ifkad articles

Effects of COVID-19 on the Perception of Well-Being, Work and Entrepreneurship in Mexico

Francisco Javier Álvarez-Torres, Gabriela Citlalli López-Torres, Giovanni Schiuma, Eduardo Álvarez-Rodríguez

The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic represents a challenge for nations in 2020, not just in health issues, but even in well-being, job adaptation, digital competence for the future and develop new types of entrepreneurship among populations (ILO-OECD, 2020). The impact of COVID-19 on workers, workplaces and homes across the globe have been a digital-changing move, but at the same time drastic (Kniffin et al., 2021). The traditional work dynamics were transformed in short-time and in this new landscape, sudden implications for entrepreneurs, employees, teams and organizations emerged not only in digital issues, but even with the decreased physical and mental well-being status of the people (Xiao et al., 2021). Even though previous studies pointed well-being and its positive relationship with job performance and satisfaction (Wright and Cropanzano, 2000; Cotton and Hart, 2003; Van De Voorde, Paauwe and Van Veldhoven, 2012). This study is focusing on the impact of the perception of well-being during this pandemic and its objective is understand possible emerging changes in work and entrepreneurship derived of COVID-19 lockdown. In addition, categorical factors of age, gender, educational level, type of work or entrepreneurship, type of income source and the modality of adaptation are included to generate differentiated effects in the sample. The method used to collect data was an online adapted questionnaire that capture the job dynamics inside homes and lifestyles adequations, changes in income sources and modifications of habits (Pennebaker, Ashokummar and Vergani, 2020). The instrument was deployed online from August 1 to October 1, 2020 and the respondents were mexican people who had the chance of adapting their job or entrepreneurship in remote-work. We received 587 responses valid (age 18-21 years=63.7% and women=65.8% of the sample). Variables of the first section integrated an index, that we named Index of Perception of Well-Being in Covid-19 pandemic (iWB-19) by using a structural equation model to verify the validity of the information (Hair et al., 2010, 2012, 2018; Iacobucci, 2010). In summary, the lockdown has generated different emotional conditions among people, especially in well-being perception, changes of work dynamics and entrepreneurship perception. However, the future implications of these results are in economic and educational fields. Promotion of well-being habits inside organizations, the digital and resilience adaptation for future careers (Hite and McDonald, 2020) and new challenges for digital-inclusive education, remote working and digital entrepreneurship (Felstead and Henseke, 2017) are the challenges to face to 2030.

IN: Proceedings IFKAD 2021 – Managing Knowledge in Uncertain Times
PP: 163-182