The affective commitment of newcomers in hybrid work contexts: A study on enhancing and inhibiting factors and the mediating role of newcomer adjustment

Abstract

This study focuses on one of the most impacted human aspects of digital transformation in contemporary organizations: the development of the affective commitment of newcomers in hybrid work contexts. Specifically, this study addresses a research gap related to the factors that influence the affective commitment of newcomers in hybrid work contexts. First, it investigates the role of two drawbacks of the remote component of hybrid work contexts inhibiting affective commitment: workplace social isolation and technostress. Second, it explores the role of two factors that were previously investigated in in-presence contexts and proved to enhance affective commitment: perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support. Moreover, this study considers the possible mediating role of newcomer adjustment, intended as a proximal outcome of successful onboarding and an antecedent of newcomer affective commitment. In order to examine enhancing and inhibiting factors and the mediating role of newcomer adjustment, a quantitative study was carried out involving newcomers who began to work in their current organization after January 2021 and who still do remote work at least 1 day a week. Results confirm the inhibiting role of workplace social isolation and the enhancing role of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support on affective commitment in hybrid work contexts. Furthermore, they support the mediating role of newcomer adjustment in the relationship between workplace social isolation and affective commitment. While contributing to theory advancement in understanding newcomer affective commitment in current hybrid work contexts, these results also suggest important managerial implications in the field of human resources management, specifically the need to pay greater attention to strategies devoted to increasing newcomers' perception of organizational and supervisor support.

Staying emotionally connected while being physically apart – exploring what teleworkers need to stay committed and how internal communication can contribute

“…The interviews highlight that teleworkers need people-centric communication, which includes profound communication of appreciation and support (see also Einwiller et al. , 2021; Mazzei et al. , 2023; Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002).…”

“…Scholars highlight different generic job-related resources that contribute to employees' commitment, such as the critical role of managerial and organizational support (Allen, 1992;Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002;Mazzei et al, 2023), the influence of participation and appreciation (e.g. Einwiller et al, 2021), and specific human resource practices such as an effective onboarding-process (e.g.…”

“…The purpose of this study was (1) to identify job-related resources (Bakker et al, 2023) that can be provided by the organization to strengthen teleworkers' organizational commitment, as previous research points to challenges with keeping up employees' commitment in a telework setting (Mazzei et al, 2023;Wang et al, 2020), and (2) to clarify how internal communication professionals can contribute to strategically address these resources in their communication.…”

“…The purpose of this study was (1) to identify job-related resources (Bakker et al. , 2023) that can be provided by the organization to strengthen teleworkers’ organizational commitment, as previous research points to challenges with keeping up employees’ commitment in a telework setting (Mazzei et al. , 2023; Wang et al.…”

“…, 2020). Also, independent of the specific teleworking arrangement, there is a negative effect of perceived workplace loneliness on employees’ commitment (Mazzei et al. , 2023; Ozcelik and Barsade, 2018).…”