Abstract
In environments marked by extreme conditions such as military conflicts and health crises, extensive research has examined how perceptions of extreme contexts affect job attitudes and outcomes within organisations. Although these studies have typically focused on specific extreme situations like warzones or pandemic conditions, there has yet to be a comprehensive comparison to determine if varying types of extreme contexts have distinct impacts on shaping job attitudes and organisational results. This gap in research highlights the need to investigate if the nature of the extreme context (whether it be war or pandemic) plays a role in moderating the effects of extreme-context perceptions on work alienation and how this, in turn, affects job attitudes and organisational outcomes. Our study analysed 668 valid responses from two distinct groups: the first group (N=449) was surveyed during the Syrian civil war from 2016 to 2019, while the second group (N=219) was gathered from the Middle East during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Employing PLS-SEM for our analysis, we discovered that the intensification of work alienation due to extreme work conditions, leading to a rise in job insecurity and a drop in job satisfaction and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) outcomes, varies depending on the type of extreme context. Specifically, respondents from the first group experienced a higher perception of extreme context but reported slightly better job satisfaction, along with lower levels of alienation and job insecurity compared to those in health crisis situations. Nonetheless, our findings indicate that alienation driven by extreme contexts tends to adversely affect job satisfaction and OCB in war zones more than in pandemic situations.