PurposeEven after COVID-19 pandemic, several organizations intend extending work-from-home (WFH), to the extent of making it permanent for many. However, WFH's impact on productivity remains uncertain. Therefore, this paper aims to study personal and job factors determining the likelihood of amount of work done at home being same/more vis-à-vis office.Design/methodology/approachEmployees' basic psychological needs and job crafting tendencies; job-related aspects of task independence, technology resources and supervisory support; and several demographic factors are examined as determinants. Firth logistic regression analysis of data from 301 Indian white-collar employees is performed.FindingsDemographically, longer exposure to WFH, greater work experience and being a support function worker increased the likelihood of same/greater amount of work done at home. Being a woman or married reduced the likelihood, while being a manufacturing/services worker was non-significant. Among psychological needs, greater needs for autonomy and relatedness decreased and increased the likelihood of same/greater amount of work done at home, respectively. Regarding personal and job resources, job crafting to increase structural job resources and supervisor support increased the likelihood of same/greater amount of work done at home versus office.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the limited India-centric literature on WFH; uniquely examining influences of individual personal attributes on amount of work done by combining job demands-resources (JD-R) model and basic psychological needs theory.
Indian employers rapidly adopted work from home (WFH) due to COVID. Now some contemplate long-term, also permanent WFH for select employee segments even post-pandemic, for productivity benefits. But employee wellbeing is critical for productivity. Therefore, this article examines effects of personal and job-related factors on wellbeing for 301 Indian employees placed under WFH during COVID lockdown of early-2020 and longer. Hierarchical linear regression demonstrated that demographically, the presence of elders at home and employment in manufacturing were negatively associated with wellbeing. Among personal attributes, the need for structure (routines) was negatively associated with wellbeing. But the need for autonomy (volition) and job crafting to increase structural job resources (proactively obtaining more responsibility and knowledge) were positively associated with wellbeing. Wellbeing was also positively associated with job-related factors of technology and supervisor support. These findings could inform customization of, and interventions under, organisations’ WFH approaches.
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