Creating a culture of inclusion and belongingness in remote work environments that sustains meaningful work

The great pretenders? Individuals' responses to threats to their remote worker identities

Introduction

This study aims to understand (a) how remote workers respond to threats to their identity and (b) the conditions in which each coping response tends to occur more frequently.

Methods

To this end, we pursued a grounded theory approach, conducting interviews with 71 individuals who chose to work remotely.

Results

Our model and theoretical propositions create insights into how remote workers respond to negative stigma from a range of origins. While some responses lead to restructuring the remote workers' identity (identity restructuring responses), others involve keeping the enactment of such identity (identity-preserving responses) or maintaining a paradoxical relationship between restructuring and preserving the identity (paradoxical identity work responses). We also theorise on the conditions under which each response is more likely to occur.

Discussion

We expand the predominant focus on the meso and macro aspects of this type of work to the micro-interactions in which these individuals engage, thus highlighting how identity is made, performed, created, and enacted, within specific boundary conditions. In addition, by reflecting upon remote workers' identity threats in light of the wider macro context. We also explore the conditions under which specific kinds of responses tend to emerge.

The mediating influence of perceived workplace ostracism on the relationship between interpersonal distrust and knowledge hiding and the moderating role of person-organization unfit

Experiencing ostracism at work is traumatic, adversely impacting employees' mental health, attitudes, and behaviors. Although the effects of workplace ostracism have captured academic interest, holistic models identifying its antecedents' determinants and ramifications are scarce. This research conducts a holistic investigation of perceived workplace ostracism by evaluating how interpersonal distrust influences it and the knock-on effect on knowledge hiding. Moreover, it investigates the moderating role of person-organization unfit in the proposed perceived workplace ostracism-knowledge hiding relationship. Data gathered from 242 employees in the United Arab Emirates was analyzed via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that interpersonal distrust positively affects perceived workplace ostracism, which in turn drives knowledge hiding. Additionally, person-organization unfit moderates perceived workplace ostracism's influence on knowledge hiding, with high unfit exacerbating the effect. We discuss our findings' practical and theoretical implications and suggest future avenues for research.