Coping with COVID-19 : employee use of virtual communities.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of employee participation in virtual communities while coping with organizational change. The current coronavirus pandemic offers a unique and unprecedented context through which we can examine employee coping behavior. Toward this end, the current study applies Brashers’ Uncertainty Management Theory and Hawthornthwaite’s Media Multiplexity Theory to examine how organizational changes initiated by COVID-19 impacted workers’ uncertainty, coping, and workplace technology use. Results from the survey data (N= 160) provide insight into the ways employees from various industries used their virtual platforms to accomplish work-based tasks and remain connected to co-workers through such drastic changes.