In public organizations, telework quickly went from being a practice only occasionally adopted to an established way of performing job tasks. Despite the rapid spread of telework in the last few years, research on its potential impact is still limited. Drawing from insights from social-exchange theory, self-determination theory, and the expectancy-disconfirmation model, we conducted a framed field experiment in an Italian municipal government organization to explore how teleworking arrangements impact organizational commitment, relatedness, and work enjoyment. Our findings show that requiring public employees to work entirely from the office has a negative impact on organizational commitment and work enjoyment. Moreover, the disconfirmation of expectations towards teleworking arrangements significantly affects organizational commitment. As for relatedness, we observe that a mix of telework and work from the office makes public employees feel more connected to their colleagues, compared to requiring them to work entirely from either the office or home.

How public leadership, national regulation and perceptions of this regulation affect employee motivation are key questions in public personnel policy. Existing studies have demonstrated that transformational leadership can affect both public service motivation (PSM) and intrinsic task motivation (Wright, Moynihan, Pandey 2012; Bro & Jensen 2018; Nielsen et. al. 2019), and several studies have linked individual perceptions of a given national regulation to leadership and motivation (Vandenabeele 2014; Mikkelsen et al. 2017; Andersen et al. 2018). This literature finds that leadership, perceived regulation and employee motivation are closely associated in public organizations. Still, only few studies have systematic variation in the context for these associations. We utilize that working hour regulation for Danish teachers over time provides such variation (Lynggaard et al. 2018). Our research question is therefore how varying national working hour regulation (and teacher perceptions of this regulation) relates to leadership and teacher motivation over time.

Theoretically, we combine self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan 2000; Gagné & Deci 2005; Vandenabeele 2007), motivation crowding theory (Frey & Jegen 2001; Jacobsen et al. 2014) and theory about how transformational leadership relates to different types of motivation (Bro & Jensen 2018). The core argument is that regulation and leadership interact in creating motivation due to theoretical mechanisms related to the needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence. Specifically, we expect higher motivation and stronger leadership associations when the regulation is less restrictive (and perceived as less restrictive as well).

Empirically, we use variation over time in how restrictive national regulation of primary and lower secondary schools is. Specifically, regulation of Danish teachers’ working hours changed towards more restrictive regulation in August 2014 and then towards less restrictive regulation in August 2021. We have large teacher surveys from 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2023. In addition to the actual variation in regulation, we thus have information about the teachers’ perceptions of the varying regulation. For 2014 and forward, we have information about leadership behavior as perceived by the teachers. We analyze (1) how variation over time and variation in teacher perceptions of national working hour regulations relate to teacher motivation, and (2) how leadership and employee motivation are related, depending on the national regulation as a context factor. We have six hypotheses.

H1: More restrictive national regulation is (over time) associated with lower teacher PSM

H2: More restrictive national regulation is (over time) associated with lower teacher intrinsic task motivation

H3: Teachers who perceive the national regulation as more restrictive at a given time have lower PSM

H4: Teachers who perceive the national regulation as more restrictive at a given time have lower intrinsic task motivation

H5: Transformational leadership is more strongly associated with teacher PSM when the national regulation is less restrictive

H6: Transformational leadership is more strongly associated with teacher intrinsic task motivation when the national regulation is less restrictive

Methodologically, we use survey-data from three studies of Danish schools carried out in 2010, 2014-2016 and 2023. Using institutional codes, we are able to link schools over time at the organisational level. From 2014 and onwards, we are furthermore able to link the individual teachers over time. We have measured PSM, intrinsic task motivation and perceptions of regulation in all three surveys using the operationalizations from existing research (Jacobsen et al. 2014; Andersen et al. 2018). We have data on perceived transformational leadership from 2014 and onwards with the measures used by Jensen and Bro (2018). In the analysis, we will control for teacher fixed effects and school level factors.

Studying leadership and motivation over time contributes to our understanding of people management, and we aim to make this research more contextually grounded. Analyzing the same people in the same organizations over time, we can deliver rigorous research on national regulation as a key context factor and thus contribute to a better understanding of the temporal dynamics of regulation, leadership and motivation.

