Workplace Loneliness and the Need to Belong in the Era of COVID-19

On the basis of Social Exchange Theory (SET), Knowledge Stickiness Theory (KST), and the need-to-belong hypotheses, we empirically studied the causes and consequences of workplace loneliness in interpersonal communication and explored the moderating effect of the need to belong. We distributed a survey and collected 639 valid responses in mainland China in both paper and electronic form during the period of February to October 2020, when the COVID-19 crisis was severe. Mplus was used to create a latent structural equation model with a moderating mediating model. Collaborative and competitive intrateam climates affect employees’ workplace loneliness and knowledge hoarding from different aspects. We also verified a moderated mediation model. Thus, this study examines the mediating effect of workplace loneliness and introduces the need to belong as the moderating variable; reveals the formation mechanism of workplace loneliness in collaborative and competitive intrateam climates; and deepens the research on the effective regulation of workplace loneliness. As the COVID-19 pandemic remains ongoing, we have verified changes to the mediating effect of workplace loneliness, driven by the motivation of the need to belong, and clearly evaluated a moderated mediating effect path, which contributes to the theory of belonging.