The effect of home office on the quality of working life in terms of a global pandemic

Abstract

The global pandemic changed the way of working for people worldwide due to social distancing measures. From a managerial perspective, it is essential to understand how the implementation of home office affects jobs and consequently employees' quality of working life (QWL). The objective of this dissertation was to study the reliability of the proposed theory of Hackman and Oldham (1975) in times of a global pandemic and home office. Moreover, the aim was to use this framework to understand the effects of home office on the QWL. The results confirm the general approach of Hackman and Oldham with minor exceptions and provide relevant insights about the job changes due to the implementation of home office and their effects on satisfaction as a representative of QWL. The empirical research provides evidence that the implementation of home office increased employees' autonomy and required skill variety in order to perform their job since working from home. In contrast, employees perceive their jobs as less significant, identify less with their jobs and receive less feedback since working from home, which affects satisfaction negatively. The empirical results indicate that the QWL of employees is negatively affected by the implementation of home office.

Date of Award	3 Feb 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Daniel Fernandes (Supervisor)