Search results

This paper aims to investigate work–life balance and job satisfaction in the emerging virtual work environments among women in patriarchal Nigerian society.

Data were collected with structured and semi-structured questionnaire from 316 participants who signed up for online affiliate marketing programs in Nigeria. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics, while the hypotheses were tested with partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The outcomes indicate insignificant conflict in the interface between remotely working from home and the discharge of family care responsibilities among married Nigerian women. Also, the women derive significant job satisfaction from virtual work settings. Outcomes from the semi-structured interviews indicate that Nigerian women receive more support in indoor household chores than outdoor household chores while performing virtual work duties from home locations with housemaids being the highest source of such support.

This study extends work–life balance literature from the traditional work environments to the emerging virtual work settings in Africa by providing empirical evidence that the emerging virtual work settings do not result in work–family conflict but rather yield significant job satisfaction among Nigerian women.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influenced employee engagement in the context of remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and compare them with antecedents of employee engagement in traditional workplaces.

This study adopted an integrative literature review design of 27 empirical and conceptual peer-reviewed journal articles from a host of academic databases. Data were analyzed via a matrix and mapped onto individual and organizational antecedents of employee engagement.

This study identified 18 antecedents of remote work, which were categorized into individual antecedents, for example, mindfulness and digital literacy, as well as organizational antecedents, for example, job autonomy and supportive leadership. These findings were compared with antecedents of employee engagement in traditional workplaces to generate new knowledge about the impact of remote work on employee engagement as a result of the large shift to remote work in 2020.

This study synthesizes the most recent literature on antecedents of employee engagement in remote work settings as the result of the pandemic and contrasts these new approaches with previously identified antecedents of employee engagement in traditional workplaces.

With increasingly precarious work contracts, more remote work, and additional flexibility in the timing of the workday, the new world of work is creating both relational opportunities and relational challenges for modern workers. In this chapter, we pair recent research on human thriving with trends we observe in organizations' efforts to create and maintain a sense of community. Key in these efforts is a new kind of built environment – the coworking space – which brings together remote and independent workers and, increasingly, traditional employees as well. We show that in curating community, or perhaps even the possibility of community, coworking spaces may support the interpersonal learning and vitality that help workers to thrive.

COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements and adapt their ways of working. Yet, we know little about how management control might be enacted in the future of the sustainable workplace. The objective of the study is to examine the patterns of management control change in the Big 4 accounting firms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adopting an exploratory qualitative research design, the authors draw on 42 interviews with directors and associates in the Big 4 professional services firms.

The findings reveal two pathways of management control change including alignment and displacement. The authors found that relatively minor adaptions to action and result controls were relied upon to respond to substantial cultural and personnel control changes.

The contributions are threefold: the authors take a temporal perspective to (1) unpack the changes to management control arrangements; (2) theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways encompassing pace, scope and longevity of management control change and (3) contextualise management control arrangements in a hybrid work setting.

1. COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements.

2. Literature has focused on traditional, onsite work settings and largely ignored change pathways.

3. The authors take a temporal perspective to unpack changes to management control arrangements.

4. Big 4 firms adapted to hybrid work with substantial changes to personnel and cultural controls.

5. The authors theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways.

COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements.

Literature has focused on traditional, onsite work settings and largely ignored change pathways.

The authors take a temporal perspective to unpack changes to management control arrangements.

Big 4 firms adapted to hybrid work with substantial changes to personnel and cultural controls.

The authors theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways.

Firms use Relative Performance Information (RPI) to improve employee performance; however, differences in employees’ remote work environments call into question whether RPI improves performance in remote work arrangements. By manipulating RPI provision across sections, the authors examine whether RPI improves performance in remote work arrangements using a field experiment in introductory accounting courses taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors found that RPI improves performance in a remote work setting, as students receiving RPI achieved higher exam scores and increased their exam scores to a greater extent than students who did not receive RPI. The authors also found that lower performers improved performance more than higher performers in response to RPI, and the effect of RPI was more pronounced in those closest to meaningful thresholds. These results inform practice on the expected benefits of implementing RPI in a remote work setting.

This paper aims to explore the impacts of remote auditing on auditors’ work and work-life balance.

This paper adopted a qualitative online survey approach using open-ended reflections from 98 highly experienced auditors. The survey design aligns with a “Big Q” approach to qualitative data. The reflections were interpreted through the theoretical lens of the social presence theory.

Auditors underscore that remote auditing has improved their work-life balance since it offers flexibility, greater autonomy and efficient use of time. However, they believe less social contact due to remote auditing can hurt their work.

This study aimed to holistically comprehend the concept of work-life balance in a remote auditing setting. Therefore, the study refrained from making comparisons based on demographic information (e.g. gender, experience and type of audit firm).

