Opportunity to Use New Ways of Working: Do Sectors and Organizational Characteristics Shape Employee Perceptions?

Abstract

The diffusion of New Ways of Working (NWW) is an important trend in contemporary organizations. Many related empirical studies have been produced, but none have focused on differences in employees’ perceptions of the opportunity to use NWW according to organization sector (private, semi-public, public). This study, based on neo institutionalism and HR attributions theory, investigated these differences via a survey (n = 2693) of employees at private (n = 358), semi-public (n = 204), and public (n = 2131) organizations. Based on the use of the PLS-SEM method, as well as ANOVA tests and pairwise comparisons of marginal linear predictions, we uncover differences in perceptions between employees in different sectors regarding the possibility of using NWW. Indeed, the results show that public employees reported less opportunity to use NWW than their private and semi-public counterparts. Furthermore, private sector employees were more likely to attribute well-being and productivity benefits to NWW than their public sector and semi-public counterparts. We also show that institutional and organizational variables specific to the characteristics of organizations in the three sectors partially explain the degree of perceptions with respect to the opportunity to use NWW.