Work From Home During the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Impact on Employees’ Remote Work Productivity, Engagement, and Stress

In the paper

“The resources of job autonomy and self-leadership were positively related to work productivity and work engagement, but their relationships with stress, although negative, were not significant.”

• Also stated in: § Abstract · plain

  “Employees’ family-work conflict and social isolation were negatively related, while self-leadership and autonomy were positively related, to WFH productivity and WFH engagement.”

In the paper

“(β = 0.17; P < 0.01) were positively related to WFH productivity.”

In the paper

“Only 9.1% of the employees in the sample reported being involved in WFH prior to the COVID-19 emergency, suggesting that 91.9% of them were WFH for the first time.”

In the paper

“Job demands were found to be negatively associated with WFH job productivity and work engagement and positively related to WFH stress.”

In the paper

“About the control variables, also in this case, in step 2, the experience with WFH resulted to be significant, while in step 3 its impact was no longer significant.”

In the paper

“although in step 2 the experience with WFH resulted to be significant, its influence in step 3 revealed to be no more significant”

In the paper

“On the contrary, neither autonomy nor self-leadership had a significant impact on WFH stress.”

In the paper

“At step 2, both family-work conflict (β = 0.31; P < 0.01) and social isolation (β = 0.48; P < 0.01), but not distracting work environment (β = 0.05; P > 0.05), were positively related to stress showing a significant increase in explained variance (ADjR2 = 0.44; ΔR2 = 0.42; P < 0.01).”

In the paper

“All the AVE values were above the cut-off of 0.50, while each MSV was lower than AVEs, indicating that the study measures had both convergent and discriminant validity.”

In the paper

“However, the COVID-19 outbreak has substantially forced most organizations to adopt this way of working, often without providing employees with the necessary skills required for remote work.7–9”

What the sources say

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In the paper

“Individual- and work-related aspects both hinder and facilitate WFH during the COVID-19 outbreak.”

In the paper

“CR values for each dimension were greater than 0.70, giving evidence of the reliability of the scales.”

In the paper

“The JD-R model is a well-established theoretical model in the field of occupational health psychology, which suggests that work conditions, categorized into job demands and job resources, affect employees’ wellbeing and performance.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [13] Schaufeli WB, Bakker AB. Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. J Organ Behav 2004; 25:293–315. [Google Scholar]
• Not checked yetcites [14] Bakker AB, Demerouti E. Job demands–resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. J Occup Health Psychol 2017; 22:273–285. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Furthermore, since this research was conducted during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, subjective perceptions and concerns regarding the COVID-19 may also have an impact on the experiences and well-being of the participants.18 Therefore, fear of COVID-19 was used as a control variable”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [18] Toscano F, Zappalà S. Social isolation and stress as predictors of productivity perception and remote work satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of concern about the virus in a moderated double mediation. Sustainability 2020; 12:9804. [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Socio-demographic variables, such as age, sex, caring responsibility, and remote work experience were considered as control variables, as literature recognizes them as possible confounders in the relationships under study.5,8,48”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [5] Gajendran RS, Harrison DA. The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. J Appl Psychol 2007; 92:1524–1541. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
• Not checked yetcites [8] Wang B, Liu Y, Qian J, Parker SK. Achieving effective remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic: a work design perspective. Appl Psychol 2021; 70:16–59. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
• Not checked yetcites [48] Kossek EE, Lautsch BA, Eaton SC. Telecommuting, control, and boundary management: correlates of policy use and practice, job control, and work-family effectiveness. J Vocat Behav 2006; 68:347–367. [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“the digital privacy defense and the fear of digital surveillance52,53 that the massive use of technologies may increase.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [52] Cortini M, Fantinelli S. Fear for doocing and digital privacy in the workplace: a dual pathway model. Manag Rev 2018; 29:162–178. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper

“We found that the empirical results we analyzed and discussed, except for the relationships between distracting working environment and the outcomes of productivity and stress, and the relationships between both autonomy and self-leadership and stress, mostly confirmed our assumptions.”

In the paper

“Social isolation and family-work conflict were associated with all the three tested outcomes, in the direction we envisioned, thus proving to be important job demands of remote work that can significantly decrease productivity and work engagement on the one hand and increase job stress on the other.”

In the paper

“the social exchange between human beings takes place through “richer” forms of interactions, among which the face-to-face interaction represents the “gold standard.”51”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [51] Fonner KL. Communication and telework. The International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication 2015; Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 1–9. doi:10.1002/9781118540190.wbeic219. [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“Indeed, our model, although including many variables, gives only a small account of the many dynamics that underlie the complex phenomenon of the WFH.”

In the paper

“We addressed this issue by using the JD-R model13,14 as a framework and by investigating the effect that specific WFH job demands and resources have on WFH outcomes.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [13] Schaufeli WB, Bakker AB. Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. J Organ Behav 2004; 25:293–315. [Google Scholar]
• Not checked yetcites [14] Bakker AB, Demerouti E. Job demands–resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. J Occup Health Psychol 2017; 22:273–285. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“a learning process that previous studies suggested to require 1 year of WFH experience.5”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [5] Gajendran RS, Harrison DA. The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. J Appl Psychol 2007; 92:1524–1541. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

In the paper

“One limitation of this study is its cross-sectional design, which allows us to trace associations between the investigated constructs but on the other hand does not allow determining causal relationships between the variables.”

In the paper

“Distracting environments, while fortunately proving not to be predictors of reduced productivity and increased stress, seem to exert a negative influence on the motivational drivers of people. Employees may decrease their engagement, with weakened work motivation when their work setting becomes more distracting.”

In the paper

“In the JD-R model, job and personal resources are expected to directly impact well-being and motivational processes or to moderate the impact of job demands on stress and ill-health.16”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [16] Schaufeli WB, Taris TW. A critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. Bridging Occupational, Organizational and Public Health. Vol. 9789400756 2014; the Netherlands: Springer, 43–68. [Google Scholar]