远程工作对远程员工创新绩效的双刃剑效应

The double-edged sword effect of telecommuting on the telecommuters′innovation performance

数字化技术的迅猛发展以及新冠感染的暴发,使远程工作成为现代工作的新范式。本文基于工作要求-资源模型,提出远程工作强度对远程员工创新绩效的双刃剑效应及其影响机制模型。研究通过509份三期调研数据,利用Bootstrap法进行实证分析,结果显示:(1)远程工作具有双刃剑效应,远程工作强度既通过促进工作投入正向影响远程员工创新绩效,又通过引发情绪耗竭负向影响远程员工创新绩效;(2)人岗匹配不仅增强了远程工作强度对工作投入的正向影响,也增强了工作投入在远程工作强度和远程员工创新绩效之间的中介作用;(3)人岗匹配不仅削弱了远程工作对情绪耗竭的正向影响,也削弱了情绪耗竭在远程工作强度和远程员工创新绩效之间的中介作用。研究结果不仅丰富了数字化时代远程员工管理与创新管理的理论研究,也为组织提升远程员工创新绩效提供管理实践建议。

With the advent of the digitalization era,the spatial boundary of human resource management practices is being gradually dispelled,which makes telecommuting become an indispensable means of modern work.Therefore,how to manage telecommuting effectively has become not only an opportunity for enterprises to innovate human resource management methods,but also the focus of organizational management research.Previous studies in this field mainly discussed the impact of telecommuting,and adopted two approaches.One is to compare the performance of telecommuters and non-telecommuters while the other is to take telecommuting intensity as antecedent variable.Since the intensity of telecommuting varies from person to person and time is required for the performance of employees,this study continues the latter′s idea.Most of the research on the effects of telecommuting intensity was carried out from the negative aspects.The increase in telecommuting intensity would cause high levels of emotional exhaustion and low work efficiency.However,some scholars pointed out that the greater the telecommuting intensity and the higher the employees′perception of job control,the better the job performance.Although these studies have enriched the understanding of the impact of telecommuting from the perspective of work behavior and outcomes,they have neglected the effect on employee innovation performance.Actually,the improvement of employee innovation performance is an important way for organizations to maintain competitive advantages and achieve sustainable development in the changing business environment in the digital era.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the relationship between telecommuting and telecommuters′innovation performance.Considering the above two contradictory research conclusions,we assume that telecommuting is likely to be a double-edged sword,and its intensity has a dual effect on employee innovation performance.In view of this,on the basis of job demand-resource model,this paper aims to explore the double-edged sword effect of telecommuting on the telecommuters′innovation performance,so the authors examined the gain effect of job engagement and the loss effect of emotional exhaustion respectively,and analyzed the moderating effect of person-job fit.A three-phase survey was conducted with a sample 509 telecommuters in Beijing,Shanghai,Shenzhen and Hangzhou.SPSS 25 was adopted for reliability test and AMOS 26 was used for validity test.We used SPSS Macro program PROCESS to test the main effect,mediating effect and moderating effect.This research drew the following conclusions:(1)Telecommuting intensity not only positively affects the innovation performance of telecommuters by promoting job engagement,but also impedes the improvement of their innovation performance by causing emotional exhaustion.(2)Person-job fit enhances the positive effect of telecommuting intensity on job engagement,and enhances the mediating role of job engagement between telecommuting intensity and telecommuters′innovation performance;(3)Person-job fit weakens the positive impact of telecommuting intensity on emotional exhaustion;Person-job fit weakens the mediating role of emotional exhaustion between telecommuting intensity and telecommuters′innovation performance.The theoretical contributions of this study are as follows:(1)We analyzed the double-edged sword effect of telecommuting on telecommuters′innovation performance,which not only expands the research on telecommuting and innovation performance,but also proposes innovatively the double-edged sword influence mechanism model of telecommuting,thus breaking through the deficiency of existing research only from a single perspective of positive or negative.(2)We put forward and verify the gain effect of job engagement and the loss effect of emotional exhaustion,which is helpful to deeply understand the double-edged sword influence of telecommuting on telecommuters′innovation performance.(3)This research explored the moderating effect of person-job fit.It can deepen the understanding of the differentiated influence mechanism of telecommuting on the telecommuters′innovation performance.The research results will help managers to further understand and better manage telecommuting:(1)This research indicates that managers should understand both the bright and dark side of telecommuting.Through establishing reasonable telecommuting norms,training telecommuters on work-family balance,communicating regularly and authorizing telecommuters appropriately,organizations can help telecommuters decrease the emotional exhaustion and increase level of job engagement,thereby managing telecommuting more effectively,maximizing its strengths and avoiding weaknesses.(2)Organizations should pay close attention to the matching of employees′characteristics and preferences with the intensity of telecommuting and select telecommuters on this basis to achieve the optimal effect.