Implementing Remote Working Policy in Corporate Offices in Thailand: Strategic Facility Management Perspective

Abstract

There was a sudden shift in the way people work during the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep business continuity, many organizations have implemented a remote working policy for employees to work from home. Strategic facility management (FM) acted to support remote working policies by developing organizational norms in an organization. Meanwhile, the human resource (HR) department chose to achieve business performance while remote working by gaining job motivation among employees. However, there is limited understanding of how well organizations adapted to the remote working policy, and what are the critical factors affecting their remote work performance. The present study aimed to explore the effect of organizational norms on remote working, on remote work productivity, and organizational commitment among Thai employees. The study conducted an online questionnaire survey to a total of 414 Thai employees from various corporate offices. Hierarchical component modeling was applied and achieved a good model fit on the measurement and structural models. Results indicated that organizational norm has a significant effect on perceived productivity and organizational commitment, while sustaining work demand. Moreover, employees’ job motivation can sustain employees’ commitment to the organization in a remote working context. These findings proposed the strategic FM guide, through which a remote working policy can further enhance FM practice.