Melbourne Accounting Research Seminar - Khim Kelly

Professor Khim Kelly from the University of Central Florida will present a MARS seminar.

Topic: Does Remote Work Set You Free? Evidence on Perceived Productivity Improvement with Increased Remote Work and Supervisory Control Tightness during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted an involuntary shift to remote work for many workers, thereby presenting a setting to examine remote work that is less susceptible to self-selection and reverse-causality concerns. Based on a survey of 592 MTurkers, we find increased remote work and supervisory control tightness are positively associated with perceived productivity improvement. However, there is a negative interaction effect such that increased remote work is only associated with perceived productivity improvement at lower levels of supervisory control tightness. Moreover, the main effect of remote work becomes insignificant after controlling for change in actual hours worked though the interaction remains significant. These results provide evidence that is consistent with supervisory control tightness constraining the positive productivity effect of remote work. Finally, we predict and find increased remote work and perceived productivity improvement are positively associated with a preference for post-pandemic remote work.

This seminar will be conducted remotely via Zoom. Register for this seminar

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