Factors linked to employees’ preferences for teleworking: a mixed-methods study of UK employees.

Background: Teleworking has become more common since Covid-induced restrictions. While many employees enjoy teleworking, 17% prefer returning to the office full-time. This creates a potential conflict between teleworkers who would like to return to the office and employers who wish to expand teleworking practices. To address this, understanding the factors that influence teleworking preferences is important. Aims: This thesis investigates factors influencing teleworking preference among UK white-collar employees, aiming to develop a valid and reliable tool for measuring teleworking preference predictors. It also seeks to enhance conceptual understanding using Mokhtarian and Salomon's (1994;1995) Model of Telecommuting Adoption as a reference. Methods: The research includes a narrative review of teleworking literature, a meta-aggregative review of qualitative teleworking-related studies, a qualitative study of 21 UK white-collar teleworkers, and the development and validation of a teleworking preference predictors (TPP) scale involving 310 white-collar teleworkers. Results: The meta-aggregative review identified four cross-study generalisations which were advantages and disadvantages of teleworking, factors influencing teleworking experiences, and Covid-induced restrictions impact. In the qualitative study the following themes were created: benefits of teleworking, drawbacks of teleworking, adaptation to teleworking, and importance of voluntariness. The TPP scale had content validity, face validity, construct validity, internal reliability, and split-half reliability established. After the EFA analysis, final 28 items and four factors explained 38% of the teleworking preference variance. Conclusions: Teleworking preference is positively influenced by saved costs and time, reduced stress, increased productivity, avoidance of unwanted social situations, ability to pursue personal interests, and voluntariness. Negative teleworking preference influences include communication difficulties, reduced trust, lack of financial support from employers,