Van den Broeck, Anja; Verbruggen, Marijke; Baillien, Elfi; De Winne, Sophie

Remote work involves employees performing their jobs away from the office for at least some part of their work schedule, using ICT’s (Allen et al., 2015). To date, most research on remote work tends to highlight the benefits for individuals (e.g., Gajendran et al., 2024; Delanoeije & Verbruggen, 2020). Other research, however, fails to show performance benefits and sometimes demonstrates that it may highly complicate teamwork (Leonardi et al. 2024; Van Dyne et al., 2007). To address these inconsistent findings of remote work regarding performance, research should incorporate both individual and team-level outcomes (Van Der Lippe & Lippényi, 2019) and adopt a more nuanced perspective on remote work, instead of generally operationalise it as an all-or-nothing practice by comparing remote workers with non-remote workers (Raghuram, et al., 2019) or using an arbitrary cut-off (e.g., more than 8 hours a week).

Therefore, this study will examine aspects related to remote work frequency and timing, and how it is organised at the team level (e.g., how many team-members work from home at the same time). We specifically expect that these aspects will have a cross-level impact on individual- and team-level performance. Drawing from the field of motivation, we argue that self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017), in terms of basic need satisfaction, helps clarifying why remote work factors influence individuals’ and teams’ performance in a different way. For instance, we expect that a number of fixed office days will enhance team performance by fostering a sense of team basic need satisfaction. However, it may concurrently diminish individual performance by compromising individual basic need satisfaction. By examining this multilevel mediating model, we will disentangle the individual and team-level effects of remote work and provide organizations with guidance on how to adopt an evidence-based approach towards the organisation of remote work.

We will conduct a three-wave study within a Belgian organization comprising approximately 3000 employees. Data will be collected at monthly intervals (July/August/September 2024) to be able to check for reversed causality. Employees will rate their remote work behaviour, need satisfaction, and individual performance, while supervisor will provide information on e.g., HR policies and team performance to prevent common method variance.

We will employ multilevel structural equation modelling (MSEM) to test a longitudinal autoregressive cross-lagged model, allowing us to achieve a systematic disaggregation of the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations. The multilevel results and theoretical and practical implications will be presented at the conference.

At the conclusion of this event, attendees will be able to
- identify and compare the pros and cons of individual versus team-focused remote work models
- recognize the significance of considering both perspectives in remote work implementation
- engage in critical thinking to evaluate the potential impact of remote work on individual versus team outcomes
- evaluate scientific research based on the methodological design and analysis: multilevel? longitudinal?
- reflect on the implications of organizational survey designs (e.g., with nested designs to investigate teams effects) to better understand the impact of remote work
- apply remote work principles to develop practical solutions in organisations