Hemma bra, men borta bäst? - En kvantitativ studie om individers prestation och motivation relaterat till en ökad frekvens av hemarbete

Sammanfattning: Title: Home is good, but away is best? - A quantitative study about individuals’ performance and motivation related to an increased frequency of working remotely Seminar date: 2020-06-03 Course: FEKH19, Business Administration: Bachelor’s degree Project in Strategic Management, Undergraduate level, 15 credits Authors: Julia Anderberg, Jessica Lind and Malin Olsson Advisor: Devrim Göktepe-Hultén Key words: Working remotely, Performance, Motivation, Gender, Agency theory Purpose: Working remotely results in loss of control for the company, which leads to an increased opportunistic behaviour among employees. Insights in this area of problem, could be used as a tool for companies to make the employees work consistently with the interest of the company. Thus, the purpose of the study is to create a broader understanding of the relationship between working remotely and performance, as well as how it is affected by an increased frequency of working remotely. Theoretical perspectives: Eisenhardt’s (1989) agency theory and alternative frameworks including altruism are presented with emphasis brought on control mechanisms. Furthermore, a connection is drawn between control and motivational factors. These internal and external motivational factors are derived from Herzberg’s (1968) motivational factors, as well as Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs. These are supplemented with benefits and drawbacks with remote work. Methodology: The study is based on a cross-sectional design and is of an explorative character, where the methodology is hypothetico-deductive. Quantitative primary data has been gathered by surveys. The study has formulated three hypotheses, which have been tested with Pearson's r correlation test. The data gathered through this study has been processed in SPSS. Result and analysis: The study’s gathered data come from 239 respondents, which are all working remotely five days a week. The respondents are operating in ten different sectors, where the distribution of gender is relatively even. The result of the study indicates that (1) the possibility to monitor the employees’ actions does not seem to change when working remotely, (2) there is a negative connection between an increased level of working remotely and motivation, as well as efficiency, and (3) the relationship between working remotely and motivation differs between genders.