Future Teleworking Inclinations Post-COVID-19: Examining the Role of Teleworking Conditions and Perceived Productivity

Abstract

Organisations have implemented intensive home-based teleworking in response to global COVID-19 lockdowns and other pandemic-related restrictions. Financial pressures are driving organisations to continue intensive teleworking after the pandemic. Understanding employees’ teleworking inclinations post COVID-19, and how these inclinations are influenced by different factors, is important to ensure any future, more permanent changes to teleworking policies are sustainable for both employees and organisations. This study, therefore, investigated the relationships between the context of home-based teleworking during the pandemic (pandemic-teleworking conditions), productivity perceptions during home-based teleworking, and employees’ future teleworking inclinations (FTI) beyond the pandemic. Specifically, the study examined whether pandemic-teleworking conditions related to the job, and the physical and social environments at home, influenced employees’ FTI, and if perceptions of improved or reduced productivity mediated these relationships. Data were collected during April and May 2020 with a cross-sectional online survey of teleworkers (n = 184) in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and other countries during the first COVID-19 lockdowns. Reported FTI were mixed. Most participants (61%) reported wanting to telework more post-pandemic compared to before the pandemic; however, 18% wanted to telework less. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that some teleworking conditions (job demands and work privacy fit) were positively associated with FTI. Other teleworking conditions (specifically, job change, job control, home office adequacy, and childcare) were not associated with FTI. Perceived changes in productivity mediated the relationship between work privacy fit and FTI. Findings highlight the role of work privacy fit and job demands in influencing pandemic productivity perceptions and teleworking inclinations post-pandemic. Results raise questions about the suitability and sustainability of home-based teleworking for all staff. As organisations plan to increase the proportion of teleworking post-pandemic, this study suggests there is a need to support employees who perceived their productivity to be poor while home-working during the pandemic.

Becoming a Distance Manager: Managerial Experiences, Perceived Organizational Support, and Job Satisfaction During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…To gain a balanced view of the experiences of distance management, whether they also experienced benefits when WFH, we included an item on performance: “I am more productive when I work from home” ( Bailey and Kurland, 2002 ; Ipsen et al, 2021 ; Weber et al, 2022 ). To examine elements within managers’ POS that may lead to JSA or lack of satisfaction, this study used a partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM).…”

“…Consequently, this led to a strong focus on ensuring employees’ well-being when WFH, and a considerable amount of research was conducted focusing on employees’ experiences and behaviors in the change to work from home during the pandemic. Several studies have shown that WFH during the pandemic came with both advantages and disadvantages for employees ( Carnevale and Hatak, 2020 ; Graves and Karabayeva, 2020 ; Ipsen et al, 2021 ) and can drive increases in both performance and productivity ( Apollo, 2022 ; Weber et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Studies indicate that an increasing portion of the workforce will continue to work from home after the pandemic ( Gartner, 2020b ; Lister, 2020 ) Thus, distance management will continue to be an important issue in the discussions surrounding “the future of work.” Although the pandemic has affected both employees and managers, most of the discussions have focused on the role of organizational support towards employees and ways they have been influenced by different factors (see for example ( Weber et al, 2022 ). As organizations continue to discuss how to continue WFH post-pandemic ( Gartner, 2020a ; The Economist, 2020 ; The European Commission’s Science and Knowledge Center, 2020 ; Predotova and Vargas, 2021 ), it is essential to understand how managers experienced the change in their role and the transition phase and eventually what would be required of them to act as distance managers.…”

Determinants of Perceived Performance during Telework: Evidence from Romania

“…In organizational terms, one widespread solution was the transition to telework [18][19][20]. Obviously, the work itself and the consequences of transitioning to telework vary depending on several factors, including: the type of economic activities and the sector in which they are carried out, the positions and scale at which work is managed, employees' previous telework experience [21], decisional factors such as work management, performance management, workplace security and health, data security management, digitalization [22] (p. 525), and support from supervisors/managers, colleagues, and friends [23][24][25][26].…”

Work environment and health of bank employees working from home: Lessons from the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…In this sense, Weber et al. (2023), following the socio‐ecological framework applied to health promotion provided by Stokols (1996), identify three interrelated environments with potential effects on the health of teleworkers: (1) social environment, referring to the presence of the family when working; (2) built environment, referring to home office conditions; and (3) structural or psychosocial environment, referring to job demands and resources. However, they state that the effects of the psychosocial environment, the home office environment, and the social environment on well‐being as well as their interactions are under‐explored.…”