Private international universities is a sector of the educational industry that are among those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, as their operations and revenues heavily depend on the enrollment of overseas students. At this stage, given that the COVID-19 crisis is still a relatively new phenomenon, research areas of management attempt to clarify the impact of the crisis on the psychological wellbeing of employees, as well as interventions to address this problem in organizations, is still very sparse.
Recently, the faculty of ICO NIDA, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, and his former PhD student of ICO NIDA, Dr.Tipnuch Phungsoonthorn, have published among groundbreaking research regarding this COVID-19 impact in the international universities. The article is published in the The Journal of General Psychology (SCImago Quartile 2). Based on the case of two private international universities in Thailand, their research shows that support from supervisor at the department could reduce the uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of university employees during the crisis. However, their study shows that the benefit of supervisor support on the employees’ emotional exhaustion exists only for employees working in a workplace that has low resistance to change, while in workplaces where resistance to change is high, supervisor support is not negatively associated with employees’ emotional exhaustion.
As the policy recommendation, their research suggests that it is important for top management of the universities to allow and encourage the supervisors of all work units or departments to provide the support necessary to address the concerns of their employees during the crisis. However, it is also very important for top management to realize that characteristics of the workplace climate in the organization may militate against the ability of the supervisors to exercise their authority to help employees effectively. Top management should grant greater flexibility and autonomy to supervisors so that they can take their own actions in addressing the skepticism of employees and to ease their concerns
The full article can be accessed for FREE at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2020.1795613
Reference
Charoensukmongkol, P., & Phungsoonthorn, T. (2020), The Effectiveness of Supervisor Support in Lessening Perceived Uncertainties and Emotional Exhaustion of University Employees during the COVID-19 Crisis: The Constraining Role of Organizational Intransigence, The Journal of General Psychology. doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2020.1795613
