Cognitive Sciences and Psychology
Title : | Predictors and Outcomes of Loneliness in the Workplace: A Time lagged Multi-Study Investigation |
Area of research : | Cognitive Sciences and Psychology |
Focus area : | Quantitative Social Sciences |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Richa Chaudhary, Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Patna, Bihar |
Timeline Start Year : | 2024 |
Timeline End Year : | 2027 |
Contact info : | richa.chaudhary18@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | Loneliness is not a new phenomenon but loneliness at work is rarely talked about perhaps because of the stigma and shame associated with the topic. As individuals spend a substantial part of their life in the workplace and loneliness, which signifies relational deficiency and a desire for close connections, is likely to be amplified in the social contexts, it is important to develop comprehensive models of workplace loneliness to advance the theoretical and empirical knowledge on such a multifaceted and pertinent yet under-examined construct. The academic literature on workplace loneliness is still in the nascent stages and demonstrates a considerable lack of understanding around its determinants, outcomes, and boundary conditions. With this backdrop, the present study attempts to test a complex model of interrelationships among the antecedents and consequences of loneliness in the context of workplace along with the underlying psychological processes and boundary conditions. The study proposes to utilize a time-lagged multi-study (quantitative) design to answer the proposed research questions. It attempts to test the proposed hypotheses in a series of studies by collecting data from around 1000 employees belonging to at least four different industries in different states of India using self-administered questionnaires. The data will be collected in a time lagged manner at three different time points (T1, T2, and T3) with a time gap of atleast one-month between each period to minimize the possibility of common method bias. The hypothesized model will be validated in multiple industrial settings to improve the generalizability of the results. Confirmatory factor analysis will be used to ensure convergent and discriminant validity and verify the goodness of fitness of all the study instruments in the present context. Next, correlation analysis will be used to assess the degree of association among the proposed dependent and independent variables. The direct, mediation, and moderation effects will be tested using bootstrapping, a robust technique to detect indirect effects, using SPSS PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013). The overall fit of the proposed theoretical model will be assessed quantitatively with the help of structural equation modeling (SEM) in IBM SPSS AMOS. The study by providing a comprehensive account of the degree to which loneliness has penetrated in the Indian workplaces will add to the scarce knowledge base on the subject from developing economies of the world with unique cultural characteristics. By advancing the awareness on such an ignored issue in the work settings, this research will carry significant implications for practitioners and organizational policy makers in terms of planning meaningful and effective interventions to alleviate the epidemic of loneliness in the organizations and bring improvement in the lives of employees experiencing the negative emotion of loneliness at work. |
Total Budget (INR): | 6,60,000 |
Organizations involved