Social distancing and work from home for those high on Extraversion and Conscientiousness has differing impacts compared to those who are lower on these dimensions. There are also important differing impacts individual such as segmentors and integrators struggling with WFH.With reference to and application ofOB theories and concepts:

Determine what factors will likely lead to helping and prosocial behaviours in teams with either low or high virtuality - and explain how these factors will affect outcomes of these teams.(15 marks)

Topic : Personality

The Big Five personality traits predict myriad work attitudes and behaviours, including those relevant to COVID-19, such as coping (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007), work-life balance (Michel et al., 2011), and subjective well-being (Anglim et al., 2020). Second-order quantitative reviews of 90+ meta-analyses show that Extraversion and Conscientiousness play particularly important roles in successful adjustment. Extraversion contributes to adjustment by promoting more frequent experiences of higher levels of positive emotion as well as a richer repertoire of interpersonal skill (Wilmot et al., 2019) whereas Conscientiousness contributes to adjustment by fostering commitment and perseverance toward more predictable, non-immediate work goals (Wilmot & Ones, 2019). In light of this prior research, there are reasons to expect that both traits play key, yet distinct, roles in workplace adjustments to the pandemic.

As COVID-19 can be conceptualized as a "strong situation," which restricts the normal expression of personality, it therefore may act as a boundary condition of a traits' typical predictive effects (Meyer et al., 2010). Two examples are relevant for future research and practice. First, in the short-term, the pandemic exerts situational constraints on an individuals' interpersonal behaviours via social distancing practices and lockdown orders. Experimental evidence shows that increasing introverted behaviours decreases positive emotions (Margolis Lyubomirsky, 2019). Thus, extraverts' interpersonal and emotional advantages may be diminished, or reversed, by the strong, novel situation that is COVID-19. Indeed, lower levels of Extraversion (and Openness) are reported in countries that have historically suffered from higher levels of infectious diseases (Schaller & Murray, 2008). Second, in the long-term, the pandemic exerts situational strength by introducing considerable unpredictability into individuals' jobs. We know that Conscientiousness offers potent workplace benefits, but predictability facilitates its optimal expression. Unpredictability, on the other hand, increases job complexity, which, in turn, decreases Conscientiousness' beneficial effects (Wilmot & Ones, 2019). Accordingly, organizational interventions that bring role clarity and specific goals may offer much-needed predictability in an uncertain time. A focus on work goals and goal pursuit may eventually increase individuals' experience of positive emotions (McCabe & Fleeson, 2012).

Beyond the Big Five traits, other kinds of individual difference are likely to be important as well. With respect to WFH, for example, research by Rothbard et al. (2005) shows that "segmentors" tend to enjoy work and perform better when they are able to keep a clear boundary between work and non-work while "integrators" tend to prefer toggling between different activities and are less stressed by the commingling of work and non-work boundaries. Awareness of such variation is particularly valuable when WFH is required since people on either side of the spectrum will benefit from different adaptations - integrators will likely benefit from some segmenting (e.g., of time and space) while segmentors - particularly if they are living with others - will need to better tolerate non-work interruptions when attempting to work.