Loneliness during work from home: the case of Chinese workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

The extant literature on work from home (WFH) suggests that the tightened organizational regulations on the reorganization of workspaces during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent change in organizational cultures that are more closed and inflexible than before is correlated with the rising tendencies of loneliness. However, few empirical studies have generated testable hypotheses or tested them against survey data. Even a handful of empirical studies present only partial results on how WHF and loneliness are mediated and/or moderated by individual resilience (IR), organizational norms and cultures (ONC) and virtual teamwork (VT). We use Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling to examine their complex relationships during the pandemic in China. We find no direct correlation between WFH and loneliness, although it is significantly mediated by IR and ONC. We also find that the mediated effect of IR on loneliness was further moderated by VT.