How does employee cultural background influence the effects of telework on job stress? The roles of power distance, individualism, and beliefs about telework

Mladen Adamovic

International Journal of Information Management, 2022, vol. 62, issue C

Abstract: Previous research into telework and job stress is characterized by inconsistent findings and reported beneficial, nonsignificant, and dysfunctional effects of telework on employees’ job stress levels and well-being. To investigate when the effects of telework on job stress are beneficial versus dysfunctional, the study draws on telework research and cultural value theory and analyzes the moderating role of employee cultural background (i.e., individualism and power distance), the influence of which on the effects of telework is expected to be transmitted by an employee’s beliefs about telework effectiveness and isolation. Although prior research analyzed the effects of telework in different occupations and industries, a very important matter has received very little attention – namely, the effects of telework on job stress across employees with different cultural backgrounds. To successfully implement telework arrangements, organizations must know whether employee cultural background influences the effectiveness of telework. The current COVID-19 pandemic and the related implementation of telework arrangements in many countries amplify the importance of understanding the influence of culture on the effects of telework on employee well-being. The hypotheses are tested through a three-wave survey study with 604 teleworkers from different countries. The results indicate that telework only reduces job stress when employees do not believe that telework will lead to social isolation. The study further expands telework research by showing that employees with high power distance scores have negative beliefs about telework, whereas employees with high individualism scores have positive beliefs about the effectiveness of telework.

Keywords: Telework; Working from home; Job stress; Cultural values; Cross-cultural management; Social isolation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401221001304
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:ininma:v:62:y:2022:i:c:s0268401221001304

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2021.102437

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Information Management is currently edited by Yogesh K. Dwivedi

More articles in International Journal of Information Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().