Does flexible remote working mean more job satisfaction? An investigation of the mediating role of knowledge creation and organizational support

28 gennaio 2021
28 January 2021
Contatti: 
Doctoral School of Social Sciences
via Verdi 26, 38122 - Trento
Tel. 
+39 0461 283756 - 2290
Fax 
+39 0461 282335

Skype: school.socialsciences

Time: 2 PM

Speaker

Abstract

The inception of modern socio-economic and technological innovations in business requires organizations to approach novel forms of working (Bentley et al., 2016). Such strategies can be considered a flexible form of remote working practices, adapting new work arrangements and fully embracing the information technologies that support workers in performing at any time and any place (De Leede & Heuver, 2016). These arrangements are often termed as “teleworking”, “remote working”, or “agile working”, integrating an advancement in the use of digital technology and the variations in terms of when and where work is undertaken (Bentley et al., 2016). According to Birkinshaw (2010), implementing a remote working approach resembles with two distinct aspects: (1) the organization’s intention to manifest inertial behaviors to cope with the smart paradigm shift; and (2) the search for elements in order to balance new business targets against the evolving needs of their employees (Leonardi, 2011). It is notable that such working arrangements also promote the design, use, or success of ICT and systems to support better knowledge management (KM) (Del Giudice & Della Peruta, 2016).

Despite notable advancements related to work practice development, the results of KM practices have been scarcely investigated in the scholarly literature (Tseng, 2008). They are thus not consistent in representing how organizations facilitate such practices by adopting a flexible remote working approach (Alker et al., 2014).

In this seminar, the gap above will be fulfilled by assessing a study that uses the knowledge creation capabilities and the organizational support needed to function in harmony with a flexible remote working approach to achieve higher workplace satisfaction. Primarily, two factors (i.e., organizational support and knowledge creation) have opted for this objective to integrate their respective impact.

The contributing values of this seminar are manifested in two directions: (1) Better conceptualization of the relationships mentioned above between flexible remote working concepts and job satisfaction through the development of the mediating effects of knowledge creation and organizational support; and (2) shedding light on how an organization using flexible remote working can facilitate increased job satisfaction, specifically by testing empirically hypothesized relationships through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis on a sample of survey data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

The findings of this investigation indicate that a flexible remote working approach supports and facilitates the creation of knowledge and organizational support, which then leads to increased job satisfaction. Further, the results outline the identification of a double-mediation effect, which significantly impacts upon this relationship and finally, suggestions for further research directions are presented.

Please contact school.socialsciences [at] unitn.it for the link to the Zoom event.

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