THE IMPACT OF FEAR OF THE COVID-19 VIRUS ON THE ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT OF TEACHING STAFF FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

Faculty of Economics, University of Niš, Niš, Republic of Serbia
Serbia

Faculty of Economics, University of Niš, Niš, Republic of Serbia
Serbia

Faculty of Economics, University of Niš, Niš, Republic of Serbia
Serbia


Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major changes in the way employees in almost all areas of work performed their working tasks. This pandemic also had health and safety implications for them, causing a natural fear for their health and even their lives. The employees in the education system were not exempt. The fear of COVID-19, however, is associated with many negative impacts. One of the work-related attitudes on which the impact of fear of COVID-19 is important to examine is organisational commitment, as it has an influence on many other employees’ attitudes and behaviours at the workplace and, in the end, on job performance. Since there is evidence that people differently face the fear in general, the aim of this paper is to find out whether there are differences in organisational commitment in the state of the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic among the teaching staff depending on socio-demographic variables such as gender and marital status. To realise the above objective, empirical research on a sample of 164 respondents was conducted. Descriptive statistics and a two-factor MANOVA were used to test the hypothesis. The research results showed that there is a significant effect of gender and marital status on the relationship between fear and organisational commitment among the teaching staff. These results could serve as a base for tailoring support for employees in the education system when faced with challenging and threatening working conditions that may occur in the future.

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References


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