Remotely Engaged? A Multilevel Study on Telecommuting and Work Engagement

In the last years, telecommuting has become an increasingly well-established work practice and has attracted the attention of many researchers. However, few authors explored the impact of telecommuting on work engagement, and we know relatively little how organizational policies and social dynamics influence this relationship. With the help of multilevel modeling and using a large multicompany data set (study 1: 1,589 employees nested in 562 companies; study 2: 2,630 employees nested in 869 companies), we propose and test a model that explains the relationship between telecommuting policy, availability of telecommuting, work engagement, and extent of telecommuting. Results revealed that availability of telecommuting is positively related to work engagement and that this relationship is moderated by telecommuting policy, so that telecommuting policy reduces the effect. Moreover, work engagement was positively associated with extent of telecommuting. Overall, results provide evidence for the hypothesized paths between telecommuting and work engagement. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.