Changes in Workplace Attitudes Before and During COVID ‐19: A Multilevel Analysis of Employees in Japanese Manufacturing Subsidiaries in China

ABSTRACT This study investigates how workplace attitudes changed before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic using two waves of repeated cross‐sectional survey data from Japanese multinational manufacturing subsidiaries in China ( N = 3609). An eight‐factor measurement model—benefit satisfaction, job fatigue, supervisor support, co‐worker support, autonomy, training, role clarity, and organizational commitment—was tested for measurement invariance. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance were all supported (ΔCFI = −0.001), ensuring that observed differences represent true psychological change rather than shifts in item interpretation. Multilevel diagnostics (ICC(1), ICC(2), r_wg) confirmed meaningful departmental clustering, justifying mixed‐effects modeling. Latent mean comparisons and multilevel regressions showed consistent patterns: satisfaction, support, autonomy, training, role clarity, and organizational commitment increased during the pandemic, while fatigue decreased. Department‐level change analyses further revealed that increases in co‐worker support and decreases in fatigue were strongly associated with departmental gains in organizational commitment. These findings indicate that the pandemic functioned as a relational inflection point that strengthened horizontal support networks, replenished psychological resources, and reshaped evaluative orientations toward work. Methodologically, the study integrates measurement invariance with multilevel modeling; substantively, it highlights how crises alter the psychological architecture of workplace attitudes.