Quality of Life (QOL) Grant Examines Effects of Remote Work

 

Xiaochuan Song, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Management in the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship (HCBE) at NSU. He was recently funded as PI by NSU’s Quality of Life (QOL) grant program with a $14,980 grant to investigate remote work, workplace isolation, and how the remote work mode influences employees’ job satisfaction and turnover rate.

 

 

Baiyun Gong, Ph.D., grant Co-PI, is an Associate Professor of Management at HCBE at NSU. Her research interests include remote work, career development, and social capital.

 

 

 

Tell me about your recent grant-funded project.

The pandemic has immensely reshaped the working arrangement of modern organizations. In response to the pandemic, over 75% of U.S. organizations have implemented remote working arrangements and have considered remote working mode to be a new norm to promote the “productivity anywhere” movement. Meanwhile, almost 45% of U.S. employees prefer a remote work mode, and many companies (e.g., Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Lyft, SAP, etc.) have decided to continue remote work mode in the post-pandemic era.

To better understand the future of work in the post-pandemic era, especially in South Florida, our community partner, Right Management Florida/Caribbean interviewed local business leaders and found that organizations are likely to widely adopt a mix of in-person and remote work modes. This perspective of long-term change in work arrangements will put many current management practices to the test. Our research will inform the business leaders of the potential challenges and facilitate the development of innovative solutions to these challenges.

The abrupt change in work mode may amplify some previously neglected issues. For example, workplace isolation became salient to many employees when they found no chance to interact with others in person. Being isolated is an urgent issue as remote work mode decreases employees’ connectivity and face time in the office. In contrast to traditional in-person work mode, remote workers are not physically present in the office and could be put into unfavorable situations when it comes to performance appraisal. As a result, when it comes to promotion, pay raises, and other career advancement opportunities, remote employees can be inaccurately evaluated compared with their counterparts who work in the office, creating fairness issues.

This project investigates the dynamics involving workplace isolation, organizational justice, and negative consequences of workplace isolation such as turnover. Turnover is a severe problem in today’s business environment. According to the recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Employee Benefits News report, on average, it costs a U.S. company 33% to 50% of an employee’s annual salary to hire and train a new employee to replace him or her. Moreover, the nationwide labor shortage and the “great resignation” gave companies an even more difficult time hiring new employees to fill job openings caused by turnover. According to the recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, Florida is among the top 10 states around the nation with the highest turnover rate. This project will help organizations solve this urgent issue by identifying factors that contribute to remote employees’ turnover and providing guidance for related organizational policies.

 

Who is working with you on this project?

Ryan Shea, Co-PI and the contact person for our community partner, is the President of Right Management Florida/Caribbean, an outplacement and management consulting firm. He will work with the NSU PI and Co-PIs in subject recruitment for both studies through his network with business leaders and knowledge about workers in the Tri-County area. He will also provide relevant archival data held by Right Management Florida/Caribbean and offer his insights into examining the impact of professional isolation in remote work on employees’ work outcomes.

Vanessa Corcho, Co-PI (student collaborator), is an undergraduate student at HCBE at NSU. She will be responsible for communicating with participants, facilitating interviews, transcribing interviews, administering Qualtrics surveys, early stage literature review, and compiling references.

 

How does this project connect with your other work at NSU?

This project is related to Dr. Song’s recent work on organizational justice among crowd-based gig workers. Crowd-based labor has been widely implemented to solve human resource shortages in a cost effective and creative way. While investigations into the benefits of crowd-based labor for organizations are well documented, our understanding of how crowd-based labor practices influence crowd-based worker justice perceptions and worker turnover is notably underdeveloped. To address this issue, I reviewed the extant literature concerning crowd-based labor platforms and proposed a model detailing the relationship between justice perceptions and turnover within the crowd-based work context, as well as factors that influence workers’ justice perceptions.

The project is related to Dr. Gong’s research on remote work and its impact on job content and work outcomes. The fact that remote work will remain a significant part of people’s work arrangement makes research of its long-term effects essential to the success of both management and employees. Our QOL project will extend our understanding in this topic and inform our community to build the future of work effectively.

 

What advice do you have for other grant seekers at NSU?

I have several pieces of advice that aid in my own research and may assist others in accomplishing their goals:

• Using cloud-based collaboration platforms, such as OneDrive and Google Drive, to facilitate discussion and resource sharing amongst research teams.
• Narrowing the gap between academic research and practical application (answering the “so what” question) in the grant proposal.
• Communicate with grant/program officers to better understand their expectations and requirements for the grant programs they manage.

 

What is the next grant proposal or project on your agenda?

Next, we hope to focus on working individuals’ work-life boundary management and the impact of boundary-crossing on employee well-being and job performance.