Predicting Employee Telecommuting Preferences and Job Outcomes Amid COVID-19 Pandemic | Current Psychology

While a segment of practitioners doesn’t prefer the writing style and format of academic journal articles, it is important to use available empirical studies to guide workplace strategies and practices. And with remote and hybrid work continuing to receive much attention, this article provides empirical research on the topic. This study investigated how various motivational (i.e., autonomy and self-regulation) and personality (i.e., conscientiousness and extraversion) constructs influence one’s telecommuting preferences. The first study developed and correlated three profiles with work engagement, job satisfaction, and perceived productivity using these motivational and personality factors combinations. The hypothesis was that one of these profiles would score high on all the variables and show a preference for working on-site. It was also hypothesized this profile would score higher on work engagement, job satisfaction, and perceived productivity than the other two profiles. Results show that, contrary to the researchers’ expectations, profile 1 (high conscientious, autonomous, and medium-high extravert, self-regulated) preferred to work onsite rather than remotely. However, in line with expectations, this profile reported high work engagement, job satisfaction, and perceived productivity compared to other profiles. Similar results were confirmed in a second study. The study reinforces how multiple factors impact one’s preference for remote work. For another academic study on the effects of camera usage in virtual meetings, check out this article in the Journal of Applied Psychology.