Home office: Blessing or curse? Examining the correlation between home office working and employee commitment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15170/MM.2025.59.01.05Keywords:
home office, employee commitment, emotional commitmentAbstract
THE AIMS OF THE PAPER
The aim of the article is to present the relationship between home office and employee commitment based on the results of a largesample empirical study. In the survey on which the study is based, we illustrate the differences in employee commitment between different forms of work organisation, based on Meyer and Allen's three-component commitment model.
METHODOLOGY
A survey was conducted with 731 participants in December 2023 in Hungary. Respondents were sampled based on availability; convenience sampling was used. Responses were analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis test in addition to descriptive statistics methods, and graphically represented in a boxplot diagram. In the evaluation of the research results, 3 different groups of employees were distinguished: those who work in full home office (spend 80% or more of their working time in home office); those who work in hybrid form (spend less than 80% but at least 20% of their working time in home office) and those who work in presence form (spend less than 20% of their working time in home office).
MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
The results revealed that there is a statistical correlation between commitment components and home office working, with the emotional commitment component, which is of major importance for organisational performance and turnover, being highest for present work and lowest for full home working.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The study assesses the evolution of organisational commitment of employees in different forms of employment (home office, hybrid and presence), with all three dimensions being most favourable for presence work. The research does not address the commitment risks associated with hybrid or home office working arrangements, but shows that the highest levels of all three commitment dimensions are achieved in the presence work arrangement, and that organisations should therefore pay particular attention to increasing employee commitment in the home office, especially in the emotional dimension. In this article, we outline the key management tasks and HR practices to be applied in this area, as suggested by the literature.
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