The findings highlight the need for adopting flexible work arrangements that prioritise auditors’ well-being. This is critical for making the audit profession attractive and enhancing overall audit quality. Updated regulatory guidance and controls are needed concerning the use of technologies in remote auditing to ensure high-quality audits.

The findings of this study can positively reshape public perception of the audit profession. Firstly, enhanced work-life balance can improve audit quality. Secondly, incorporating emerging technologies in auditing can result in society perceiving auditors as adaptive to innovation and technological advancement that has been touted for their potential for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of audit and audit quality, potentially enhancing societal trust in auditing.

The findings of this study complement the auditing literature that has mainly focused on the traditional work paradigm, requiring in-person presence. The authors identify potential challenges emanating from auditors’ remote work and propose solutions for audit firms to improve work-life balance in a remote work setting.

Acknowledging the significance of perceived organizational support (POS) for employees’ performance, this study aims to examine the underlying mechanism of task performance in a COVID-19 pandemic-induced blended working (TPBW) environment and the role of perceived usefulness of digitalization (PUDBW) in the process.

Survey data collected from 204 managers of Indian public sector undertakings pursuing blended working for the first time were analyzed using structural equation modelling. A qualitative study on 31 such managers was also performed.

Although employees perceived an improvement in POS, PUDBW and TPBW (during the COVID pandemic) in comparison to the pre-COVID time when traditional work design was operational, yet the improvement in task performance was not directly influenced by POS. POS had a positive effect on PUDBW, which in turn positively affected TPBW. PUD acted as a mediator. A negative moderation effect of POS on the relationship between PUDBW and TPBW was found.

Findings of the study may help organizations and policymakers to focus on key enablers, such as organizational support and relevant digital initiatives, for ensuring better task performance by their employees during a blended working environment, even in difficult times as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study, for the first time, examined the proposed relationships in a new work setting of blended working and explained the underlying mediation and moderation mechanisms in their relationships.

“New ways of working” refers to non‐traditional work practices, settings and locations with information and communication technologies (ICT) to supplement or replace traditional ways of working. They are being deployed in knowledge work context in order to increase employees working motivation, job satisfaction and productivity. However, these benefits are not self‐evident. This paper aims to examine the task of measuring the expected benefits.

This paper synthesizes the existing literature on measurement of knowledge work productivity and identifies some key prerequisites and restrictions that should be taken into account when measuring the impacts of organizational change.

The paper proposes a measurement approach for evaluating the impacts of a new ways of working initiative in a knowledge work context.

Previous literature has focused on studying whether facilities and ICT solutions are appropriate from the viewpoint of an individual knowledge worker. However, there is a lack of studies focused on the actual business impacts of different working arrangements.

As every day work is central to people's lives and events serve as significant contextual factors, examining what impact the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions had on knowledge workers warrants further investigation. The author's research question investigated how employees in the London Insurance Market had made sense of their work identities during a period of mandated remote work and isolation from co-workers, leaders and others, amidst a turbulent environment. To address this enquiry, this research drew on Goffman's institutional, dramaturgical and stigma theories.

Data used in this research are from an ongoing PhD study of how individuals conceive, construct and conduct their careers in this field. As individuals and their social worlds are interwoven, a qualitative methodological approach was employed in this research.

Participants were thrusted into a position where they had no prior knowledge what identity they should adopt in a situation which had totalising characteristics. The loss of clear boundaries between work and home setting caused a deterioration of participants' work identities whilst physical separation from their institutions and co-workers posed a risk of disconnecting their past work identities from the present. Moreover, participants' experiences of deterioration and disconnection were intertwined with their demographic and occupational identities.

This study aligns with existing research on identity work, emphasising the crucial role of social interaction in the formation of work identities. However, it also highlights that the establishment and sustenance of work identities is also reliant on individuals having separate frontstage and backstage settings to understand and interpret their conduct and those of their significant others.

This study draws on the affective events theory (AET) to understand how telework may influence workers' well-being. Hence this study aimed to (1) analyze the indirect relationship between telework and well-being via daily micro-events (DME), and (2) test whether procrastination would moderate this indirect effect.

To test the goals, data were gathered from a sample of teleworkers in the IT sector (N = 232). To analyze the data, a moderated mediation analysis was performed in SPSS with PROCESS macro.

The results showed that micro-daily events mediated the positive relationship between telework and well-being; however, this relation was conditional upon the levels of workers' levels of procrastination, that is, this link became weaker for those who were procrastinators.

By highlighting the importance of telework, DME and procrastination, this study offers managers distinct strategies for enhancing their employees' well-being.

Despite the existing research investigating the effect of telework on well-being, studies investigating the intervening mechanisms between these two constructs are scarce. Moreover, there is a lack of research investigating the moderating effect of procrastination in these relations. Hence, this study fills these gaps and advances knowledge on the process that explains how (via DME) and when (when procrastination is low) teleworking influences workers' well-being.