PERCEIVED THREAT APPRAISAL OF COVID-19 AMONG INDONESIAN EMPLOYEE: RESPONSE TO WORK FROM HOME (WFH)

Abstract

Provisions on the management of COVID-19 pandemic dictate several limitations, one of which is promoting Work from Home (WFH). This research aimed to examine employees’ perceptions towards threat of being infected with COVID-19 in Work from Home (WFH) and Work from Office (WFO) scenarios. Protective Motivation Theory (PMT) specifies two dimensions of perceived threat. They are perceived severity and perceived vulnerability. An online survey formulated based on PMT measured the perceived threat of 223 employees during the initial implementation period of WFH from 20 May 2020 to 2 July 2020. We identified the differences in perceived threat levels by age, sex, education level, job level, WFH duration, and type of WFH using descriptive analysis and ANOVA.  Regarding age, sex, education level, job level, and WFH duration, there was a significant difference in the assessment of perceived intrinsic reward of WFO. We also found a significant difference in perceived severity in job level, and we found a significant difference in perceived vulnerability in job level and type of WFH. These findings can help organizations understand workers’ perceptions on the implementation of WFH.