A Systematic Literature Review of Potential and Emerging Links Between Remote Work and Motivation

Abstract

With the sudden shift from in-person to remote settings in the workplace and various other institutions as triggered by the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper sought to examine the prevalence of research on the link between remote work and motivation. Two time periods were observed using VOSviewer and Harzing to determine whether a shift in focus on these topics took place as a result of the pandemic and what the overall insights were. In addition, a co-citation analysis was done in two parts. One part gave consideration of the references from a search using terms “motivation” and “remote work”. The other considered the same search terms with constraints on the dates of articles for the analysis to emphasize prior research that was more recently emphasized. Upon further analysis, it was found that a shift did take place with earlier research focusing on combating low motivation of healthcare workers in remote regions and the latest research focusing on potential solutions for reduced motivation levels of individuals who had to work from home. In both instances, it was seen that work in remote regions and work done remotely, that is from home, were associated with low motivation levels. While the area of remote work and motivation are highly relevant to job design, it also implicates human-computer interaction as an increase in the number of remote jobs may imply more time spent with computers which in turn may have potential connections with human motivation.