Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in work‐life balance (WLB) support, job satisfaction, and inclusion as a function of work location.

Web‐based survey data were provided by 578 employees working at one of four locations (main office, client location, satellite office, and home). Multiple regression analyses were used to identify differences in WLB support, job satisfaction, and inclusion across employees working at the four locations.

Results showed that main office and home‐based workers had similar high levels of WLB support and job satisfaction. Main office workers reported higher levels of WLB support than satellite and client‐based workers. Additionally, main office workers reported the highest levels of workplace inclusion.

Data were originally gathered for practical purposes by the organization. The research design does not allow for manipulation or random assignment, therefore extraneous variables may have impacted the observed relationships.

Allowing employees flexibility in choosing their work locations is related to positive outcomes. The authors suggest several practices for the effective implementation of alternative work arrangements.

This paper is among the first to examine the outcomes of telework across locations. It uses a large single organization and a quasi‐experimental design, enhancing the validity of the findings.

The purpose of this study is to apply reciprocity theory to understand how hypothetical work location decision outcomes and individual differences affect employees’ trust in their employer and willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).

Three vignettes were used to manipulate work location decision outcomes and hypotheses were tested using Hayes’ (2008) PROCESS in a sample of 378 adults who worked in the USA during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants reported greater OCB intentions through higher trust in the employer when given their hypothetical choice of work location compared to being assigned one, and when assigned to their preferred compared to nonpreferred location. External work locus of control (EWLC) moderated the effects of work location on trust in the employer. The relationship between trust and OCB intentions was weakened when employees perceived greater difficulty in leaving their jobs.

This study examined the roles of felt reciprocity, individual differences, choice and hypothetically receiving one’s preferred work location, on trust in the employer and willingness to engage in OCBs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to examine the role of location autonomy (i.e. autonomy over where to work) in shaping employee mental distress during their working days.

A total of 316 employees from 6 organizations in the UK provided data for 4,082 half-day sessions, over 10 working days. Random intercept modeling is used to analyze half-day data nested within individuals.

Results show that location autonomy, beyond decision-making autonomy and work-method autonomy, is positively associated with the perception of task-environment (TE) fit which, in turn, contributes to lower mental distress during each half-day session. Results of supplementary analysis also show that location autonomy can contribute to higher absorption, task proficiency and job satisfaction via TE fit during each half-day session.

This study reveals the importance and uniqueness of location autonomy in shaping employees' outcomes, offering implications for how organizations can use this in the work–life flexibility policies to support employee mental health.

The paper aims to explore the relationship between office occupier work activity and workplace provision. It tests the proposition that location-fixed office workers are not well-supported in the working environment as location-flexible office workers. The research also explores the perceptions of the workplace provision based upon the types of tasks completed at the desk-location, whether this was collaborative or focussed.

The research adopts a cross-sectional approach using an online questionnaire to collect data from several offices in the Middles East. The dataset consists of 405 responses. One-way analysis of variance was conducted to understand the relationship between location flexibility and perception of productivity. In addition, a series of t test were used to evaluate the relationship between work activities and office environment.

The results show that those workers who were location-fixed perceived the workplace provision to have a more negative impact on their productivity than those who had a greater level of location-flexibility, particularly with regards to noise levels and interruptions. In terms of types of activities, those that undertook more collaborative tasks valued the facilitation of creativity and interaction from the workplace provision.

The research has limitations as data collection was at one-point in time and therefore lacks the opportunity to undertake longitudinal analysis. However, the research gives greater insights into the alignment of office environments based on flexibility and work activity.

The paper identifies implications for the design and development of office environments by identifying the need for office occupier activity profiles. These profiles can underpin data-led design which should promote a tailored choice appropriate work setting that can maximise productivity.

This paper contributes to the research area of workplace alignment. It establishes that optimal workplace alignment requires a better understanding of office occupier needs based on location-flexibility and work activity.

The COVID-19 pandemic found deliberate and idiosyncratic adoption of telecommuting and other flexibility practices across industries. With the pandemic waning, many organizations adopted various models for employee work locations. Based on Self-Determination Theory and Social Comparison Theory, the authors examine the impact of the dissonance between employee preference for their work location and enforced work location norms and its impact on general well-being and organizational commitment.

The authors’ empirical study is based on a sample of 881 respondents across multiple industries in India over six months of the COVID pandemic. The authors use PLS-SEM for data analysis to examine the model and the moderating influence of individual resilience on control at work.

The authors find that increased dissonance between work locations reduces general well-being, control and work. Further, higher individual resilience reduces the impact of this dissonance on control at work.

The study informs policy and practices that choice of work location is important for employees to feel a higher sense of control, impacting their affective commitment and general well-being. While implementation of policies across an organization for varying job roles and complexities presents a challenge, practitioners may ignore this need of employees at their peril, as employees are likely to demonstrate lower well-being, engagement and organizational commitment and eventually leave.

This study is significant as it provides relevant scholarship based on the COVID-19 pandemic, guiding practice on future ways of working. This study further supports the impact of an individual's sense of control on where work is done. The authors build a strong theoretical foundation to justify the impact of the lack of autonomy in the emerging working norms on employees' general well-being and organizational commitment.

This study investigates the moderating role of employee office location in the relationship between support-related job resources (i.e. organizational support for development, supervisor support) and work engagement among public sector employees.

