Polluted Air, Polluted Minds: The Psychological Costs of Air Pollution Events on Employee Work and Life

Abstract

A growing body of literature has illuminated the impacts of climate change on employees' physiological health. This research advances the field by uncovering evidence of the damaging psychological effects of air pollution on employees, along with an organizational alleviation mechanism. Integrating affective events theory and terror management theory, we theorize that air pollution event disruption leads to increased employees' workplace loneliness and decreased sleep quality at night via the mediating role of employees' anxiety. However, the negative impacts of air pollution can be significantly mitigated for those who experience higher levels of organizational support. We first conducted two quantitative studies (Studies 1 and 2) using the experience sampling method to test the hypotheses. To further enrich the insights derived from these quantitative tests, we also carried out a qualitative study (Study 3) using in-depth interviews. Taken together, our research generates valuable theoretical and practical implications for understanding the impacts of air pollution events and developing effective organizational coping strategies.