Is the future of work hybrid? Examining motivations and expectations related to working from home in knowledge workers' lived experiences
| Date | 16 July 2024 |
| Pages | 1086-1111 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2023-0478 |
| Published date | 16 July 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Maggie Boyraz,Rosemarie Gilbert |
Is the future of work hybrid?
Examining motivations and
expectations related to working
from home in knowledge workers’
lived experiences
Maggie Boyraz and Rosemarie Gilbert
California State University San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This study explores the topic of remote work and the changing motivations to working from home
after the COVID-19 pandemic-induced exposure to working from home. It examines the effects of that forced
work from home (WFH) experience on subsequent motivations for continuing part or all of that changed mode
of working. In this study, the authors examine the perspective of front-line knowledge workers regarding the
motivation to WFH based on their lived experiences.
Design/methodology/approach –Self-determination theory (SDT) provided the theoretical basis for the
study (Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2017). The authors employed semi-structured individual and group interviews
(with 28 participants) and explored the following questions: How has the competence aspect of motivation to
WFH changed due to the shift that occurred during the pandemic? How has the relatedness aspect of
motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that occurredduring the pandemic? How has the autonomy aspect
of motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that transpired during the pandemic?
Findings –The findings show that there was a changefrom an extrinsic motivation based on external factors
to one that is more intrinsic, or internal, in nature for knowledge workers who experienced the switch to
working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study makes an important contribution by
developing a theoretical model based on SDT (Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2017) in the context of WFH. In the first
phase (Phase 1), workers experienced many transitional challenges due to the suddenness and intensiveness of
the shift. However, over time workers adapted and adjusted (we refer to this as Phase 2 in our model).
Ultimately, all three aspects of SDT –competence, relatedness and autonomy –increased motivation to work
from home. However, we also found some factors that act as demotivators to knowledge workers for embracing
remote work such as those involving career advancement and the expectation of voice. Despite these
moderating factors, the overall progression toward the desire to WFH, at least on a hybrid basis, has continued
after adjusting to the forced experience of telecommuting during the pandemic.
Originality/value –The contribution of this study is to disaggregate the short-term effects of the sudden
transition,to the longer-term effects after adaption and adjustment occurred, and to connect that to a new perspective
on work by employees. It does this by extending SDT to the context of motivation regarding work from home. The
COVID-19 pandemic provided experience of and opportunitiesfor telework to more employees and changed many of
theirexpectations and motivations. By looking at front-line knowledge workers’expectations andmotivations related
to home-based work, we can better understand the increased demand by workers for hybrid work schedules.
Keywords Work from home, WFH, Remote work, Autonomy, Employee motivation,
Self-determination theory, Hybrid work, Telecommuting
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Research on remote work is not new; however, the COVID-19 pandemic made this mode of
work immediately available to a larger portion of knowledge workers globally. According to
ER
46,5
1086
We would like to acknowledge Montgomery Van Wart, Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro, Associate Editor -
Emma Hughes, Editor - Dennis Nickerson and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable feedback
and helping to make this manuscript better in an iterative process. We truly appreciate your assistance.
Funding: The authors received no financial support for research or publication of this article.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 20 September 2023
Revised 28 February 2024
3 June 2024
Accepted 5 June 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 5, 2024
pp. 1086-1111
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-09-2023-0478
Brown and Tousey (2023), before the COVID-19 pandemic, WFH was far less common. Even
though many jobs could be accomplished remotely, many frontline workers were not
provided that option. For example, in the United States, 29% of wage and salary jobs could be
performed from home (according to 2017–2018 American Time Use Survey) while only 15%
of workers reported working a full day at home over the course of a year, and only 14.5% of
those workers reported working from home 5 days a week or more. According to the same
survey, only around 2% of US workers (14.5% of the 15%) worked from home on a full-time
basis. In this study, we are focused on knowledge workers defined as those who are “highly
skilled and autonomous workers using tools and theoretical concepts to produce complex,
intangible and tangible results”(Bosch-Sijtsema et al., 2009;Py€
ori€
aet al., 2005). More
specifically, we are interested in front-line (non-managerial) knowledge worker perspectives
as WFH was not available to most of them prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of
knowledge workers from our study included for instance a Digital Producer for technology
company or Administrative Support Coordinator in Education and other studies described
other examples of knowledge workers such as academics (Mousa and Avolio, 2023).
The pandemic has made working from home abruptly available to workers who had not
even thought that this could be an option for them. On March 13, 2020, the US federal
government issued a national emergency declaration in response to COVID-19. Many
“nonessential”workers were told to work at home, and those working from home on an
average day increased to 42% of all US workers in 2020 (Brown and Tousey, 2023).
The percentage fell slightly to 38% in 2021 but remained well above pre-pandemic levels.
Kraut (1989) posed this question at the time when telework was only available to a small
portion of the workforce: what motivates individuals and organizations to adopt or not adopt
home-based employment? While we know that organizations might have been motivated by
the continuity of work processes and performance during the forced shift of WFH and we
may have anecdotal evidence about employees not wanting to return to the office full time
after the COVID-19 pandemic, social science needs to empirically and theoretically develop
the area of employee motivation to work from home. To address this gap in research, we
conducted individual and group interviews and in the process of iterative analysis of data and
theories that explain the change in motivation of knowledge workers, we used self-
determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci, 2017) to explain the changes in motivation to
work from home. Based on literature review, multiple reports and anecdotal evidence, we
realized that the context of forced work at home during the pandemic, which was not readily
available earlier to many employees worldwide, might have fundamentally changed some
aspects in terms of employee motivations and expectations regarding remote and hybrid
work. Therefore, because many workers were suddenly forced into telecommuting during the
COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. Nordb€
ack et al., 2021), a qualitative study seemed to be the
appropriate study design in this new area of changing motivations due to this sudden shift.
Our study emphasizes the perspective of front-line employees rather than managers and
looks at workers’lived experiences. Taking participants’perspectives on motivation to WFH
and examining their lived experiences is compatible with qualitative research methods (Cunliffe,
2018;Prosek and Gibson, 2021). According to Cunliffe (2018),“research is about the meanings
people give to their lived experience”(p. 16) and this premise was important for us as researchers
when looking at the motivations and expectations of lower-level employees in this study.
When designing data collection for this study, some knowledge workers were already
returning back to the office while others were still experiencing working from their bedrooms
or spare rooms, and had grown accustomed to their work flexibility (Gelles, 2021) and
autonomy (e.g. Adekoya et al., 2022). Organizations have since been reassessing the need for –
and the costs associated with –large offices. According to employment trends such as a tight
labor market (otherwise coined as the “Great Resignation”), some news outlets (e.g. Gelles,
2021) commented that employees may have the upper hand in setting the terms of how and
Employee
Relations: The
International
Journal
1087
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