Work Characteristics as Determinants of Remote Working Acceptance: Integrating UTAUT and JD-R Models

The spread of remote working exponentially increased in recent years. Since remote working is by definition ICT-enabled, it seems important to identify which organizational and ICT-related factors may influence employees' attitudes towards remote working and remote productivity. With this aim, we integrated the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) with technostress literature, using Job demandsresources model (JD-R) as main conceptual framework. Therefore, we proposed and tested a model of remote working acceptance in which predictors are operationalized in terms of techno-job demands (namely techno-complexity, techno-invasion and techno-overload) and techno-job resources (namely technical support and remote leadership support), to explore their distinctive influence on attitude towards remote working and, in turn, on remote working-enabled productivity. Data from 836 remote workers from different organizations were collected and analyzed through structural equation modeling. Results supported empirically the proposed model: both techno-job demands and techno-job resources affected attitude towards remote working which completely mediated the effect of the predictors on remote working-enabled productivity. Practical and theoretical contributions, along with limitations and future research direction, are presented and discussed.