Remote Working for Sustainability of Organization during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediator-Moderator Role of Social Support

Marko Slavković, Stefan Sretenović and Marijana Bugarčić
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Marko Slavković: Department of Management and Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia
Stefan Sretenović: Independent Researcher, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia
Marijana Bugarčić: Department of Management and Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-26

Abstract: Remote working became a widespread business practice during the COVID-19 pandemic as an organizational response to protect employees’ health and maintain business continuity. The aim of this paper is to reveal the role of social support in the relationship among NWHI, NHWI and loneliness, and work engagement and job performance. The study respondents were employees with a remote working status in Serbian companies, and a total of 226 valid surveys were collected. The PLS-SEM approach was deployed to test the hypothesized relationship between named variables. A standard bootstrapping procedure was used to reveal direct and indirect effects among latent variables. Results indicate a strong and positive direct association between social support and work engagement and job performance, while mediation and moderation of the role of social support were mostly confirmed but with some results opposite to what was expected. Social support was not able to buffer a negative home–work interaction and loneliness within remote working. The study offers insight into the role of social support and recommendations for managing the antecedents and consequences of remote working, with the aim to determine a sustainable model for extensive application, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but in regular times.

Keywords: remote working; social support; work engagement; job performance; work-home interaction; COVID-19 pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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