Navigating the Remote Workplace: The Role of Leadership and Its Implications for Employee Work Outcomes

Rapid advancements in digital technology combined with the recent COVID-19 pandemic have shifted remote work arrangements from a discretionary, flexible alternative into a widespread and sometimes even mandatory model of working. These changes require leaders to fulfill some new roles that effectively address the important and unique needs and demands of employees in increasingly remote workplaces. Such demands, in particular, involve maintaining and improving employee engagement, assuring employee health and safety, as well as fostering a sense of connectedness within the team. Accordingly, the present dissertation aims to address a crucial fundamental research question: What are the specific leadership behaviors that effectively influence employees in modern remote workplaces, and how do they work? I tackled this overarching question by identifying four specific aspects of crucial leadership behaviors and examining each of them in a separate empirical chapter. In Chapter 2, I investigated whether and how leaders through their communication influenced remotely working employees to stay engaged with their work. I then examined, in Chapter 3, if and how health-oriented leadership buffered employees’ safety and health risks in workplaces during the pandemic. In Chapter 4, I studied whether and how identity leadership addressed employees’ loss of connectedness in a remote working setting. Finally, in Chapter 5, I examined if and how identity leadership helped to overcome employees’ negative psychological and behavioral outcomes in a hybrid working setting. Across these chapters, I demonstrated that leaders who engage in remote communication with employees and identity leadership behaviors are effective in maintaining engagement and fostering social connectedness among remotely working employees. However, I found no evidence supporting the significant roles of health-oriented leadership in alleviating employees’ safety and health risks. Taken together, this dissertation provides novel theoretical and practical insights into the newly crucial roles of leadership in increasingly remote working contexts and sheds light on their implications for employee work outcomes.