Teletrabajo y bienestar afectivoimpacto de la proximidad percibida y la expresión de voz de los trabajadores

Abstract

This thesis studies how perceived proximity with coworkers and employee voice influence the affective wellbeing of those working regularly from home. Using a 2021 dataset of 542 professionals the model includes the analysis of several constructs (e.g., perceived proximity, employee voice, or enterprise social networks (ESNs)), to assess the results of the outcome variable (affective wellbeing). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was chosen to examine the model. Recent telework research points to the importance of internal communication and social support as potential antecedents of affective well-being (Becker et al., 2022; Belostecinic et al., 2022). In line with that idea, we formulate two research questions: 1) What is the impact of Perceived Proximity (Wilson et al., 2008) between coworkers on the affective wellbeing of those working from home? 2) What is the impact of employee voice expression, both direct and indirect, on the affective wellbeing of those working from home? A novelty of this study is the positive and significant relationship found between perceived proximity to a coworker and affective wellbeing. In other words, the closer one symbolically feels to a faraway coworker, the higher the positive affective wellbeing he/she will experience during telework. This finding may reveal a new reality is possible in the future of remote work, after Covid-19 experiment, one in which close relationships can be maintained, despite the frequency and longevity working from home (WFH). Another novelty in this study is the idea that ESNs are effective in building such psychological bonding. Our results confirm this idea. Thus, the use of ESNs like MS Yammer, or Oracle, for example, promotes feeling of being close to a distant coworker under telework settings. This finding is very relevant to remote communications literature, and practitioners. The results of this thesis may indicate that, after Covid-19 telework experiment, the internal social media, ESNs, can be effective to manage psychological distance between coworkers. Additional findings reveal that shared identity and electronic communications are relevant predictors of perceived proximity. With regards to employee voice, the expectation was set for it direct and indirect to have a positive effect on teleworker’s wellbeing. The hypotheses were not supported. In the case of direct voice, the hypothesis was rejected, and correlation found in direct opposition to our initial belief. Thus, the expression of direct voice through public social media (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, …) had a negative effect on affective wellbeing. For indirect voice, we found no correlation between indirect voice and affective wellbeing, during telework. We find a plausible explanation of this result in the fact that the urgency from some Spanish employers to go back to office-based arrangements may have not given working councils enough space for such negotiations to take place (ONTSI, 2021). Voice researchers advise that for indirect voice to generate positive outcomes, Unions need to be involved in the solution of problems or negotiations of changing work conditions (Della Torre, 2019). In today’s digital economy, enterprises are shifting towards an important internal resource to maintain their competitiveness: the employees. In doing so, it becomes apparent that telework can be seen a source of competitive advantage for its ability to attract and retain the best talent (Aguinis & BurgiTian, 2021; Avolio et al., 2014). The topic of this thesis is thus of considerable importance. With remote work models becoming the new normal after the pandemic (Durakovic et al., 2023), effective work-from-home contexts can be a source of strategic competitive advantage (Neirotti et al., 2017). Telework increases critical business factors such as job performance and organizational commitment (Blahopoulou et al., 2022), but only if it results in the expected positive outcomes. Organizations need to consider the quality of the telework experience if they want to collect the benefits, through increased employee engagement and wellbeing (Miglioretti et al., 2022). Decisions on how to promote employee’s wellbeing at telework need to be based on the best available evidence to optimize worker outcomes (Oakman et al., 2020). Thus, wellbeing at telework is an employee outcome in which to base decisions of future workplace arrangements (Wood et al., 2021), especially to prevent work-from-home negative effects, such as social isolation, to occur. In this sense, social connectedness at work acts as a health protective resource (Bakker et al., 2003; Seinsche et al., 2022). This thesis answers calls to examine the role of social connectedness in developing successful workfrom-home experiences (Bloom et al., 2013; Golden et al., 2008; Memon et al., 2022). Results from this study confirm that psychological bonds between remote coworkers can be created and consolidated in work-from-home settings, despite the lack of face-to-face interactions (Guest, 2017; Ruiller et al., 2019). The use of ESNs, workmate communication and identification allow to build engagement and commitment in a remote workforce. The ability to find and “follow” like minded colleagues in the workplace is a needed resource in the future of work (Abdulgalimov et al., 2020). Collaborative work environments are rapidly growing as hybrid work is rearranging the way knowledge workers work (Yang et al., 2022). Our findings extend previous knowledge on connectivity during WFH arrangements by shifting the focus from communication frequency to perceived distance. Our results from the examination of voice mechanisms sheds light into the negative side effects uncontrolled behavior in public social media can have in teleworker’s wellbeing. Finding ways to manage and prevent such actions safeguard collateral efforts to foster the wellbeing of the organization. The conclusions drawn from this thesis are actionable insights for practitioners shaping future work scenarios. Decisions about working conditions, technology requirements or cultural attributes associated with technology usage (e.g., open, collaborative, supportive) will impact the outcomes of telework in different ways. The first results from this thesis were published in International Journal of Manpower under the article A time after time effect in telework; an explanation of willingness to telework and self-reported productivity (Labrado et al., 2022).