The moderating role of organizational culture on the relationship between workers' attitudes towards telework and happiness

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to adopt telework, many of the organizations without any prior preparation, influencing not only daily organizational routines but also workers' happiness. Happiness is important for organizations because happy and fulfilled workers are a key to achieving organizational success. Organizational culture is a critical factor to implement telework, because that may influence the workers' attitudes toward this model of work and workers' happiness. This study aimed to test the moderating role of organizational culture (clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchical) in the relationship between attitudes toward teleworking and happiness. Design/methodology/approach To meet the objectives, the authors collected data from 265 teleworkers. Findings The results revealed that only market culture moderated the relationship between attitudes toward teleworking and happiness, such that this relationship became stronger in the presence of a goal-oriented culture. No other dimension of organizational culture significantly moderated the relationship between telework and happiness. Practical implications These results prove to be fundamental for a better understanding of organizational and individual factors when organizations want to implement telework as a work arrangement. Originality/value Considering the mainstream literature in telework, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to date to integrate the moderating role of organizational culture in the relationship between telework and happiness.