Examining job characteristics and job quality in remote work

Remote work has been a “normal” operating context for many companies also before the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused a rapid shift towards forced remote work for millions of employees worldwide and led to the emergence of new forms of job characteristics and job outcomes. However, there is still a lack of research on the job characteristics associated with remote work or their interplay with perceived job quality in such work arrangement. To address this important gap in the literature, this study examined the relationship between job characteristics and job quality in the context of fully remote work drawing on data from 1,659 Glassdoor reviews of 13 fully remote companies. The results revealed that the social and relational aspects of work and job autonomy are the most crucial job characteristics in the remote work context. These were largely perceived as positive, while workload and monitoring were characterized only as negative job characteristics. Meanwhile, all job quality dimensions were perceived as both positive and negative though with different intensities. These findings provide valuable insights for the design of remote jobs that can enhance employee productivity, job satisfaction, and well-being, and are of interest to managers, employees, and human resource management professionals. Additionally, the study suggests potential areas for future research.