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MAN-630 Management Capstone

Almira Halilovic

Written Assignment 4
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Findings

Do remote or hybrid working patterns increase employee job satisfaction?

Employers and staff alike have lauded the benefits of working remotely for their ability to

balance their professional and personal lives better. Research done by Waizenegger et al.

(2020) justifies that remote work is a working system that enables workers to accomplish their

obligations and responsibilities away from the workplace. This gives workers greater freedom

and flexibility over where they work and how they integrate their professional and personal lives.

Doing so contributes to the improvement of work-life equilibrium as well as labor participation.

Despite this, one of the problems of remote work in maintaining a healthy work-life balance is

the increasingly porous boundaries between one's professional and personal lives (Waizenegger

et al., 2020). Therefore, folks who work from home tend to put in long hours and have a more

difficult time striking a healthy balance between their professional and personal lives due to their

propensity to work too much.

One of the most compelling arguments in favor of implementing a work arrangement that

allows employees to perform their duties from a distant location inside companies is the

subsequent rise in overall productivity. DVORAK (2021) noted that working from home enables

them to work at the times of day when they are at their most creative, eliminates the possibility

of disruptions or diversions caused by coworkers, and ultimately results in an improvement in

employee performance. Nevertheless, the same level of productivity might be severely impacted

by telecommuting in situations where there is neither an adequate space from which to work nor

consistent disruptions induced by children or individuals who need help.

At best, the connection between working from home and being engaged in one's work is

fraught with ambiguity. This is also true of the link between working from home and being
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satisfied with one's employment. The magnitude of the beneficial impact discovered between the

two is not very large. Additionally, Mäkikangas et al. (2022) noted that the overall level of

involvement did not alter when workers were allowed to telework compared to their previous

levels in the workplace. On the other hand, Takahashi et al. (2022) discovered that telework has

a negative correlation with work engagement and that job requires and supplies play a role in

mediating the links between telecommuting and work engagement. The findings of other

investigations have also been consistent with this line of thinking.

To what extent does remote working impact job satisfaction?

The available evidence reveals that working remotely comes with many benefits, all of

which unquestionably contribute to improved staff morale and, as a result, improved employee

engagement. This change in the employment environment has been made possible by

technological advancements. According to Mazumnder (2021), there has been an increase in the

number of people working from home; the percentage of people working from home increased

from 39 percent in 2012 to around 43 percent in 2016. And now, due to the epidemic, a

significant portion of the working population worldwide has been compelled to switch to

working from home. Disengaged workers worldwide have increased from 2019 to 2020

(Mazumnder, 2021). However, this decline cannot be directly linked to working alone from

home. Considering the negative effects that the pandemic has had, such as depression, loss of

employment, and medical issues, this drop really should not come as much of a surprise.
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Figure 1Advantages of Working Remotely (Adrjan et al., 2022).

The chart below summarizes the demerits of remote working. It reveals some of the

challenges remote workers might face, suggesting applicable strategies that human resource

managers can adopt to boost the productivity of employees when working in a remote

environment.
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Figure 2: Disadvantages of Working Remotely (Adrjan et al., 2022)

The results shown in Figure 1 demonstrate that employees place a greater emphasis on

the benefits that come with working from home. The reduced need for workers to commute to

and from work is the single most beneficial aspect of this setup. Employees can devote more

attention to their main tasks due to the time they save on their commutes and enjoy more

personal time (Beck &Hensher, 2021). As an additional advantage of telecommuting, workers

report that they can improve their performance on jobs requiring a higher level of focus 85

percent of the time, which brings us to the final point (Adrjan et al., 2022). Therefore, working

remotely has helped in ensuring job satisfaction

Despite this, figure 2 shows that between 70 and 80 percent of executives express

concern that an overwhelming deployment of working remotely may lead to less cooperation,

diminished company image, and decreased information exchange (Adrjan et al., 2022). When it

comes to the employees, more than eighty percent believe that the primary drawbacks of

working remotely are the diminished opportunities for social connection and the merging of their
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personal and professional lives. A third significant detriment that is widely seen as a detriment

by over 70 percent of employees is the fact that they are required to work in unpleasant office

settings (Adrjan et al., 2022). In general, employees' opinions on the benefits and drawbacks of

working remotely provide credence to the predicted trade-off concerning the level of pleasure

workers feel.

If working remotely will be around for the foreseeable future, corporations and

governments must implement extra safeguards to make the most of the opportunities it presents

while mitigating as many potential negatives as possible. Many staff and supervisors agree that

employees' agendas must be synchronized. This would guarantee that at least on certain office

days, coworkers would have the opportunity to meet in person, maximizing the benefits of both

scheduled and unplanned encounters.

How has in-person work and returning to the physical office decreased employee

satisfaction?

A significant change occurred in people's day-to-day lives around the middle of 2021

when they started going back to work and socializing in person. Research done by Johnson et al.

(2020) discovered that keeping up with their normal preventative psychological and physical

wellness routines is simpler due to the rise of remote employment and more flexibility.

