

Author Biographies

Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol is an Associate Professor at International College of National Institute of Development Administration. He holds a PhD degree in International Business from Texas A&M International University. His research interests focus on cross-cultural management, human resource management, organizational psychology, strategic management, cultural intelligence, social media, and mindfulness.

Tipnuch Phungsoonthorn is a PhD holder and a lecturer of School of Business and Technology at Webster University Thailand. Her topics of research include cross-cultural management, leadership, international business, strategic management, contemporary management, managerial psychology, and organizational behaviors.

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