Rethinking Home Office, Digitalizedwork and Work-Family Interface

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 8577

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Interests: work-life interface; organizational inequality; life course; flexible working

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Interests: work-life interface; organizational inequality; life course; flexible working

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Many employees wish to have the option of working from home, but prior to the COVID-19 pandemic there was a considerable gap between demand and supply that still exists today (Chung & Van der Lippe, 2020). Employers, supervisors, and employees were often sceptical about the practibality of this form of work. This doubt was supported by scientific evidence that indicated that its consequences were very mixed with respect to work–life balance, health, and productivity (e.g., Allen et al., 2013; Abendroth & Reimann, 2018; Gajendran & Harrison, 2007; Marx et al., 2021).

It is obvious that working from home changes opportunities and risks in the work–life interface, not least because of blurred boundaries. However, whether working from home has positive or negative consequences for the work–life interface is not limited to differences between individuals but is highly dependent on how organizations implement working from home. This is related to several dilemmas to be solved when working from home, with the overarching problem of balancing flexibility needs versus regulations serving needs of predictability, transparency, reliability, and security. More specifically, the following problems must be solved in a way which is perceived as fair by those involved in the use of home-based telework: privacy at home vs. availability and performance control; the degree of social integration wanted; voluntariness vs. primacy of demands, and whether working from home is meant as unequivocal support or as an alternative to high career and income prospects for those who prioritize private needs. 

Existing evidence suffers from the problem that the analysis of positive and negative consequences has rarely been linked to different modes of implementing working from home. Whether working from home is offered or not tells us nothing about the how the dilemmas mentioned above were solved. Moreover, it remains unclear what the share of working from home of the total working time is; whether it can completely substitute work in the office, or whether it is part of hybrid arrangements requiring both to varying degrees. These questions must be answered to overcome the inconsistent and partly contradictory results from previous studies, and to give authoriative hints for what actually works. 

The pandemic has considerably diminished the preexisting reserve against working from home among managers and employers. Therefore, results from earlier periods may be outdated insofar as reluctance against working from home may be an important factor for how it works. On the other hand, results obtained during the pandemic might reflect unusual circumstances that cannot be indiscriminately transferred to a hopefully upcoming post-COVID-19 time, e.g., the lockdown restrictions as well as homeschooling. Consequently, existing studies might only be partly informative for understanding as well as designing the future of this work arrangement. This Special Issue aims to combine theoretical considerations and empirical investigations into this area. 

We are especially interested in theoretical contributions on the pros and cons of regulating working from home at the levels of legislation, corporatist rules, and single work organizations, in addition to empirical studies regarding

  • the relevance of several forms of regulation on consequences of working from home;
  • employees working from home but also other groups involved: employees who work in the office but cooperate with other employees working from home;
  • differentiation between different implementations of working from home;
  • differentiation between different groups among the workforce: gender, occupational rank, family status;
  • international comparisons;
  • the relevance of working from home across different outcomes including work–life balance, health, job quality, productivity, social integration, career and income;
  • the specific role of the COVID-19 pandemic for the offer, use, and consequences of working from home

Prof. Dr. Martin Diewald
Dr. Mareike Reimann
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • home-based telework
  • working from home
  • work–family interface
  • organizational policies
  • flexible working
  • job quality
  • employment relationship

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 1523 KiB  
Article
Perception of the Effects of Working from Home on Isolation and Stress by Spanish Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic
by Jorge De Andres-Sanchez, Angel Belzunegui-Eraso and Mar Souto-Romero
Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(2), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12020065 - 26 Jan 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3045
Abstract
This paper tests the explanatory capability of the individual, organizational, environmental and job factors regarding Spanish workers’ perception of isolation and stress owing to working from home (WFH). We used a survey of the Spanish agency Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas on the Spanish [...] Read more.
This paper tests the explanatory capability of the individual, organizational, environmental and job factors regarding Spanish workers’ perception of isolation and stress owing to working from home (WFH). We used a survey of the Spanish agency Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas on the Spanish population’s perceptions of several aspects of information technologies that was carried out in March 2021. Information overload, work overload and isolation are perceived to be the principal factors involved in WFH. Because WFH could be inhibit professional development, drawbacks in the infrastructure include overload and impediments to career development as the most relevant variables to explain the perception of isolation. Age and balance between family and work also have explanatory power, but less so for isolation and stress. While people with intermediate ages are less sensitive to isolation and stress, having a correct balance between work and personal life is a protective factor against these effects. From the results in this paper, we outline several questions that must be addressed by labour authorities via legal regulations and by firms and workers to adapt organizational and working culture to ensure the efficient implementation of WFH settings compatible with employees’ well-being. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Home Office, Digitalizedwork and Work-Family Interface)
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12 pages, 775 KiB  
Article
Is a Good Boss Always a Plus? LMX, Family–Work Conflict, and Remote Working Satisfaction during the COVID-19 Pandemic
by Ferdinando Toscano, Salvatore Zappalà and Teresa Galanti
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(6), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11060248 - 2 Jun 2022
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4761
Abstract
This study investigated the relationships between leader–member exchange (LMX) and workers’ perceptions of family–work conflict (FWC) and between LMX and satisfaction with remote working (SRW). It also assessed the moderating effect of employees’ ability to cope (AC) with the work in the interaction [...] Read more.
This study investigated the relationships between leader–member exchange (LMX) and workers’ perceptions of family–work conflict (FWC) and between LMX and satisfaction with remote working (SRW). It also assessed the moderating effect of employees’ ability to cope (AC) with the work in the interaction between LMX and FWC. Using a cross-sectional design, this study tested a moderated mediation model using Model 7 of Macro “PROCESS” for SPSS. The study sample consisted of 455 employees engaged in remote working activities during the COVID-19 health emergency. Surprisingly, the results showed that LMX was positively associated with FWC, while the latter was negatively associated with SWR. There were neither direct nor indirect effects of LMX on SRW, but the moderation of the AC with work on the relationship between LMX and FWC was significant and negative. In particular, the results showed that, in workers who reported lower values of AC, the increase in the quality of LMX also corresponded to an increase in FWC. Conversely, in employees with very high AC, as LMX increased, FWC decreased. Good relationships with the boss in a new and challenging situation such as remote working during COVID-19 threatens employees’ well-being when accompanied by poor coping skills. This study sheds light on these mechanisms and opens new questions in the literature about family–work conflict and remote working. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Home Office, Digitalizedwork and Work-Family Interface)
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