An exploration of the psychological factors affecting remote e-worker's job effectiveness, well-being and work-life balance

Grant, Christine A.; Wallace, Louise M. and Spurgeon, Peter C. (2013). An exploration of the psychological factors affecting remote e-worker's job effectiveness, well-being and work-life balance. Employee Relations, 35(5) pp. 527–546.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2012-0059

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of remote e-working on the key research areas of work-life balance, job effectiveness and well-being. The study provides a set of generalisable themes drawn from the key research areas, including building trust, management style and the quality of work and non-working life. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is an exploratory study into the psychological factors affecting remote e-workers using qualitative thematic analysis of eleven in-depth interviews with e-workers, across five organisations and three sectors. All participants worked remotely using technology independent of time and location for several years and considered themselves to be experts. Findings: The paper provides insights into the diverse factors affecting remote e-workers and produces ten emerging themes. Differentiating factors between e-workers included access to technology, ability to work flexibly and individual competencies. Adverse impacts were found on well-being, due to over-working and a lack of time for recuperation. Trust and management style were found to be key influences on e-worker effectiveness. Research limitations/implications: Because of the exploratory nature of the research and approach the research requires further testing for generalisability. The emerging themes could be used to develop a wide-scale survey of e-workers, whereby the themes would be further validated. Practical implications: Practical working examples are provided by the e-workers and those who also manage e-workers based on the ten emerging themes. Originality/value: This paper identifies a number of generalisable themes that can be used to inform the psychological factors affecting remote e-worker effectiveness.

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About

• Item ORO ID
• 46553
• Item Type
• Journal Item
• ISSN
• 0142-5455
• Keywords
• Studies; Human resource management; Mental health; Workers; Employees; Stress; Supervisors
• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS)
• Copyright Holders
• © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Depositing User
• Louise Wallace