Leadership and Employee Well-Being and Work Performance when Working from Home: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Following the rapid increase of home-based work brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, many daily interactions between managers and employees have been carried out digitally. This literature review aims to compile and synthesize previous research regarding the importance of managers and leaders for employee well-being and their work performance when work is carried out from home. The purpose is also to relate these findings to previous reviews when work was performed on-site. Six leadership behaviours are identified as central when working from home. The leader should 1) communicate and promote the use of technology for communication, 2) regularly check, provide feedback and steer towards business goals, 3) show trust in the employee and give autonomy, 4) show support and empathy, 5) encourage and promote health, and 6) balance the need of individual employee with the need of the workgroup. There is little to suggest that leadership exercised when working from home differs from that exercised in a regular on-site workplace. What does seem to vary are the tools used to exercise leadership. More high-quality longitudinal research is needed that examines the importance of leadership over an extended period, considers how often work is performed from home, and combines different data sources and data collection methods.