Whom Does Remote Work Make Happy? The Digital Divide in Remote Workers’ Well-Being

Datos Bibliográficos

ID22004397
AutoresJennifer Ihm (0000-0001-7039-4162, Kwangwoon University), Yunjin Kim (0000-0003-1272-5597, Seoul National University), Chul‐joo Lee (0000-0001-9243-8576, Seoul National University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen27
Número8
Páginas550-561
Fecha de publicación2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2152-2715 • E-ISSN: 2152-2723
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1089/cyber.2023.0744
PMID38916122
OpenAlexW4400009246
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas44

The global shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified scholarly attention to remote workers’ well-being. Although existing studies explore the varied impacts of remote work, there is a gap in understanding remote workers’ well-being through the lenses of social disparity and the digital divide. Extending digital divide scholarship to the remote work context, this study disentangles why some remote workers experience better well-being than others. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal panel study in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic (Wave 1: February 2021, Wave 2: October 2021). Among the 501 participants who participated in both waves, we found that individuals with lower education levels were less likely to have remote work opportunities. We focused our further analyses on a subset of 144 employees who had remote work opportunities within organizations with typical hierarchical structures. We found that socioeconomic status (SES) did not directly influence remote workers’ well-being but indirectly influenced it by contributing to the diversity in using information and communication technologies (ICTs). Workers with higher SES or more diversity in using ICTs demonstrated lower vulnerability and more effectiveness in maintaining their well-being in virtual organizational communication situations. This study highlights social disparities in remote workers’ well-being, which arise from the complex interplay of SES either indirectly influencing the diversity in ICT usage or interacting with virtual organizational communication satisfaction and duration. This study advances remote work scholarship by restructuring theoretical discussions on social stratification and the digital divide reproduced within the evolving work environment

Business · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Work-Family Balance Challenges · Mechanical Engineering