References:

• Andersen, Lotte Bøgh, Stefan Boye & Ronni Laursen (2018) Building support? The importance of verbal rewards for employee perceptions. International Public Management Journal 21 (1) 1-32.

• Boxall, P., Purcell, J., & Wright, P. (2007). The goals of HRM. The Oxford handbook of human resource management, 48-67.

• Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.

• Frey, B.S. and Jegen, R. (2001), Motivation Crowding Theory. Journal of Economic Surveys, 15: 589-611.

• Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005). Self‐determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational behavior, 26(4), 331-362.

• Jacobsen, C.B; Hvitved, J. & Andersen, L.B. (2014) Command and motivation: How the perception of external interventions relates to intrinsic motivation and public service motivation Public Administration 92 (4) 790–806.

• Jensen, U. T. & Bro, L.L (2018). “How Transformational Leadership Supports Intrinsic Motivation and Public Service Motivation: The Mediating Role of Basic Need Satisfaction.” The American Review of Public Administration 48 (6): 535–549.

• Lynggaard, M.; Pedersen, M.J.; Andersen, L.B. (2018) Exploring the Context Dependency of the PSM-Performance Relationship. Review of Public Personnel Administration 38 (3) 332-354.

• Mikkelsen, M.F., Jacobsen, C.B. & Andersen, L.B. (2017) Managing employee motivation: Exploring the connections between managers’ enforcement actions, employee perceptions, and employee intrinsic motivation. International Public Management Journal 20:2, 183-205.

• Nielsen, P.A.; Boye, S.; Holten, A-L; Jacobsen, C.B.; Andersen, L.B. (2019) Are Transformational and Transactional Types of Leadership Compatible? A Two-Wave Study of Employee Motivation. Public Administration 97 (2) 413-428.

• Vandenabeele, W. (2007) “Toward a Public Administration Theory of Public Service Motivation: An Institutional Approach” Public Management Review 9 (4): 545–556.

• Vandenabeele, W. (2014) “Explaining Public Service Motivation: The Role of Leadership and Basic Needs Satisfaction.” Review of Public Personnel Administration 34 (2): 153–173.

• Wright, B. E., D. P. Moynihan & S. K. Pandey (2012) "Pulling the levers: Transformational leadership, public service motivation, and mission valence." Public administration review 72 (2): 206-215.

Recent studies show that managers are struggling with the effective management of people who work in a hybrid way, resulting in, among other things, workers feeling untrusted and micromanaged by their supervisors (Gan, Zhou, Tang, Ma & Gan, 2022; Parker, Knight & Keller, 2020). Charalampous et al. (2019) reported that, even when employees were trusted, supervision or control increased when employees transitioned to (partly) remote work. Close monitoring may be seen as a job demand as employees may feel obliged to respond immediately to work messages– also coined as telepressure by Barber & Santuzzi (2015) – and expend their efforts to prove they are working (Knight, Keller & Parker, 2022). Ultimately, this can have a significant negative impact on workers’ well-being and performance (Barber & Santuzzi, 2019; Knigth, Keller & Parker, 2022). Therefore, there is a growing call for management development in the context of remote or hybrid work. More precisely, there is a need for evidence-based insights into how supervisors can become effective hybrid leaders that are able to empower and delegate (Gan et al., 2022; Stoker, Garretsen & Lammers, 2022). This study employs the concept of hybrid leadership to encompass stimulating and empowering leadership in a hybrid work context. In conceptualizing hybrid leadership, we build on the literature about transformational leadership and adapt this to fit a hybrid work context.

