SHU Students, Faculty and Local CEO Research Hybrid Work and Job Satisfaction

Company CEO uses findings to determine work structure for employees

Sacred Heart University professors, along with a local CEO, recently embarked on a research journey to delve into the intricacies of remote work and its implications for social dynamics and employee retention.

Jeanine Andreassi, a management professor, and work-life researcher was motivated by a lecture Howard Greenspan, CEO of Trumbull-based SCS Direct, presented to her organizational behavior class. SCS Direct is a marketing company. After the talk, Andreassi approached Greenspan and proposed collaborating on research related to a manager’s propensity to trust remote work. Greenspan expressed interest, particularly in exploring how remote work impacts social bonds in the workplace and its impact on retention. He was concerned that people not being in the office would impact collaboration and morale.

Andreassi enlisted the help of two colleagues— Angela Grotto, a work-life researcher and a professor at Manhattan College and Grace Guo, a SHU management professor and organizational justice researcher—to join forces with Greenspan.

The researchers, keeping in mind their objectives for research as well as Greenspan’s interests, worked on developing theoretical models that would serve as the foundation for two distinct papers. They developed two survey instruments that would be distributed in two waves to employees of SCS Direct across both corporate workers with a hybrid work mode and warehouse workers who lacked the ability to work remotely.

This project will lead to multiple research outcomes. One paper, led by Andreassi, focuses on examining the relationship between a manager’s propensity to trust and the outcomes of remote work. The other paper, led by Grotto, explores the impact of remote work on various aspects such as social connectedness, justice perceptions, and job embeddedness, and how these factors influenced organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

Meanwhile, Thomas Christian, a SHU management professor, led the class, survey design and analysis. The researchers saw an opportunity to merge academic research with real-world applications. “By looking through and critiquing the questions, the students realized there is more art than science to designing a questionnaire,” said Christian.

The researchers, Greenspan and Christian’s class focused on survey design and analysis, created an innovative platform. It allowed the researchers to explore hypotheses related to remote work, empowered students to tackle real-life business problems with a local business and provided a local business with valuable insights into the dynamics of remote work. Guo commented, “I am pleased to be a member of this collaborative research team exploring the impact of work modalities on the nature of workplace relationships and other key outcomes. This is such a timely topic for students, scholars and business practitioners.”

Students critiqued the questions and then designed a survey using Qualtrics, a web-based survey tool. The class conducted a pre-test with SCS employees to ensure the clarity of the questions, gaining valuable insights into the questionnaire design process.

The students presented answers to questions posed by Greenspan at the beginning of the semester. One of their discoveries was that the warehouse workers had higher levels of social connectedness than the corporate workers who worked in a hybrid modality. “It was definitely thought-provoking, and the students met all my expectations,” said Greenspan. “We now recognize that we need to focus on ways to increase embeddedness for those employees who are not full time in the office.”

Students at Sacred Heart benefited from this real-world experience. Michael Berlingo said he, “learned that before crafting any questions, [one needs to] establish the purpose of your survey … What specific information are you seeking to gather? Clarifying your objectives will guide question development and ensure relevance.”

Andrea Campbell reflected on the experience and said it will be the one classroom experience she always remembers.

“I aspire to be in the consulting field of business post-graduation, and this particular classroom experience made me realize how important it is to execute plans effectively, how to properly communicate the implications of data shown and how to remain focused on the goal of the client throughout the design and analytic process,” Campbell said.

“I learned that survey design is crucial, with clarity and precision in the questions being essential to avoid ambiguity and ensure reliable data,” said Gabriella Sergio.

“The pandemic fundamentally reshaped workplace dynamics, highlighting the need for companies to enhance employee satisfaction and retention as demand for work flexibility grows,” Andreassi said.

The researchers, the survey design and analysis class and Greenspan plan to continue similar research in other workplaces to further explore the impact of hybrid work arrangements. Additionally, they will be testing theoretical models based on the collected data and aim to publish their findings in academic journals, she said.