Impact of Boundary Permeability and Organizational Support on Employees' Telework Intentions: The Moderating Role of Virtual Work Climate

Purpose: This study aims at determining the effects of boundary permeability and organizational support for the teleworkers’ intention to persist in teleworking with particular consideration to the moderating influence of virtual work climate. Since the advent of telework and more so throughout and after the COVID-19 outbreak, it is essential to identify factors that affect continuation intentions of telework to support organizations that seek to have effective teleworking policies. Design/Methodology/Approach: A cross-sectional survey research design used and data gathered from 210 employees in different organizations. Self-developed questionnaires based on structured questions used to measure the degree of boundary permeability, organizational support for telecommuting, virtual work climate, and teleworkers’ intentions to continue with teleworking. In order to further examine these variables, both regression and moderation analyses performed. Findings: The findings show that boundary permeability has a positive impact on the employees’ telework continuation intention. On the other hand, organizational support for telecommuting did not have the direct significant correlation with the telework intentions. Further, virtual work climate found not to moderate the boundary permeability and telework intentions, indicating that other factors may determine the impact of virtual work environment on the teleworking outcomes. Implications/Originality/Value: This research forms part of this literature by focusing on the concept of boundary management in telework arrangements and by raising doubt over the direct relationship between organizational support and telework intentions.