The development of the E-Work Well-being scale and further validation of the E-Work Life scale

Abstract

Remote e-working and being able to work at anyplace, at any given, by making use of technology to stay connected to the colleagues and supervisors, has seen a substantial growth in the modern workplace; attracting the interest of both researchers and organisations. Except from the E-Work Life (EWL) scale that assesses the overall remote e-working experience (Grant et al., 2019), there are no current scales assessing these individuals’ well-being at work. To fill this gap, the present thesis has as an overarching aim to create the E-Work Well-being (EWW) scale. The scale was developed following the scale development steps outlined by the Classical Test Theory. Guided by Van Horn, Taris, Schaufeli & Schreurs (2004) this thesis adopted a multi-dimensional work-related well-being model which includes five distinct well-being dimensions (and their sub-dimensions): affective, cognitive, social, professional, and psychosomatic. A systematic review, a qualitative study, and two cross-sectional studies were carried out to support the scale development and validation process. In the systematic review, a narrative synthesis of 63 studies was presented. Findings indicated that researchers in the field focused more on the impact that remote e-working has on individuals’ affective state, their social, and professional life, compared to their cognitive functioning and psychosomatic health. Whilst an overall positive impact of remote e-working was supported, some negative aspects were highlighted such as social and professional isolation, along with perceived threats in career development. In the qualitative study, 40 remote e-workers from a well-reputed British IT company were interviewed. Findings both expanded on the impact that remote e-working had on the five well-being dimensions (Van Horn et al. 2004) and provided a greater understanding of contributing factors to remote e-workers’ well-being. These included, organisational culture, individual differences, and technology used when building and maintaining relationships. Understudied areas within remote e-workers’ literature were also explored (e.g., switching-off from work, and health-related behaviours). Based on the qualitative findings and the review of validated well-being scales (informed by the systematic review of the literature) a 150-item version of the EWW scale was developed. Feedback provided by experts led to a shorter and revised 74-item version of the scale, which was tested in a pilot study (within 202 U.K. remote e-workers). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) suggested that, in their majority, the well-being constructs had their theorised items loading on to them. Findings also provided initial evidence of scale’s construct and criterion-related validity, as well as supported EWW scale’s internal consistency. The findings from the pilot study led to a 71-item revisited version of the of the EWW scale, which was then assessed in a main study conducted within 399 U.K. remote e-workers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported a final 69-item version of the EWW scale. However, a more parsimonious model (three-dimensional) was proposed to be an appropriate and theoretically robust framework to support the concept of well-being at work within remote e-workers. This model included: the Individual factors, the Interaction between the individual and the organisation, and Health. Construct validity, criterion-related validity, and reliability of the EWW scale was provided. CFA also tested the replicability of the EWL scale (Grant et al., 2019) factor structure. In summary, the newly devised EWW scale is a unique and robust instrument that can be used within remote e-working populations. Using the EWW scale (potentially alongside the EWL scale) can help academics, managers, and organisations to investigate remote e-working’s multi-dimensional impact on individuals. This can, then, guide and inform policies and strategies to ameliorate any issues linked to this working practice; a worthwhile future endeavour considering how the future of work is changing.

Date of Award	Nov 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Sponsors	Coventry University (SPIDER Fund)
Supervisor	Christine Grant (Supervisor) & Carlo Tramontano (Supervisor)