This study examines how hybrid leadership affects public sector workers’ well-being and performance by using an experimental research design. Managers from a Dutch higher education organization were randomly assigned to one of two groups: either a hybrid leadership condition or either a control group. The managers in the hybrid leadership condition participated in a two-day training on managing hybrid teams. Participants were instructed with two video clips in which the researchers presented theory and models about hybrid leadership. Participants were then trained by a professional trainer in hybrid leadership behaviours, including self-reflection exercises and working with a buddy on an action plan. Six weeks later, a follow-up meeting was held in which participants shared their progression and received feedback from their peers and the trainer. Managers in the control group did not receive any leadership training during the study but were otherwise treated similarly (e.g., received baseline and follow-up surveys). After the research was finished, the control group also received the training (waitlist design).

To measure the effectiveness of the training intervention, we send a baseline (prior to the intervention) and follow-up survey to all employees of the managers in the two groups. This allowed us to obtain employee perceptions of their managers’ hybrid leadership and to assess whether employees whose manager had been trained, reported more supportive leadership than employees whose manager was part of the control group. Recent research emphasizes the importance of collecting employee ratings as managers’ self-perceptions suffer from self-enhancement (Stoker et al., 2022).

207 employees completed the baseline and follow-up surveys, 56 of whom had a manager who completed the training and 151 of whom had a manager in the control group. Initial analyses suggest that employees with managers in the experimental group were more positive about their manager’s hybrid leadership behaviours as a result of the training than employees with managers in the control group. Furthermore, initial analyses suggest that hybrid leadership had a positive impact on employee well-being and performance. These preliminary results indicate that a training in which managers are trained in hybrid leadership behaviours pays off: their employees reported higher ratings of perceived leadership behaviours, and these behaviours have a positive impact on employee well-being and performance.

Whereas the public sector was long considered attractive because of its high level of job security and the chance to serve society (Vandenabeele, 2008), the societal debate’s focus has shifted towards salary and other extrinsic incentives. The specific ethos of service to the public is becoming noticeably weaker making it increasingly difficult for public sector organizations to attract highly motivated and qualified staff (Weske et al., 2020). Moreover, the disruptive character of digital transformation, strongly catalyzed by Covid-19, currently affects the way we work and manage our workplace (Gabryelczyk, 2020). Public employees, nonetheless, tend to be dissatisfied with the status quo of digitized work arrangements (Kuhlmann & Heuberger, 2023). Studies, however, show that the increased possibilities for remote working and flexibility are desired by employees (Fischer et al., 2022). Also, an attractive employer can be characterized by digitized processes and work arrangements (Thompson et al., 2015).

As NPM has demonstrated, attitudes and motivations of employees can change as an outcome of reform (Vigoda-Gadot & Meiri, 2008). Thus, it is important to address the question whether the most recent developments have further altered the preferences of employees and which attributes now define attractive public sector jobs in the post-Covid era. In particular, we need to understand whether or not civil servant privileges, salary, and working hours trump so called “soft factors”. Theoretically, the literature has widely accepted the use of motivational theory as well as P-O fit theory to analyze these preferences (Ritz & Waldner, 2011). Both approaches as well as their public sector counterpart, PSM, suppose that employees are mostly attracted by those work arrangements that fit their motivation.

Consequently, we pose the following research question: What preference do public employees have regarding job attributes in the post-Covid era?

This question will be answered through conjoint analysis in an online survey with young public sector professionals. Through the hierarchical individualized limit conjoint analysis (HILCA) respondents are confronted with job attributes from which they are asked to select they most preferred ones (Voeth & Bornstedt, 2007). In further steps participants rate each value of the selected attributes as well as combinations of them. Based on their decisions, it can then be deduced which attributes are most appealing to them, in order to determine which has the greatest influence on their evaluation of a work arrangement (Backhaus et al., 2005). Participants will be recruited in cooperation with the German public servants’ trade union. Beforehand, relevant job attributes were inductively derived from two focus group workshops with trade union representatives.

With this study, our contribution is primarily twofold. First, we enable both the public sector as an employer and trade unions to make evidence-based decisions for improved work arrangements. As the public sector workforce is undergoing massive changes due to demographic trends, it is important to analyze whether younger employees will emphasize different preferences in the post-Covid era to those currently prevalent in the public sector. Second, we offer a methodological contribution by employing innovative research methods in public administration and management research.