Lecture title：Does home office really help improve work performance? A comparative study before and after the epidemic

Time: 10:00-11:30 am, September 21 (Wednesday)

Venue: Tencent Conference: 253-260-675

Reporter: Yan Jiaqi, lecturer of Northeast University (first level)

Introduction to the keynote speaker:

Yan Jiaqi, lecturer of the School of Business Administration of Northeast University (Level 1), Doctor of Management of Tongji University, Doctor of Management Joint Training of the University of Sydney (CSC), outstanding graduates of Shanghai, top talents of Shenyang, peer review expert of the Second Division of the Management Science Department of the National Natural Science Foundation of the People's Republic of China, and member of the Youth Committee of the Professional Committee of Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Management of the China Association for Management Modernization, Member of the Association of Management (AOM) and chairman of the entrepreneurship sub-forum of the 2021 annual meeting of the Association of Management. He served as the anonymous reviewer of human relations (FT 50 magazine), Journal of Business Research, Nankai Management Review, Journal of Management and other high-level magazines at home and abroad. He presided over a total of 8 projects including the National Natural Science Foundation, the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education, the Liaoning Provincial Social Science Planning Fund, and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. His academic achievements were published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, Computers in Human Behavior, The Service Industries Journal, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, International Journal of Manpower, Asian Business&Management, Nankai Management Review, Management Review, Science of Science Research, Science of Science and Technology Management, Journal of Management. Participated in the preparation of the special report on the proposal for senior management, which was adopted by the Research and Publicity Department of the Shanghai Association of Science and Technology, and was approved by the deputy ministerial leaders. The research achievements have won academic awards such as the Excellent Thesis of the China Metallurgical Education Association (the National First-level Association), the Excellent Doctoral Thesis of Tongji University, the Excellent Master Thesis of Northeast University, the Shuming Award of the 9th China Human Resources Management Forum, and the Excellent Paper Award of the 6th China Human Resources Management Forum.

Introduction to the report:

Despite being worldwide disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic has also provided an opportunity for renewed discussion about the way we work. By contextualizing in the early periods of China’s ending of lockdown policy on COVID-19, this paper offers evidence to respond to an essential discussion in the field of working from home (WFH): In terms of job performance, can WFH replace working from the office (WFO)? The present study compares job performance in terms of quality and productivity between WFH and WFO from 861 Chinese respondents using entropy balance matching, a quasi-experimental methodology. Results reveal that WFH enhances job performance in terms of job quality but lowers it in terms of job productivity. In addition, the present study aims to capture and empirically measure the variations in fundamental job characteristics in terms of job control and job demand between WFH and WFO by applying the job demand control support model. More specifically, we find that job control items, such as “talking right” and “work rate,” and job demand items, such as “a long time of intense concentration” and “hecticness of the job,” are vital factors that contribute to how these differences exert influence on employees’ performance under the context of the pandemic.

(Organizer: Department of Organization and Human Resources Management, Scientific Research and Academic Exchange Center)