Does my boss’s boss matter? Examining the effects of teleworking and manager quality on employee job satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Date: 04 August 2023
• Pages: 404-419
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-12-2022-0290
• Published date: 04 August 2023
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Andrew Wesemann

Does my boss’s boss matter?

Examining the effects

of teleworking and manager quality

on employee job satisfaction during

the COVID-19 pandemic

Andrew Wesemann

Department of Public Administration and Policy Analysis,

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois, USA

Abstract

Purpose –This study explicitly explores the moderating role of management quality, at multiple

organizational levels, in the relationship between telework and job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach –This study employs fixed effects regression with clustered robust

standard errors at the departmental level to account for the multilevel nature of the data.

Findings –The results of fixed effects analyses suggest that when the quality of one’s direct supervisor and

the quality of their supervisor’s manager is high, the relationship between job satisfaction and telework

frequency becomes stronger and positive.

Originality/value –This research illuminates the crucial moderatingrole of management quality at multiple

organizational levels in the relationship between telework and employee job satisfaction during an

unprecedented workforce shock.

Keywords Telework, Management quality, Job satisfaction, Public sector management

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Telework engagement in U.S. public sector entities, especially the federal government, has

grown in popularity over the last decade. By the time the pandemic had peaked, however, the

rate at which employees were working from home reached historic levels. There are many

perceived employee benefits associated with telework, especially increased work-life balance

through flexible work hours and locations (Kwon and Kim-Goh, 2022;Mullins et al., 2021).

The goal for most organizations is to strategically enhance employee job satisfaction through

the flexibilities of teleworking (Metselaar et al., 2022). Organizations with higher satisfaction

levels among their employees enjoy a host of positive outcomes, including higher recruitment

and retention rates (An et al., 2020). Thus, with human capital becoming increasingly scarce,

it is not surprising that organizations are electing to pursue innovative managerial strategies,

such as teleworking, to maintain a satisfied and motivated workforce (Kim et al., 2022).

The U.S. federal government has acknowledged the likely organizational benefits of

teleworking, and as such, the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act (TEA) was passed in order to

increase remote working opportunities for employees (Mahler, 2012;Kwon and Jeon, 2018).

While many federal employees took advantage of new teleworking opportunities that

resulted from this legislation, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic forced many more to

abruptly move to remote work. Yet, despite the positive assumptions concerning the benefits

of teleworking, the empirical literature generally provides mixed results (Bailey and Kurland,

2002;Kim et al., 2021;Gajendran and Harrison, 2007). That is, though there is some evidence

in terms of positive performance-related outcomes of telework, researchers have also found

that it can spur unwanted consequences in various contexts, such as greater employee

IJPSM

36,4/5

404

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Received 23 December 2022

Revised 17 April 2023

16 June 2023

Accepted 9 July 2023

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 36 No. 4/5, 2023

pp. 404-419

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-12-2022-0290

isolation and lower morale (de Vries et al., 2019;Doberstein and Charbonneau, 2022;Lee and

Kim, 2018;Mahler, 2012).

One apparent commonality among the literature, nevertheless, is that context matters

given the heterogenous nature of telework. A significant body of research has accumulated

demonstrating that management quality has wide-reaching organizational implications (Lim

et al., 2017;McGregor, 1991;Selden, 2009). Perhaps not surprisingly, research suggests that

management quality affects organizational outcomes related to teleworking, as well (de Vries

et al., 2019). In addition to management quality, exogenous labor force turbulence is also likely

to influence the impact of telework. Because Covid-19 forced many employees to transition to

telework, regardless of their desire to do so, research has begun to examine the effects of

teleworking under the pandemic backdrop. Still, little is known about the effects of telework

when it is necessitated under blustery workforce conditions (Giauque et al., 2022). Therefore,

the primary research question of this article is as follows:

RQ1. What was the relationship between telework and job satisfaction in the U.S. federal

government, as well as the moderating role of management quality at multiple

organizational levels, during the Covid-19 pandemic?

Addressing this research question is particularly important, given the limited empirical

evidence for the effects of telework on employee job satisfaction in the public sector. An

extensive body of empirical scholarship has demonstrated that job satisfaction precedes a

significant number of desirable employee and organizational outcomes, such as motivation to

enhance productivity, commitment to an organization and creativity for the benefit of the

organization (An et al., 2020;Cantarelli et al., 2016;Gould-Williams, 2004;Johnson and Rohde,

2022;Vermeeren et al., 2014;Wright and Davis, 2003). But despite substantial evidence

supporting the performance-related benefits of maintaining a satisfied workforce, a gap in the

job satisfaction literature remains. In particular, scholarship has yet to confidently ascertain

whether or not telework leads to higher levels of employee job satisfaction, especially during

tumultuous workforce conditions. Moreover, while the literature suggests that management

quality plays a moderating role in the relationship between telework and organizational

performance indicators, further research is needed to test the theoretical linkage between

management quality, telework and employee job satisfaction (de Vries et al., 2019).

As discussed, the U.S. federal government has devoted significant resources toward

telework initiatives, operating under the premise that doing so will result in greater

satisfaction and morale levels among its workforce (Mahler, 2012;Kwon and Jeon, 2018).

More recently, other public sector organizations have followed suit, especially in the wake of

the Covid-19 pandemic, trusting in the same proposition that investing in remote work

options will yield positive results (Kwon and Kim-Goh, 2022;Mullins et al., 2021).

But given the limited empirical findings related to telework and job satisfaction in the

public sector literature, further investigation in terms of whether such an investment can

prove fruitful is certainly warranted (Bailey and Kurland, 2002;Kim et al., 2021;Gajendran

and Harrison, 2007). There is wide consensus among scholars and practitioners that public

sector organizations and employees are innately different from their private sector

counterparts in a host of ways, and research suggests that this holds true in terms of

telework outcomes. A significant amount of work in public sector organizations requires

employees to be physically present in their stations, and therefore, remote work might be less

conducive in public sector organizations, relative to private sector organizations (Kim et al.,

2021;McGregor, 1991,Selden, 2009,Rainey et al., 2021). As such, it is crucial for research to

explore the moderating role of management quality in the telework and job satisfaction

dynamic within public sector contexts, rather than generalizing and relying on findings from

private sector-focused research, to accurately inform and guide public sector practitioners

(McGregor, 1991;Selden, 2009;Rainey et al., 2021).

Telework,

manager

quality, and job

satisfaction

405