Telework and Public Employees’ Attitudes Post-Pandemic: Experimental Evidence From Italy

Abstract

In public organizations, telework quickly went from being a practice only occasionally adopted to an established way of performing job tasks. Despite the rapid spread of telework in the last few years, research on its motivational impact is still limited. Drawing from insights from social-exchange theory, self-determination theory, and the expectancy-disconfirmation model, we conducted a survey-in-the-field experiment in an Italian municipal government organization to explore how teleworking arrangements impact organizational commitment, relatedness, and work enjoyment. Our findings show that requiring public employees to work entirely from the office has a negative impact on organizational commitment and work enjoyment. Moreover, the disconfirmation of expectations toward teleworking arrangements negatively impacts our outcomes. As for relatedness, we observe that a mix of telework and work from the office makes public employees feel more connected to their colleagues, compared to requiring them to work entirely from either the office or home.