International Journal of Business and Economics Volume 24, No. 1 June, 2025

Examining Resource Utilization in Teleworking: A Conservation of Resources Perspective Across Successive COVID-19 Waves

Shagirbasha Shameem

Human resource management, Xavier School of management, XLRI, Jamshedpur, India

Krishnamurthy Rajeshwari

Marketing, MCC Boyd Business School, India

Abstract

The successive shock waves (waves I, II, III and so on) of COVID 19 caused significant disruption to employment. Using the Conservation of Resources theory, this study aims to understand how teleworkers coped up with and managed their stress during this period. A purposeful sampling of thirty teleworkers and their households, interacting through in-depth interviews, analyzing their social media accounts and audio/video clips, were the approaches used. Gioia methodology of qualitative data analysis was employed, and analysis was carried out using NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Teleworkers had to recalibrate many of their resources, in the context of stress management across the COVID-19 waves. This study will be useful for organizations to design work-from-home policies such as infrastructure, job skill definition and cyber security. This is the first study to examine the resource utilization across the two waves of COVID-19 through the conservation of resources perspective.

Keywords：COVID-19, Wave 1 And Wave 2, Stress Management, Disaster Event, Conservation of Resources Theory, Lockdown, Work from Home, India

JEL Classifications：M00, M10

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