Work-from-home adjustment in the US and Europe: the role of psychological climate for face time and perceived availability expectations
研究基于信号理论，发现员工感知的组织鼓励面对面办公氛围会通过提高可用性期望（如非工作时间回邮件）来降低在家办公适应度，且该效应在美国比法国和西班牙更强。
The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a massive adoption of high-intensity work-from-home (WFH), a form of work organization that is expected to persist. Yet, little is known about the predictors and mechanisms underlying employees’ successful adjustment to high-intensity WFH. Drawing on signaling theory, we identify psychological climate for face time (i.e., an employee’s perception that their organization values physical presence in the office) as an antecedent of WFH adjustment. We argue that when WFH employees perceive that their organization encourages face time, they may view availability as a signal of their dedication to work, replacing visibility. Consequently, they feel expected to be extensively available (e.g., check emails outside of regular working hours). In turn, these perceived expectations predict lower adjustment to WFH. We further explore whether this process differs in the US and two European countries, France and Spain, given different employment protection and right to disconnect legislations, and different meanings attached to work ethics. In a two-wave study on a sample of 532 full-time WFH employees, structural equation modeling analyses show that perceptions of availability expectations mediate the negative relationship between psychological climate for face time and WFH adjustment, and that this process is accentuated in the US.