The Impact of Individual Needs on Employee Performance while Teleworking

Abstract

Due to change in work structures, the boundaries of private life and office work are getting depleted. There are various factors that may impact the performance of an employee, and they need to be identified. As different people in a company may have different home environments (family size, marital status, electricity, Wi-Fi, dedicated laptop with required software to teleconnect, noise and other distractions based on location of home, etc.), the telework setting varies and conflicts may arise during work and home transitions, especially when the dominant needs of a person are not met. Acquired Needs Theory by David McClelland classifies our needs into Achievement, Affiliation and Power and this paper aims to study the conflicts (Home-to-Work conflict or HTWC and Work-to-Home conflict or WTHC) that may arise within individuals due to the variation in their dominant needs. Employees presently working from home were administered a questionnaire that comprised items to measure the dominant needs of individuals. The questionnaire also had items to gauge what kind of issues/conflicts employees face while teleworking, and their coping behaviour. Responses were collected on a 7-point Likert Scale. Control variables like the level of restrictions in going out due to pandemic were also considered. The study established that among all the control variables, the number of hours spent working and family type has significant impact on both the conflicts, WTHC and HTWC. Also, people with different dominant needs have different impacts on conflict outcomes. Changing work landscape requires an organisation’s responsiveness to understand the interaction of individual personalities with their work and how future telework can be made more effective. People with a high Achievement need may face more WTHCs and those with a high Affiliation need may face more HTWCs. As the Power need increases, the person may face fewer WTHC and HTWC. These insights can be used by the organisation to drive the need among individuals so that they remain inclusive and satisfied.

Paradigm Shifting—The Use of Mobile Communications at Work and the Subsequent Effects

“…Furthermore, the share of teleworkers (T.W.) has a significantly positive influence on economic performance (GDPC), as shown by other studies [17,18,43,44,59].…”

“…The first research led us to conclude that the teleworker share has a significantly positive influence on economic performance (expressed at the macroeconomic level by G.D.P. per capita), as shown by other studies [17,18,43,44]. As the percentage of teleworkers increases, the marginal added value is higher, positively affecting economic performance.…”

“…Numerous studies show a direct connection between teleworking and performance [17,18,39,[41][42][43][44][45]. According to Fujii [44], telework can increase employee productivity, which can be seen as motivation.…”

Learning to Work While Homebound – The Effects of Remote Work on Job Performance during the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…When investigating about the WFH "basic factors" which are present on the analyzed research' results, it is possible to note that "family group" and "home conditions affecting on the WFH modality" are predominant, being present in the analysis proposed by five investigations (Bhattacharya & Mittal, 2020;Mann & Holdsworth, 2003;Solís, 2017;Thulin et al, 2019b;Venegas Tresierra & Leyva Pozo, 2020a). Another relevant base factor in this type of investigation is related to "work characteristics and its similarity with the WFH modality", being mentioned by four investigations (Bhattacharya & Mittal, 2020;Mann & Holdsworth, 2003;Thulin et al, 2019b;Venegas Tresierra & Leyva Pozo, 2020a). There is also a great predominance of the base factors related to the "organizational characteristics that promote the WFH modality (culture, structure and results management)", being announced by three investigations (Mann & Holdsworth, 2003;Singh et al, 2017;Solis, 2017).…”

“…The recent research about this phenomenon show results that can be a paradox according to the remote work advantages and the disadvantages, because the individual and organizational dimensions reported (performance, work/personal life balance, increased organizational commitment, labor satisfaction, less desertion and creativity increment) may achieve benefits by the telework effects, as it can achieve damage as a consequence of the social isolation (Lampert & Poblete, 2018) and labor (Golden et al, 2008), the material conditions the workers have in the place where the remote work is developed (Bhattacharya & Mittal, 2020) and the blurring lines between the labor journey and personal time (Bhattacharya & Mittal, 2020), all this added to the difficulty to disconnect form work (Thulin et al, 2019) and as a consequence the increased effort to complete the tasks (Spilker, 2014), just to citate the main elements that creates this telework paradox according to its advantages and disadvantages, which fit with our investigations results. Based on the investigation findings, we stablish that the main contribution of this work is related to the approach of the negative effects that are shown in the labor performance as a consequence of the addition of administrative labors to the WFH modality, which can be more efficient when are developed in person instead telework.…”