An online questionnaire was completed by 2,206 digital services branch of public service employees in Canada. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test office location as a moderator of job resources and work engagement.

The results indicate that office location moderates the relationship between organizational support for development and work engagement, such that this relationship is stronger for head office employees. Conversely, results show office location moderates the relationship between supervisor support and work engagement, such that this relationship is stronger for regional office employees.

The questionnaire was self-report in nature and from a single department. Future research should consider multiple sources of reporting and additional departments.

The current study suggests that to increase work engagement, public sector organizations need to offer head office employees more organizational support for development and regional employees more supervisor support.

The literature on public sector work engagement tends to study job resources as having universal effects on work engagement regardless of employees' place of work. This study suggests that certain resources matter more depending on office location.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors which influence individuals to take up international assignments in hostile environments (HEs). Using an intelligent careers (IC) perspective, an expanded framework of expatriation drivers to work in hostile contexts is developed that comprises individual, organizational and location-specific factors. In addition, the understanding of career capital acquisition and transfer is refined.

A “deviant” case study method to challenge the underlying assumptions of career capital maximization and transfer in global careers is used. To investigate the case, 25 individuals in an international development organization who had to decide whether to work in HEs were interviewed.

Five insights into decision drivers and career capital effects associated with postings to HEs are presented. These span all three levels of individual, organizational and location-specific decision factors.

Due to the case study approach, the usual limitations of qualitative case-based research with respect to generalizability apply. In the conclusions three theoretical implications for the IC framework with respect to career capital acquisition, utilization and temporal effects are outlined.

A range of practical implications in relation to the selection, talent management, performance and reward approaches as well as repatriation and family considerations in global mobility are explored.

The insights help organizations to design global mobility policies for HEs. In addition, individuals and their families benefit from greater clarity of global mobility drivers in the context of high risks.

The drivers of individuals to accept assignments to HEs are under-researched. This paper operationalizes and applies a holistic decision to work abroad framework, expands the literature on of the motivations of individuals and develops valuable insights to nuance the IC framework.

The paper aims to study manpower dynamics at offshore and onsite location for maintenance project, which are transferred to offshore location in a phase-wise manner. The purpose of the paper is to find good values of onsite–offshore team strength, the number of hours of communication between onsite and offshore teams for smooth transfer of software maintenance project to offshore location.

This study uses system dynamics simulation approach to study manpower allocation at onsite and offshore locations to transfer the maintenance work to offshore location in a gradual manner. The authors consulted 13 experts from Indian software outsourcing industry during the model construction and validation.

The simulation results show that the complexity of maintenance project has an insignificant effect on offshore migration. The maintenance work transfer should start with initial onsite team strength higher than that of required for ticket solving and project. The initial offshore team strength should be based on training capacity available at the onsite location. The higher attrition rate at an offshore is detrimental for offshore migration.

The implication of the study is in the development of a broad framework of software maintenance work transfer to offshore locations for Indian software outsourcing projects. As the study is based on expert opinion in the context of India, it cannot be generalized for outsourcing scenarios elsewhere.

The software project manager can use the findings to get more insight into maintenance project offshore migration and divide the software team between onsite and offshore location.

The study is novel as there is little attempt at finding the manpower composition at onsite and offshore locations for software maintenance project during the migration phase.

The question of responsibility for career development is critical for virtual employees who work remotely. The purpose of this paper is to (1) compare the perceptions of virtual and on-location employees in the high-tech industry about where responsibility lies for career management, as reflected in their psychological contract (PC) and (2) evaluate the ability of virtual employees to exercise behaviors capable of enhancing their career development.

A mixed-methods approach was used for this study. Study 1 consisted of semi-structured interviews (N = 40) with virtual and on-location employees working for the same high-tech organization, exploring perceptions responsibility for career self-management as captured by their PCs. Study 2, a quantitative survey of virtual and on-location employees (N = 146) working for various organizations in the high-tech sector, examined perceptions of career self-management through the perceived PC, as well as the perceived ability to exercise behaviors that would enhance career development.

Both categories of employees assumed that they, together with their direct manager, had responsibility for managing their career development. Nevertheless, virtual employees had lower expectations of support from their managers in this respect (Study 1) and felt that they actually received less support from their managers (Study 2). The results of both studies show, however, that virtuality does not have any significant effect on employees’ self-reported proactive career-influencing behaviors.

The study contributes to existing research by highlighting the perceived joint responsibility for career management and the critical role played by line management in this regard and by showing that virtuality does not have a significant effect on employees’ self-reported proactive career-influencing behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differential effects of location‐based mobile advertisements on men and women in work leisure situations.

The study conducted was in a scenario based experimental design in the 2×2×2 ANOVA format. Independent variables included: Type of locations (private/public); Situations (work/leisure); and Gender (male/female). Dependent variables included Perceptions and Behavioural intentions.

Recent findings often indicate that men are more receptive to location‐based ads (LBA) than women. However, in this paper the authors show that in some circumstances women are more favourable to the same mobile LBAs than men because both women's and men's reactions depend on specific location and task situations.

Based on these findings, managers will be able to better target ads to specific genders in different locations and situations, thus maximizing the relevance of the ads, click through rates and affect cost per thousand impressions.

There has been little research on how men versus women react to LBAs based on their orientation towards different situations at hand. This research illustrates what differences exist in their perceptions of LBA and why.