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Home office in a social conflict of interest

International study provides first results

2020/10/05 by

How does the property situation at home affect work success in the home office? What opportunities does the home office offer, and who will profit? How do different social, ecological, technical and economic framework conditions bring about a conflict of interest with regard to increased working from home? A broad international study at the Technical University of Darmstadt is investigating these and other questions. The first results are now in.

First results indicate that there are large differences between the groups of employees when it comes to the topic of home office.

Working from home has increased enormously during the coronavirus pandemic. This working model is the subject of an ongoing collaborative study between the Property & Construction Management research group and the Marketing and Human Resources research group in the Department of Law and Economics at the Technical University.

The changes to office work in the home office and the effects on work success are being holistically researched in representative employee surveys. The study takes into account the socio-demographic, psychographic, work-related and information technology framework conditions along with, in particular, the situation of employees at home in terms of the space in their property. The empirical study, which was started in June 2020, consists of three waves of surveys with each one covering a set of around 1000 participants from Germany and the USA.

Of particular interest are the effects of working from home on work productivity as well as on job satisfaction, health and the social integration of employees. Those conducting the study hope that the results will also provide practical information about what work can be done better in the home office in the future, which groups of employees should work more in the home office in the future, and what implications the changed physical organisation of work will have for the housing and commercial property markets, urban planning and society as a whole.

Initial results indicate that there are great differences between the groups of employees who can be expected to have a social conflict of interest and a corresponding allocations struggle. Workplace experts from BASF, Merck, ArtInvest and the German Property Federation (ZIA e.V.) are providing practical support for the study.