The Impact of Remote Working Environment on Academicians’ Performance in Public Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Remote working or working from home (WFH) refers to employees performing their tasks from home or any location outside the traditional office. WFH is mostly related to work environment (WE) which encompasses the surrounding of how well someone performs in their job. It is enabled by modern technology such as the Internet, mobile networks, and video conferencing tools. This concept, also known as telecommuting or remote work, allows for flexibility in work hours and locations, which can lead to significant changes in how employees interact with their work and employers. Among the sectors significantly affected is higher education, where academic staff have been required to adapt to remote work and online teaching, leading to a range of emotions from apprehension to optimism. Alongside this transition, the need to acquire new competencies and upskills has emerged, presenting additional challenges that must be addressed. Utilizing a quantitative research design, data were collected from 220 academicians from Politeknik Mukah and UiTM Mukah represented samples in this study. A Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27 was employed to examine all collected data and test the hypotheses. The WFH and WE were analyzed for its impact on job performance using regression analysis. At the same time, Mean differences in working from home and work environment were analyzed using a t-test. Based on the result, it reveals there has positive impact of WFH on academicians’ job performance in a moderate relationship. Meanwhile WE also have positive impact on academicians’ job performance but a weak relationship. This finding will assist the Ministry of Education generally and higher academic institutions specifically in taking actions and restructure the mode of teaching among the academicians.