Remote but Not Forgotten: Ameliorating the Negative Effects of Professional Isolation Through Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors and Schedule Flexibility

• Published in: Journal of business and psychology Vol. 38; no. 6; pp. 1267 - 1286
• Main Authors: Trzebiatowski, Tiffany M., Henle, Christine A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-12-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Business and Management; Community and Environmental Psychology; Employee behavior; Employees; Flexibility; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Original Paper; Personality and Social Psychology; Psychology; Social Sciences; Supervisors; Telecommuting; Family supportive supervisor behaviors; Schedule flexibility; Job engagement; Professional isolation; Telecommuting
• ISSN: 0889-3268; 1573-353X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10869-023-09916-5

A trend toward telecommuting, started because of the COVID-19 pandemic, provides an opportunity to understand the role of professional isolation and organizational factors in telecommuters’ job engagement. We examine the relationship between professional isolation and job engagement, represented as a bifactor model, via depletion. Using ego depletion theory, we hypothesize this mediated relationship is stronger for cognitive than global job engagement. We then consider whether the second-stage of this effect is moderated by both family supportive supervisor behaviors and schedule flexibility. We investigate these relationships using two-stage latent moderated mediation and bifactor modeling with field data at two points in time on 445 telecommuters in a US corporation that shifted all employees to telecommuting. We found employees who experience higher levels of professional isolation feel more depletion and less global and cognitive job engagement with the results not differing between the two. Further, employees who have a misalignment of resources (low family supportive supervisor behaviors paired with high schedule flexibility; high family supportive supervisor behaviors paired with low schedule flexibility) feel the depleting effects of professional isolation on cognitive engagement (and not global job engagement) more strongly than when both resources are high and when both resources are low. Our research extends the literature on telecommuting and professional isolation and provides insights for organizations on job engagement among telecommuters who feel professionally isolated.