Digital Platform Continuance During the Great Resignation: Evidence from Knowledge Workers in Europe and Africa

Abstract

AbstractAs countries emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, management teams faced the challenges of supporting their employees to return to the traditional office work environment, adopting hybrid work modes to ensure business continuity, and creating work conditions conducive to personal well-being. Despite the critical role of digital platforms during the pandemic, there is limited understanding of the role of digital platform continuance to retain employees during the Great Resignation phenomenon. To address this gap, this study focuses on organisational support as there is growing recognition of its importance in digital platform continuance. Using partial least square algorithms, we used the organisational support theory and information systems (IS) continuance literature to derive a research model tested on data collected from 447 knowledge workers across central Europe and Africa. The results show that management-by-objective (MBO) and support from direct managers are essential determinants of knowledge workers’ post-crisis digital platform continuance intentions. The perceived usefulness of digital platforms mediates the effect of direct manager support on digital platform continuance. We discuss how the results could extend organisational level IS continuance research and help organisations develop strategies to retain employees in this post-crisis work-related phenomenon.