The Moderating Effect of Management Polychronicity and Knowledge Sharing on Career Sustainability in the Work-from-Anywhere New Normal—From a Social Exchange Theory Perspective

Abstract

The unprecedented global meltdown resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, exacerbated by the rise of political conflicts between leading world economies, has caused the world to drift into a new paradigm with abrupt changes of traditional modi operandi across the landscape. A significant structural change, “Work-From-Anywhere (WFX)”, though well known for its flexibility and other advantages, constitutes a serious barrier to the socialization and knowledge sharing (KS) needed in organizational management and career sustainability (CS). This study aims to thoroughly investigate how strategic management structures like management “Polychronicity” (MP) can dynamically recalibrate the mediation effects of KS dispositions on the relationship between WFX and CS. Our results reveal that WFX, due to the distancing component, considerably undermines teamwork, accountability, and supervision, promoting individualism and isolation among workers. Moreover, MP moderates the effects of WFX inconsistencies on CS, and this is achieved even better through KS. This paper is a landmark contribution to the literature on WFX and CS, leading the way to the empirical investigation of the WFX–KS–CS mechanism and a quantitative evaluation of the interactive effects among major elements of the social exchange (SE) context.