Channeling Ethical Duty in Crises: Sustaining Employees’ Psychological Well-Being Through Mediated Communication

This study examines how organizational leaders' mediated crisis communication may fulfill their ethical duty of safeguarding employees from psychological harms inflicted by a crisis. Drawing upon the internal communication literature, Media Richness Theory, and crisis communication research, we proposed a model to explore how organizational leaders' frequencies of using twelve mediated communication channels may influence employees' perceived leadership communication of ethical base responses and stress as a crucial marker of psychological well-being. Through a survey of 361 US employees experiencing remote work arrangements during the COVID-19 crisis, we uncovered intricate connections among these variables. Specifically, leaders' frequencies of using rich and moderate channels for ethical base response communication were significantly and positively linked to employees' perceived leadership communication of ethical base responses and subsequently, indirectly associated with lower levels of employee stress. However, the frequency of using lean channels did not show such effects. Instead, the frequencies of using lean, as well as rich channels, were directly associated with increased employee stress.