Home Office and Its Influence on Employee Motivation

Abstract

Objective - The aim of the paper is to answer the research question, "whether and how home office work can have an impact on employee motivation." Using partial questions, we found out how the interviewed employees perceive work in the form of a home office, what they see as advantages and disadvantages, or what motivates or demotivates them in this area and how important the home office is for them in the field of motivation. Methodology/Technique - For the implementation of the survey, we chose a qualitative method in the form of semi-structured interviews. All interviews were arranged in advance and took place in an informal atmosphere, most often in a home environment. The interviews were recorded on a recording device with the consent of the respondents, for the possibility of data processing and subsequent analysis. The selection of respondents was carried out by the method of intentional selection. The research sample involved ninety respondents who had specific experience with working from home, which meant that they currently used work from home, i.e., home office as a benefit, standard or primary place of work. One interview was conducted with each respondent in the time range of 25 to 35 minutes. Findings – Within the research, several areas were confirmed, which are mentioned by various authors in the theoretical part of the presented paper. There is a positive perception of home office employees in the area of saving time, or the feeling of freedom. In the negative case, and thus potentially demotivating, phenomena of employees in the area of social isolation was most significantly confirmed. The issue of procrastination mentioned by the respondents in several cases could also be mentioned as confirmatory and existing in-home office. The frustration with low home office efficiency was not mentioned by the respondents, on the contrary, some stated that they found their work from home more efficient than in the office. The results of the presented research show that it would be a mistake to look at the home office only from one side. Novelty - Although it could be said that the positives of this type of work performance to motivate employees outweigh the negatives, this ratio may vary significantly from employee to employee, especially depending on the specific and current conditions, which may also change significantly within the time. The presented paper was processed as an output of the project VEGA 1/0021/21 Identification of motivation factors for the performance of certified project managers working in the home office during the pandemic of COVID 19. Type of Paper: Empirical. JEL Classification: J53, M54 Keywords: Home office, homeworking, motivation, demotivation, self-motivation, procrastination, management, personal management, employment. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bočková, K; Lajčin, D. (2021). Home Office and Its Influence on Employee Motivation, Journal of Management and Marketing Review, 6(2) 94 – 109. https://doi.org/10.35609/jmmr.2021.6.2(1)