Telecommuting may also give some people additional control over the settings in which they do

their jobs. This helped to provide the possibility to nurture psychological and social

circumstances that enhance wellness and eliminate variables that intensify illnesses. People tend

to worry that the next phase of their employment will include less flexibility and fewer

supportive circumstances.
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The transition from off-site to on-site operations is not something that can be done

immediately as part of the normalization process after a pandemic. Many companies plan to

implement long-term changes to their business models and adopt more flexible and robust

mentalities. This will guarantee that all of their workers are capable of working in conditions that

are welcoming to people of all backgrounds and assist them in doing their best possible

[Link] et al. (2021) noted that companies could build their return-to-work programs to

help workers who are particularly likely to have negative effects from on-site employment and to

nurture the positive benefits of on-site work. Returning to work in the company's physical

location may boost productivity and participation for some workers while doing the opposite for

others. Companies can devise plans considering the various requirements of their varied labor

forces.

People who reported that resuming on-site employment had a detrimental impact on their

psychological health were likelier to have children living in their houses. Forty-four percent of

people who had children negatively influenced their psychological health (Wolfson & Leung,

2020). Even though a significant portion of the conversation regarding the effects of the

pandemic on parents has centered on the difficulty of juggling work and daycare responsibilities,

the participants in this survey indicated that they are also especially preoccupied with the

physical security of themselves and their family members (Wolfson & Leung, 2020). When

employees were polled on employment practices that would make their lives easier, safety-

related, including required on-site testing for COVID-19 and antibodies testing, emerged as the

most popular options.

The maintenance of a healthy work-life balance is another issue of concern. Research

shows that hybrid employment arrangements and flexible working schedules might reduce stress.
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Additionally, it will be difficult for parents to balance their families' ever-present obligations and

objectives and the ever-evolving workplace laws (Bowles et al., 2020). It is not obvious whether

or if families will desire to return to the same degree of in-person events that they participated in

before the epidemic, nor is it apparent how they would judge their children's participation in

social situations if their youngsters have not yet been immunized.

Throughout the epidemic, businesses have been more conscious that a significant section

of the workforce comprises individuals with high mental health demands. Paying attention to

their requirements will be necessary during the transition back to work at the original location.

Research done by Parker et al. (2020) noted that more than half of those who took part in the

investigation reported experiencing anxiety during the last week. Concerns concerning the

consequences of on-site employment on one's mental health were voiced by those who wrote

having experienced sadness and stress in the previous week. Another research by

BirimogluOkuyan and Begen (2022) identified that 46 percent of individuals who had returned

to work in an office said that doing so negatively impacted their psychological well-being. Most

of these people claimed they might benefit from increased freedom and advantages to lower their

stress levels. These advantages may include more time off, adaptable work arrangements, and

financial compensation in the event of an epidemic.

To what expend does working in a physical office impact job satisfaction?

The workplace's atmosphere is the most important element in determining how well

individuals do their jobs. The workers' efficiency, productivity, health and security, convenience,

focus, work performance, and attitude are all directly influenced by the physical characteristics

of their workplace. Following the COVID 19 vaccination launch, many businesses demanded

that their staff members resume their previous office-based duties. Most workers who valued
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their ability to work from home saw the new regulation as an impediment to their day-to-day

responsibilities. In contrast, other people looked forward to returning to the office.

Figure 3: Job satisfaction in working in person (Kayaalp, 2021).

Figure 3 illustrates the variations in job satisfaction between workers who work from

home and those who work on-site. According to the data presented, seventy-two percent of

workers said they devoted most of their work hours at the location where they were employed

during the previous year, while just twenty-eight percent said they worked from home (Kayaalp,

2021). Comparatively, just over 35 percent of older workers who work from home stated that

they "strongly agree" that they are content with their employment, in contrast to the 28 percent of

more senior on-site staff who gave the same response (Kayaalp, 2021). This higher level of job

satisfaction may be attributable to workers working from home, reducing the time they spend
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traveling, and lowering their risk of being exposed to COVID-19. When workers returned to

work after introducing the COVID 19 vaccination, they found that many were dissatisfied with

their jobs.

Conclusion

This paper evaluated the impact on personal, remote, and hybrid working conditions

during COVID 19. The study's results have shown that there are evident advantages to an

environment of working remotely. Independence and freedom enable employees to arrange their

daily activities, which may result in higher effectiveness. The bonus is spending more time with

family or on leisure activities during the typical commute to work. The irreversible transition to

hybrid operating will have good and negative effects on employees and supervisors. Positively, it

enables workers to attain better job satisfaction by allowing them to decide how they spend their

leisure time. In addition, it will allow companies to develop, upskill their employees, and use the

current technologies to link people and expedite operations.

References

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stay and may raise productivity if implemented appropriately | VOX, CEPR Policy

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Beck, M. J., &Hensher, D. A. (2021). Australia 6 months after COVID-19 restrictions part 2:

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pandemic, its effects on health, and recommendations: The pandemic and

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Bowles, E., Reeves, S., Patrick, J., & Key, M. (2021). Educational Leadership amidst a

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