Telework Intensity, Perceived Social Isolation, and Job Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Performance

Résumé

This study examines the mechanisms through which telework intensity influences job satisfaction. While the literature extensively reports mixed findings on remote work, it remains comparatively silent on the mediating and moderating mechanisms that may explain these divergences, particularly in emerging contexts such as Morocco, which remain underrepresented in international research. To address this gap, this research draws on the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) and proposes a moderated-mediation model in which perceived social isolation acts as the central explanatory mechanism, while perceived organizational performance functions as a protective contextual resource. Data were collected from 320 Moroccan employees engaged in telework – mainly under hybrid arrangements averaging 2.54 days and 51.45% of weekly hours worked remotely – and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results confirm the positive effect of telework on isolation (β = 0.624), the negative effect of isolation on satisfaction (β = -0.362), and the buffering effect of perceived organizational performance (β interaction = -0.298). The conditional indirect effect ranges from -0.333 (low POP) to -0.118 (high POP), supporting a complete mediation modulated by organizational resources. The model accounts for 55.2% of the variance in isolation and 58.0% in job satisfaction. Beyond replicating prior studies, the central contribution lies in introducing a three-dimensional moderating variable (managerial performance, organizational framework clarity, digital performance) that reconfigures the telework-isolation-satisfaction chain and reveals managerial levers differentiated according to the level of organizational resources available.

JEL Classification: M12, M54, J28.

Paper type: Empirical Research.