With the rapid development of information technology tools and the consequent anytime-anywhere connectivity to work, working from home has become an increasingly prevalent practice in organizations. Notwithstanding its benefits for balancing work and family demands and reducing operational costs, we build on an awareness-based view of social support to demonstrate how working from home can have detrimental impacts on job performance and personal well-being through reduced support reception. Essentially, working from home makes it more difficult for coworkers to notice and understand employees’ needs for support. At the same time, family members may assume that employees working from home can conveniently cater to household demands, overlooking their work commitments and need for family support. The hypotheses were tested and supported with two empirical studies. In Study 1, with snowball sampling in which undergraduates invited their parents to participate, we conducted a three-wave, multi-source study of 193 couples in Singapore. In Study 2, we conducted a field experiment with 121 Chinese university employees who were randomly assigned to work from home or office and reported their experiences. Across two studies, we found that working from home is negatively related to coworker support and family support. Reduced coworker and family support, in turn, induced strain and harmed job performance. Lastly, we found that team-member exchange and information sharing with the family mitigated the detrimental impact of working from home on coworker and family support. The findings carry practical implications for organizational policies and managerial practices in remote and hybrid work settings.

Authors:
Jingxian Yao, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore
Noriko Tan, National University of Singapore, Singapore

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Jingxian Yao is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, School of Business. His work has been published in reputable journals, such as Journal of Applied Psychology and Journal of Vocational Behavior.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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