Work-From-Home Productivity and Job Satisfaction: A Double-Layered Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

This study was conducted against the backdrop of the global-pandemic-induced change in work climate resulting in employees working from home (WFH). The current study investigated the relationship between work-from-home productivity (WFHP) and job satisfaction. Using a structured survey instrument, data were collected from 1158 respondents from a developing country, India. After checking the psychometric properties of the measures using the LISREL software of structural equation modeling (SEM), data were analyzed using Hayes’s PROCESS macros. The findings indicate that: (i) WFHP positively predicts (a) job satisfaction and (b) work–life balance (WLB), (ii) WLB positively predicts job satisfaction, and (iii) WLB mediates the relationship between WFHP and job satisfaction. The results also support that (i) work stress moderates the relationship between WFHP and WLB, (ii) work–personal life enhancement (WPLE) (second moderator) moderates the moderated relationship between WFHP and work stress (first moderator) in influencing WLB, (iii) emotional exhaustion moderates the relationship between WLB and job satisfaction, and (iv) WPLE (second moderator) moderates the relationship between WLB and emotional exhaustion (first moderator) in influencing job satisfaction. The first three-way interaction between WFHP, work stress, and WLB and the second three-way interaction between WLB, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction have been investigated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The conceptual double-layered moderated mediation model is a novel idea, and the results significantly contribute to the literature on WLB and job satisfaction. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.