Stakeholder-driven telework performance: a systematic review across COVID-19 eras

Purpose We investigate how stakeholder relationships determine telework effectiveness across temporal contexts, examining the transformation of remote work dynamics throughout pre-pandemic and during/post-pandemic periods. Our study addresses critical gaps in telework literature by applying stakeholder theory’s instrumental dimension integrated with the job demands-resources model to understand how competing stakeholder interests create measurable boundary conditions for organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review following PRISMA protocols analyzed 812 studies from Web of Science and SCOPUS databases (1989–2023), focusing on ABS-rated journals (levels 3 or above). Findings The study reveals a fundamental reconfiguration of telework dynamics, where traditional facilitators such as workplace flexibility and technological readiness evolved into complex stakeholder ecosystems encompassing digital competence, virtual leadership and psychological safety. Our systematization identifies how COVID-19 fundamentally altered telework configurations, transforming voluntary work arrangements into mandatory stakeholder negotiations that generated previously unrecognized demands alongside emergent organizational resources. It demonstrates how the exogenous shock intensified stakeholder interdependencies. Originality/value This study pioneers the integration of stakeholder theory with the JD-R model for telework analysis, establishing a novel framework that operationalizes how stakeholder relationship management creates performance-determining boundary conditions. The research advances human resource management practice by providing evidence-based strategies for optimizing telework arrangements while contributing theoretical understanding of how exogenous shocks fundamentally restructure organizational effectiveness mechanisms across distributed work environments.