Purpose

This study aims to identify an effective work design for telework practices in Thailand by investigating the influence on employee work engagement and job stress of job demands and resources in three domains of work characteristics – task, social and contextual.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 1,052 high-intensity teleworkers participated in our online survey. Nested model comparisons and chi-square difference tests were used to test the significance of the three domains of work characteristics by comparing changes in model fit associated with the removal of the parameters associated with each domain. The best fit model was then used to examine the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The results revealed that each domain of work characteristics provides additional and meaningful insights on employee outcomes. For telework practices in Thailand, supervisor support and work autonomy, the job resources specified respectively in the social and task domain can enhance work engagement. In contrast, supervisor surveillance and communication overload, the job demands in these respective domains can lead to job stress. Additionally, telework contextual demands of blurred work–life boundaries reduce employee work engagement. Communication overload has paradoxical outcomes of increased job stress and improved work engagement.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the work design and telework literature by applying an integrative work–design approach to demonstrate that organizations should consider both job demands and resources in a wider context of work design. This study also provides insights in respect of Thai cultural values to explain the effective design of telework practices in Thailand, a country where telework is relatively new and the work–design literature is very limited. This study is useful for international business managers wishing to adopt telework practices in Thailand to localize how telework is organized and ensure a smooth transition to the new world of work more successfully in the post-pandemic period.

中文翻译：

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远程办公实践的综合工作设计：从泰国 COVID-19 大流行中吸取的教训

目的

本研究旨在通过调查工作特征三个领域（任务、社会和情境）对员工工作投入和工作需求和资源的工作压力的影响，确定泰国远程办公实践的有效工作设计。

设计/方法/途径

共有 1,052 名高强度远程工作人员参与了我们的在线调查。嵌套模型比较和卡方差异检验用于通过比较与去除与每个域相关的参数相关的模型拟合变化来测试工作特征的三个域的显着性。然后使用最佳拟合模型来检查假设的关系。

发现

结果表明，工作特征的每个领域都提供了关于员工成果的额外且有意义的见解。对于泰国的远程工作实践、主管支持和工作自主性，在社会和任务领域分别指定的工作资源可以提高工作投入度。相比之下，主管监督和沟通超负荷，这些各自领域的工作需求会导致工作压力。此外，模糊工作与生活界限的远程办公情境需求降低了员工的工作参与度。沟通过载会导致工作压力增加和工作投入度提高的矛盾结果。

原创性/价值

本研究通过应用综合工作设计方法来证明组织应该在更广泛的工作设计背景下考虑工作需求和资源，从而为工作设计和远程办公文献做出贡献。本研究还提供了关于泰国文化价值观的见解，以解释泰国远程办公实践的有效设计，泰国是一个远程办公相对较新且工作设计文献非常有限的国家。这项研究对于希望在泰国采用远程办公实践以本地化远程办公的组织方式并确保在大流行后时期更成功地平稳过渡到新的工作世界的国际业务经理很有用。