Is working remotely counterproductive? Forging connections between counterproductive work behavior and remote work

Ravi S. Gajendran and Da Yeon Her

Chapter 19 in Handbook of Counterproductive Work Behavior, 2025, pp 336-352 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote work. Despite the benefits and convenience that it offers to workers, working remotely has been linked to counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) in scholarly discourse and anecdotal reports. More recently, for some organizational leaders (e.g., Elon Musk), merely working remotely is viewed as engaging in a CWB. However, theory and research linking remote work to CWBs is limited. In this chapter, we attempt to build bridges between the literatures on remote work and CWBs. We expand the typology of CWBs to account for two key features of remote work—spatial separation and mediated communication. Then we address potential issues around measuring CWBs, taking into account remote work. Finally, we develop theory linking remote work to CWBs by considering it as an antecedent and as a potential contextual variable. Our theorizing paints a nuanced picture of the implications of remote work for CWBs in organizations.

Keywords: Counterproductive work behavior (CWB); Remote work; Telecommuting; Teleworking; COVID-19 pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035306664
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035306671.00027 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22060_19

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().