COVID-19 Awareness, Technological Anxiety, and Mandatory Telework–Model Inventory

Abstract

The COVID-19 Awareness, Technological Anxiety, and Mandatory Telework—Model (Singh & Verma, 2023) is a psychological inventory designed to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 awareness, employee attitudes, and mandated telework policies. The development of this instrument involved adapting existing items from prior research (Talukder et al., 2020; Verma et al., 2020) and generating new items specific to the context of the global pandemic and subsequent mandatory remote work mandates.

The resulting 12-item measure was administered to a sample of Danish employees. The instrument’s psychometric properties were rigorously evaluated using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to ensure both reliability and validity concerning the proposed latent constructs, providing a robust tool for assessing employee behavior in crisis-driven work environments.

Keywords

COVID-19 Awareness, Technological Anxiety, Attitude Towards Mandatory Telework, Job Satisfaction, Employee Attitudes, Policy Making, Telecommuting, Organizational Measures, Technology Acceptance.

Authors

Singh, Vibhav, Verma, Surabhi.

Purpose

The primary purpose of this measurement model is to quantify and analyze the influence of two critical antecedent factors—levels of COVID-19 awareness and feelings of technological anxiety—on key organizational outcomes. Specifically, it assesses how these factors impact employees’ attitudes toward mandatory telework arrangements and their overall job satisfaction.

The model provides a framework for researchers and policymakers to understand the psychological barriers and facilitators associated with the rapid transition to remote work forced by health crises, particularly in relation to employee well-being and acceptance of technology.

Construct

The inventory measures a multifaceted construct focusing on the psychological and behavioral responses of employees to mandatory remote work policies imposed during the pandemic. The core dimensions include Health Awareness (related to COVID-19 risk perception), Technological Anxiety (apprehension regarding the digital tools necessary for remote work), and the subsequent Attitude Towards Mandatory Telework, which is hypothesized to influence Job Satisfaction.

The scale is designed to capture the complex interplay between crisis perception and technological readiness within a mandatory organizational shift, reflecting the unique challenges faced by organizations during the public health crisis.

Validity

The validity of the instrument was established through rigorous analysis of both Convergent Validity and Discriminant Validity, confirming that the scale accurately measures its intended constructs and that these constructs are distinct from one another.

• Convergent Validity: This was supported by the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values for the constructs, which ranged between 0.623 and 0.909, exceeding the generally accepted threshold (0.50) and indicating a high degree of shared variance among items within the same construct.
• Discriminant Validity: Evidence for discriminant validity was robust. The square root of the AVE for each variable was larger than its correlation value with all other variables. Additionally, all Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) values between the constructs were below the recommended threshold of 0.9 (Henseler et al., 2015), confirming that the constructs measure distinct concepts.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the constructs was assessed using standard psychometric indicators, demonstrating strong reliability across the instrument’s dimensions.

• Internal Consistency (Cronbach’s alpha): The values for Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.691 to 0.904 across the constructs, confirming acceptable to excellent internal consistency for the scale.
• Composite Reliability (CR): The Composite Reliability (CR) values further supported the scale’s reliability, ranging from 0.866 to 0.925, which is well above the typical benchmark of 0.70.

Factor Analysis

An exploratory factor analysis was conducted, primarily focusing on assessing potential issues related to common method variance (CMV), a concern often present when self-report data is utilized in research.

The analysis employed Harman’s one-factor test (Hair et al., 2017). Results indicated that CMV was not a significant threat to the validity of the findings. The analysis revealed that the first factor explained 32.4% of the total variance, which represented the highest factor loading. Importantly, this value remained significantly below the critical threshold of 50%, suggesting that the variance was appropriately distributed across multiple factors rather than being dominated by a single latent factor representing method bias.

Instrument

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire

Format: Items are rated using a five-point Likert scale, with response options ranging from 1 (“Strongly Disagree”) to 5 (“Strongly Agree”). The measure is concise, comprising 12 items in total.

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: The instrument is applicable across various adult and late adolescent groups, including Adolescence (13-17 yrs), Adulthood (18 yrs & older), Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs), Thirties (30-39 yrs), and Middle Age (40-64 yrs).

Population Details: Respondents for the validation study were employees located in Denmark.

Test Methodology: The scale development utilized advanced quantitative methods, including Test Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Measurement Model specification, and Structural Equation Modeling.

Keywords

COVID-19 Awareness, Technological Anxiety, Mandatory Telework.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Verma, Surabhi: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7641-0637

Affiliation Email addresses:

• Singh, Vibhav: Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies University Human Resource Management
• Verma, Surabhi: University of Southern Denmark Department of Business and Management (Email: [email protected])

Correspondence Address: Verma, Surabhi: [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

No specific data regarding permissions or fees is currently available. The instrument was initially developed and published in 2023.

Reference’s

Singh, V., & Verma, S. (2023). Impact of COVID-19 awareness and technological anxiety on “mandatory telework”: A Danish case study. Information Technology & People, 36(5), 1790–1809. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-12-2020-0841

Items of the COVID-19 Awareness, Technological Anxiety, and Mandatory Telework–Model Inventory

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

No data is Available.