Self-control and Performance while Working from Home

Julia Baumann, Anastasia Danilov and Olga Stavrova
Additional contact information
Julia Baumann: Wirtschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Anastasia Danilov: HU Berlin
Olga Stavrova: Universität Lübeck

No 486, Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series from CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition

Abstract: This study explores the role of trait self-control in individuals’ changes in performance and well-being when working from home (WFH). In a three-wave longitudinal study with UK workers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that low self-control workers experienced a significant positive adjustment to WFH over time: The number of reported work distractions decreased, and self-assessed performance increased over the period of four months. In contrast, high self-control individuals did not show a similar upward trajectory. Despite the positive adjustment of low self-control individuals over time, on average, self-control was still positively associated with performance and negatively associated with work distractions. However, trait self-control was not consistently associated with changes in well-being. These findings provide a more nuanced view on trait self-control, suggesting that low self-control individuals can improve initial performance over time when working from home.

Keywords: self-control; working from home; productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-12-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-hea, nep-hrm and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://rationality-and-competition.de/wp-content/ ... ussion_paper/486.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rco:dpaper:486

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series from CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Viviana Lalli ().