Search

Background: Teleworking (TW) has recently shifted from a marginal into a common practice. Yet, concerns have been raised regarding potential work-health negative effects, related to the reduced socialization, and extended working hours with computers at home, possibly offset by reduced commuting time or better individual work-life balance. This paper aims at describing the influence of TW on health, well-being, and productivity perceptions, and how this is shaped by TW conditions. Methods: We collected data from workers of 25 companies that exert their activity in Portugal. Data were completed with a representative sample of workers who regularly participate in surveys (total N = 1,069). We applied an on-line questionnaire from September the 1st 2022 to December the 1st 2022. We performed a simple descriptive analysis of each variable. Then, we analyzed the relationship between TW conditions and self-reported health, and between TW conditions at home and productivity, using logistic regression models. Results: We observed a high prevalence of self-perceived health worsening (15.9%), mostly among those with poor TW conditions. Most teleworkers enjoyed favorable TW conditions, despite limited company support. Relevant changes were observed in lifestyle factors, towards more smoking (5.5%), alcohol drinking (4.5%), and worse diet (10.1%). Two thirds reported enhanced productivity. A statistically significant relationship was observed between inadequate TW conditions, health deterioration, and lower productivity. A 6.0% point (pp) increased risk of productivity worsening was observed when employees faced at least one inadequate condition at home (no private working place at home, inadequate heating, artificial light, or absence of well-being at home). The risk of health deterioration increased by 12.9 pp when facing at least one of these inadequate conditions, and by 6.3 under hybrid TW, compared to one or two days of TW. Conclusions: Most teleworkers highlighted a positive perspective about teleworking. Yet, TW conditions are not favorable for all workers, with consequences on health, well-being, and productivity, suggesting that further support is needed for teleworkers to protect their health at home, and reach its maximum benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Conservation of Resources theory, this research investigates the association between work-family relationships and employees' well-being in teleworking situations, and explores the role of Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (FSSB) as an important resource to help employees balance the exchange between work and life domains and improve well-being while teleworking. The current study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most organizations opted for telework and employees found themselves involuntarily working from home. We examined the intensity of remote work as a boundary condition to determine when FSSB can be a resource for employees in telework. Our research combines two studies: a cross-sectional study with 318 workers from a bank that implemented telework over seven months; and a two-wave study with 290 participants from another bank – time 1 was prior to lockdown and time 2 was ten months later. Moderated mediation hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Results from both studies show that FSSB is related to positive outcomes for work-family relationship and also for well-being. However, many of these associations are conditional upon the levels of intensity of telework. Implications for HRM theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to analyse psychological contract fulfilment as a mechanism through which training affects stress in call centres. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 412 call centre operators, using structural equation modelling to analyse their survey responses. Our results demonstrated that training is negatively related to workers' exhaustion and that the relationship is fully mediated by the fulfilment of socio-emotional obligations. We found that it was the fulfilment of balanced obligations, and not relational obligations, which mediated the relationship between training and exhaustion. Hence, we verified that training was related to lower levels of employee exhaustion through fulfilment of the balanced psychological contract. Our findings highlight the centrality of psychological contract fulfilment to call centre workers, and the importance of training in constructing positive employment relationships with workers. We discuss implications for human resource management in call centres.

We used a multi‐method approach (i.e. multi‐source survey and two experiments) to investigate the mediating mechanisms that link two distinct facets of organizational politics to employee performance and deviance. Study 1 surveyed 132 employees and their direct supervisors working in a call centre. We found that authenticity mediated the effect of general politics on supervisor‐rated performance and that emotional exhaustion mediated the effect of pay and promotion politics on supervisor‐rated deviance. To address causality concerns from Study 1, Study 2 adopted an experimental design to test the impact of high/low general political behaviour on authenticity and task performance. Authenticity mediated the effect of general politics on task performance. In Study 3, we used a similar experimental design to test if high/low perceptions of politics that are related to pay and promotion influence emotional exhaustion and deviance. Subjects in the condition depicting high politics in pay and promotion reported the highest levels of emotional exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion mediated the effects of pay and promotion politics on deviance. Overall, our findings suggest that distinctive types of perceived political behaviours at work influence individuals in negative ways, eventually inducing employees to lower their performance and engage in deviant practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of current and future military operations not only depends significantly on the explicit, technical, and tactical knowledge of the military personnel who execute them but also on their attitudes and behavior, such as courage, commitment, and high levels of readiness. Thus, using a sample of 336 military personnel exclusively from the operational component of the Portuguese Navy (PON) force system, the first aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between the perception of HPWS and the three dimensions of organizational commitment (OC), i.e., affective (AC), normative (NC) and continuance commitment (CC). The second aim was to analyze the mediating role of the three dimensions of commitment in the relationship between HPWS and performance, i.e., task performance (TP), contextual performance (CP), and counterproductive performance (CPP). The results obtained through the analysis of structural equation models made it possible to support a positive and significant relationship between the HPWS and each of the dimensions of commitment. The results also indicated that the AC has a mediating effect on the relationship between HPWS and performance, fully in the case of CP and partially in TP. In CPP, we observed that there is an indirect effect of HPWS and this dimension of performance. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work studies sales managers' perceptions of performance-oriented HR practices, and the mediating and moderating processes through which these practices are linked with affective commitment. Specifically, we tested whether work engagement mediated the relationship between perceptions of performance-oriented HR practices and affective commitment using a sample of 117 sales managers from one large retail store. Furthermore, we tested whether managers' savoring strategies would moderate the positive relationship between perceptions of performance-oriented HR practices and work engagement, and if the strength of the hypothesized indirect effects were conditional on the use of savoring strategies. Results showed that the relationship between perceptions of performance-oriented HR practices and affective commitment was mediated by work engagement. In addition, savoring strategies were found to moderate the relationship between perceptions of performance-oriented HR practices and work engagement, so that the highest levels of work engagement were found in individuals who reported high perceptions of performance-oriented HR practices and high use of savoring strategies. Finally, results support a conditional indirect effect of performance-oriented HR practices on predicting affective commitment via work engagement when levels of savoring strategies were moderate to high, but not when their use was low. Altogether, these results demonstrated that work engagement and savoring strategies represent key elements in explaining how perceptions of performance-oriented HR practices are associated with affective commitment. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether contract type (temporary versus permanent employment) moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and supervisor-rated individual performance. Most temporary workers desire permanent employment, and this may drive them to uphold performance also when strained. This hypothesis was tested with multiple-group analysis in a sample of 430 call-center operators from five Portuguese organizations from different sectors. The results show that emotional exhaustion related negatively to supervisor-rated individual performance among permanent workers, but not among temporary workers. Our conclusion is that the relationship between emotional exhaustion and supervisor-rated individual performance is conditional upon contract type. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]