Exploring Motivation and commitment on job satisfaction and employee performance in Work from Home (WFH) perspective

Abstract

WFH has become an identical new normal practice in the area of human resource management due to the wide diffusion of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe. Every country has imposed a strict lock down measures to stop the rate of infection, which eventually stops the economic cycle. In order to survive and sustain economically, organizations across the globe adopted several strategies and WFH is one of the most dominant one. Practically, many researchers have been investigating and contributing their ideas and strategies in this domain since last two decades, especially in the European continent. This pandemic, however, enforce the world to consider this WFH concept. Despite having several prior researches, there is still a significant lack of empirical evidence on how motivation and commitment influence employees job satisfaction and their performance in WFH context. Hence, the primary aim of this study is to measure the effect of motivation and commitment on employees’ job satisfaction and performance at home environment. This study develops a conceptual model based on the extensive literature review, which consist of four independent variables. A web based structured questionnaire was developed and distributed to 700 employees in two major cities in Malaysia, namely Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Due to the travel restriction, data collection through online considered as the best approach for this study. The purposive sample method was applied to distribute the questionnaire and 478 fruitful responses were recorded. This study used structural equation modelling to conclude the hypothesise. Results indicated that, normative commitment and intrinsic motivation are the two most important variables which have direct influence on both employee job satisfaction and their performance in the context of WFH. Result also unveiled the partial mediating role of job satisfaction on employees’ performance by employee commitment. These fruitful findings will guide human resources department and policy makers in terms of developing a right set of strategy pertaining to WFH for their employees.  This study, indeed, is one of the very few empirical studies measure the effect of motivation and commitment on employee’s satisfaction and performance in the work from home (WFH) context.