New Ways of Working and the Physical Environment to Improve Employee Engagement

Sustainable Marketing and Strategy

The theme of this Special Issue (SI) is Sustainable Marketing and Strategy, as in the literature, we have seen growing evidence of how sustainability efforts are increasingly bringing significant benefits to enterprises [...]

New ways of working scale development and psychometric properties: validation in higher education institutions in the GCC countries

Purpose

This study aims to develop a scale for new ways of working (NWW) in higher education institutions in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The study also intends to validate the psychometric properties of the developed scale.

Design/methodology/approach

This study targeted the academic staff of universities in the GCC region. Out of the 1,200 questionnaires distributed, only 1,016 questionnaires represented valid responses. Because there was not a unified theory for NWW, the authors developed a six-dimension tool that covered all virtual work aspects and psychometrically validated.

Findings

The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed a structural model of six factors: flexible work location; work–life balance; communication; workplace design at home; culture and motivation; and satisfaction. The model showed a satisfactory fit. The scale consisted of 32 items with a high Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.85, which demonstrated good internal consistency. The results also suggested that the NWW scale had adequate convergent and divergent validity.

Research limitations/implications

The data for the current study is a cross-sectional that represents a single sector; therefore, it would be more interesting to include more sectors. The study findings contribute to the ongoing debate in feasibility and usefulness of NWW pre, during and post-Covid-19 crisis. This research has offered a new scale for measuring NWW that fits dynamic educational environment where continuous learning and innovation are the key critical factors for survival. For this reason, further future studies need to refine, validate and improve the current scale structure. Also, because the current scale is by no means conclusive, future studies may look at other work characteristics and contextual factors that determine the success of NWW.

Practical implications

Practitioners can use the results of the current study as an intervention tool to leverage NWW acceptance to regain benefits and mitigate negative consequences. In addition, policymakers may use the scale as an evaluation tool to examine the readiness of higher education institutions to counter the COVID-19 crisis.

Originality/value

The originality of this work stems from the fact that it is the first study to develop a scale for NWW and test its psychometric properties in higher education institutions in the GCC countries, a domain that has been ignored by the extant literature.

Assessing Employee Engagement in a Post-COVID-19 Workplace Ecosystem

This article has aimed to better understand employee engagement in a post-COVID-19 workplace ecosystem. We identified a knowledge gap in the relationship between employee engagement and the physical workplace environment through an interdisciplinary literature review. We subsequently tested this gap by comparing employee engagement metrics proposed by leading academics in the field of organisational psychology with a sample of commonly used real estate industry approaches to monitoring workplace design/management. We focused specifically on industry-projected post-COVID-19 workplace ecosystem scenarios, and the results suggest that traditional employee engagement metrics and industry approaches to monitoring workplace design and management do not fully reflect the recent shift to hybrid work patterns. We shed light on the implications that this can have on our existing knowledge of “sustainable” property markets in a wider city context.

Is a new office a blessing in disguise? The strategic importance of relocation

Purpose

Corporate relocation is a rare event in the history of an individual company. The choices related to location, building and workplace constitute major long-term strategic decisions that determine the company’s future operating environment. However, business decision-makers often do not evaluate all the aspects of relocation before making relocation decisions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to systemise the knowledge behind corporate relocation and the strategic qualities and impacts of these choices.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper is based on a comprehensive literature review of 74 articles on the strategic qualities of short-distance corporate relocation of knowledge-intensive firms. Based on the review insights, a conceptual model of the strategic operational qualities for work environment selection is developed.

Findings

This paper identifies three strategic layers of physical environment change, namely, location, building and physical work environment, which need to be considered when deciding to relocate. Corporate relocation affects a company through five operational qualities, namely, staff productivity, costs, employee retention and availability, operational changes and organisational culture.

Practical implications

Relocation is a complex process for an individual company. Justifying choices based on direct costs can lead to unexpected changes in indirect costs for the company. This paper helps decision-makers understand the strategic importance of corporate relocation, identify relocation goals and plan successful relocation.

Originality/value

This paper uses a strategy and organisation lens to provide a systematic overview and synthesis of the strategic qualities of short-distance corporate relocation of knowledge-intensive firms.

Risk Factors and Leadership in a Digitalized Working World and Their Effects on Employees' Stress and Resources: Web-Based Questionnaire Study

Background

In today’s world of work, the digitalization of work and communication processes is increasing, and will increase even further. This increase in digitalization at the workplace brings many new aspects of working life to light, such as working in virtual teams, mobile working, expectations of being constantly available, and the need for support in adapting and learning new digital tools. These changes to the workplace can contain risks that might harm the well-being of employees. Leaders can support the well-being of their employees in terms of protecting and replenishing their work-related resources to cope with critical work demands. This so-called health-promoting leadership could serve as a buffer between risk at the workplace and critical outcomes, such as stress, by amplifying work-related resources.

Objective

This study’s aims were twofold. First, we wanted to investigate if risk factors related to higher digitalization at the workplace can be identified and if these risk factors have an impairing effect on the well-being of employees (eg, higher stress and lower resources). Second, we wanted to investigate if the health-impairing effects of these risk factors can be reduced by health-promoting leadership.

Methods

A total of 1412 employees from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland took part in this online study and provided information on their perceived risks at the workplace, their leaders’ health-promoting behaviors, and their work-related stress and resources.

Results

The results of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that all four risk factors of digital work (distributed team work, mobile work, constant availability, and inefficient technical support) were related to higher stress at the workplace. In addition, distributed team work and inefficient technical support were associated with lower work-related resources. A possible buffer effect of health-promoting leadership between these risks and employee well-being was visible for inefficient technical support. In particular, in the case of having fewer support opportunities in learning and using digital tools, leaders could weaken the potential critical effects on stress. As for the other risk factors, leaders might engage in a different leadership behavior to improve their employees’ well-being, as the physical distance between leaders and employees in virtual team work or mobile work could make health-promoting leadership more difficult.

Conclusions

In a digitalized working world, solutions are needed to create working conditions that benefit employees. The results of this study strongly support the importance of investigating risk factors associated with an increase in digitalization at the workplace in addition to traditional risk factors. As for leadership, leaders need to show leadership behavior adapted to a digitalized workplace in order to reduce employee stress and increase work-related resources.

New Ways of Working and Public Healthcare Professionals’ Well-Being: The Response to Face the COVID-19 Pandemic

This research proposes analyzing the influence of new ways of working (NWW) on healthcare professional’s well-being and how these may affect work performance and public service motivation. These variables and relationships were important before COVID-19 pandemic, and everything points to the fact that during and after the pandemic their importance will be higher. To buffer the potential negative effects of implementing the NWW, both organizations and employees must identify personal (psychological capital) and job resources (inter-role conflict, psychological empowerment, meaning of work) capable of acting as effective moderators to promote employee well-being and avoid negative experiences at work. This paper aims to shed light on new ways of coping and adapting to uncertain job requirements such as those that have arisen during COVID-19. Moreover, it highlights the great changes that public healthcare needs to face to improve the quality of the service offered to society. It is urgent that public administrators and human resources managers design effective strategies and make effective decisions in which employee well-being and service quality are main priorities.