Engagement, Exhaustion, and Perceived Performance of Public Employees Before and During the COVID-19 Crisis

• Author: David Giauque,Karine Renard,Frédéric Cornu,Yves Emery
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00910260211073154
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260211073154

Public Personnel Management

2022, Vol. 51(3) 263 –290

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00910260211073154

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Article

Engagement, Exhaustion, and

Perceived Performance of

Public Employees Before and

During the COVID-19 Crisis

David Giauque1, Karine Renard1,

Frédéric Cornu1, and Yves Emery1

Abstract

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Swiss federal government implemented

a lockdown that prompted a majority of private and public organizations to

implement teleworking solutions for their employees. This study aimed to examine

the impact of work modalities, job-related, relational, and organizational climate

variables on employees’ engagement, exhaustion, and perceived performance both

before and during the forced teleworking period. Based on the job demands-

resources framework, a survey was conducted (N = 1,373) in a Swiss Cantonal

public administration. Results show that while the forced telework period positively

influenced employees’ work autonomy and work–life balance, it negatively influenced

their degree of collaboration and perceived job strain but did not affect their

engagement levels. The freedom to organize ones’ own work and collaboration with

colleagues were identified as the main resources that positively influence employees’

engagement and perceived performance while limiting exhaustion.

Keywords

new ways of working, forced teleworking, well-being, perceived performance,

engagement

1University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Corresponding Author:

David Giauque, Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), University of Lausanne,

Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.

Email: david.giauque@unil.ch

1073154PPMXXX10.1177/00910260211073154Public Personnel ManagementGiauque et al.

research-article2022

264 Public Personnel Management 51(3)

The COVID-19 crisis led governments around the world to impose restrictions to con-

tain the spread of the coronavirus. These restrictions included recommendations or

injunctions made to public and private organizations to introduce new ways of working

(NWW) and, more specifically, in the Swiss context, to favor remote working or tele-

working. In Switzerland, a democratic and federalist system (see Kriesi & Trechsel,

2008), the Swiss Federal Council made the decision on March 16, 2020, to close schools,

restaurants, shops, bars, and nightclubs. Federal political authorities decreed that tele-

work was mandatory for all public and private organizations that had the capacity for

remote work. These extreme measures, undertaken at the federal level, meant that all

Cantons (the 26 regional political entities that exist in Switzerland, and are the institu-

tional equivalent of the states in the United States) were forced to follow these rules until

mid-May 2020. However, citizens still had some freedom to leave their homes.

These federalist measures aiming to compel organizations to introduce teleworking

led to a shift in working conditions as well as a change in work design and execution. In

the case of public organizations, these changes led public servants to work mostly

remotely. Teleworking is one component of NWW, which refers to a set of practices that

comprise flexibility in working hours, flexibility in the place of work (teleworking, satel-

lite offices, or mobile working), use of new technology networks and collaborative tools,

and greater access to knowledge. Teleworking implies that employees work outside their

professional office spaces while keeping in touch with colleagues and managers by way

of new information and communication technologies (Beauregard et al., 2019).

Therefore, this study aimed to understand the impact on public servants resulting

from changes in working conditions owing to teleworking. To do so, this study used

the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, which assumes that the job characteristics,

namely, job demands and job resources, are important predictors of employee out-

comes, such as exhaustion, work engagement, or even perceived performance, in vari-

ous occupational settings (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017). So far, the empirical evidence

regarding the effects of NWW on employee outcomes such as performance, work

engagement, satisfaction and health, is mixed and no consensus exists on whether

NWW practices have a positive impact on employees’ performance and well-being

(Renard et al., 2021). Moreover, to date, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, there

are no empirical data available to assess whether NWW practices exert an influence—

positive or negative—on work engagement, work exhaustion, and self-perceived indi-

vidual performance. To bridge this gap, this study examines public agents’ perceptions

of how forced teleworking has impacted their day-to-day activities, work engagement,

exhaustion, and perceived performance, while taking into account working conditions

before and during the forced teleworking period due to the COVID-19 crisis. To the

best of our knowledge, this is the first study that discusses the implications of forced

teleworking specifically for public sector employees in the context of the COVID-19

crisis. Accordingly, the main research questions were as follows:

Research Question 1: What were the key resources, before and during the forced

teleworking period, that positively impacted public sector employees’ engagement

and perceived performance while also acting as a buffer against the adverse effects

of exhaustion?