Remote Work and Psychological Distance: Organizational Belongingness as a Resource Against Work Stressors and Employee Performance Impairment and Distress

The COVID-19 pandemic scenario has witnessed a rise in remote working arrangements, moving away from traditional office settings, which increasingly calls into question employees' sense of belongingness as a top human capital issue in order to favor both workers' productivity and well-being. Organizational belongingness refers to employees' sense of personal connectedness with the organization, which makes them feel they are an integral part of the organizational system. This study examines the effects of organizational belongingness on workplace stressors (i.e., organizational constraints, interpersonal conflict, work-family conflict) and subsequent employee productivity (i.e., cognitive failures, performance) and well-being (i.e., mental health, exhaustion). Using a multilevel multigroup design with anonymous survey data collected from a sample of 1449 in-person and 514 flexible (i.e., remote and hybrid) workers from 205 organizations, the structural invariance analyses performed in this study suggested a similar pattern of results for in-person and flexible workers. Specifically, belongingness negatively predicted employees' perception of organizational constraints, interpersonal conflict, and work-family conflict. Moreover, while belongingness positively predicted performance and mental health, it negatively predicted cognitive failures and exhaustion, both directly and indirectly through work stressors. Finally, organizational constraints, interpersonal conflict, and work-family conflict positively predicted cognitive failures and exhaustion, whereas organizational constraints and work-family conflict did not predict performance. Additionally, work-family conflict and interpersonal conflict negatively predicted mental health, whereas organizational constraints negatively predicted mental health. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in light of the globally widespread use of flexible work options and costs related to workers' productivity and well-being.