Exploring the intention to work remotely: A moderated mediation model on the interplay between leadership, job autonomy and trust-building e-work self-efficacy

Research goals. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many organizations have reported a permanent shift to remote or hybrid work (Milasi et al., 2020). However, from employee’s perspective remote working may be associated with both advantages and disadvantages. To date, the understanding of the individual and contextual factors that drive employees wanting to keep working remotely is still limited. In this study, we developed a moderated mediation model in which job autonomy plays a mediating role between remote leadership and the intention to work remotely and trust-building e-work self-efficacy acts as a moderator. Theoretical background. Increased autonomy is a key predictor of remote workers' job attitudes and well-being (e.g., Allen et al., 2013), although its positive effects are determined by job-related and individual characteristics (Kubicek et al., 2017). Supervisors play a role in the autonomy-control dialectic in determining the effectiveness of new ways of working (e.g., Iannotta et al., 2020) and generally influence employee’s outcomes by shaping job resources (Schaufeli et al., 2020). Hence, we hypothesized that the leader’s remote support may relate to employees’ intention to keep working remotely through the enhancement of job autonomy. Whether or not remote workers can handle greater discretion in performing their work is partly dependent on individual factors (Van Yperen et al., 2014). We hypothesized that trust-building e-work self-efficacy (i.e., one’s confidence in meeting company policies and high performance standards under minimum supervision; introduced by Tramontano et al., 2021) may have a moderating role, so that employees with higher scores may capitalize more from the hypothesized process. Design. The total sample consisted of 773 remote workers. The survey assessed: Remote Leadership (LEAD; 5 items), developed to measure leaders’ behaviours that support the effectiveness of remote co-workers, like strengthening digital skills and virtual interactions; Job Autonomy (AUT; 3 items; Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008) measuring the degree of discretion in one's job; Trust-Building e-work Self-Efficacy (TBSE; 3 items; Tramontano et al., 2021) measuring beliefs about one’s capability to build trustworthy relationships by achieving remote outcomes responsibly; Intention to Work Remotely (RINT; 1 item; adapt. from Davis et al. 1989), assessing the intention to keep working remotely for the next 6 months. Preliminarily, participants were randomly divided into two groups to perform validation analyses of the scales. Then, we tested on the overall sample: a) the measurement model through CFA; b) the structural moderated mediation model with path analysis according to suggested procedures (Hayes, 2015; Preacher et al., 2007). Alternative structural models were tested. Models were controlled for sex, age and type of contract. Results. Preliminary analyses on the split halves of the sample confirmed the reliability and factorial validity of the scales. The measurement model on the overall sample fitted the data well (χ2= 4595.664; df= 55; RMSEA=0.06; SRMR=0.03; TLI=0.95; CFI=0.96). The test of hypotheses revealed that: a) LEAD was directly related to AUT (=.26; p.<.001) and RINT (=.18; p.<.001). In turn, AUT was directly related to RINT (=.23; p.<.001). Hence, the LEAD-RINT relationship was partially mediated by AUT (ab=.08; p.<.001; LL= .04; UL= .12). b) TBSE significantly moderated the LEAD-AUT relationship (=.08; p.<.05), so that LEAD was related to AUT only at higher values of the moderator (=.12; p.<.05); c) Consistently, TBSE significantly moderated the mediating effect of AUT in the relationship between LEAD and RINT (IMM=.02; p. <.05; LL=.003; UL=.044). Alternative mediation models showed a worst fit to the data than the hypothesized one. TBSE did not moderate any of the other structural paths. Limitations. The cross-sectional and self-reported nature of the data. The sampled employees do work remotely at least 2 days per week, thereby results were not controlled with differences in intensity of remote working. Moreover, the results should be generalized to other national contexts, since our sample reflect the remote working as normatively defined by the Italian context. Conclusions. Our results contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in employees’ intention to keep working remotely. This study suggests the importance of training the leaders of the future on the management of remote co-workers, with an emphasis on the enrichment of their job autonomy. For capitalization purposes, our results suggest that organizations should invest in empowering employees' capability to perform remotely in an autonomous and accountable manner. Relevance to the Congress Theme. Our study is helping to develop research and applications with regard to the attitude of employees towards new ways of working.