AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF WORKING FROM HOME ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

The world is currently going through a change where a shift in the paradigm has forced the acceptance of new norms and has accelerated the need for changes to happen in the workplace. Companies are now being forced to shift operations out of the workplace and into the homes of their employees while doubts are still being casted if productivity would remain as employers aren’t able to constantly monitor what they’re doing. The factors influencing productivity when working from home have been put under the spotlight to see if they are really significant as times are calling for work from home arrangements to be the next new norm. This research was conducted to investigate the impact of working from home on employee productivity in the 21st century. The study has thoroughly examined academic papers and theories that were relevant to the area and settled on using Self-Determination Theory for this particular research. Self-Determination Theory speaks of the factors that affect an individual’s motivation and broken what drives them into three basic human needs that need to be satisfied in order for them to feel motivated. The primary data collection method for this research was through the use of a well-structured questionnaire and its analysis was done using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) V24. The questionnaire was constructed using items that were derived directly from the Self-Determination Theory measurement instrument. The questionnaire was distributed to 100 employees in a service organization in Malaysia using Google Forms. 100 questionnaire responses were received at the end of the data collection period and analysis was performed on the data for purposes of this study. The results determined that Autonomy had the highest correlation and strongest determinant of employee productivity with a significance of 0.001 and proved itself to be a significant influence on employee productivity alongside Competence that had a significance of 0.016. It can be concluded that only two out of the three presented hypotheses were accepted in this research as Relatedness wasn’t considered to have a significant correlation with productivity while WFH as it’s p-value was 0.791.