ICT-Driven Work Engagement Interventions in Work-From-Home: The Mediating Role of the Need for Relatedness

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations across the world implemented mandatory work-from-home policy. The policy had a detrimental impact on the work engagement of the employees as there was a prolonged dependence on ICT-mediated communication for all interactions. In response, organizations had to implement ICT-driven interventions to address the problem of dwindling work engagement levels. In view of enhancing intervention effectiveness, this research examines the satisfaction of need for relatedness as the psychological mechanism underlying the relationship between ICT-driven interventions and intellectual, social and affective dimensions of work engagement. We develop and test our mediation model in a cross-organizational study of 167 employees. Results show that need-for-relatedness mediates the relationship between intervention intensity in fostering interactions and work engagement of the employees. In addition, the perceived social support in the team negatively moderates the relationship between intervention intensity and the satisfaction of need for relatedness. Our results have implications for designing and implementing ICT-driven interventions in organizations planning large-scale work-from-home adoption.