Publication Type
PhD Dissertation
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
6-2023
Abstract
The rise of work-from-home (WFH) arrangements has brought significant changes to how employees work and interact with each other. This dissertation aims to examines the potential impact of WFH arrangements on employee creativity and investigates whether this impact varies across high-context and low-context cultures, with a particular focus on how demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and education may affect this relationship. The study is conducted within a top 10 global automotive supplier with associates in China (high-context culture) and Germany (low-context culture). As individual creativity often arises from collaboration and interaction with others, I hypothesised that as WFH frequency increases, employees may be less likely to exchange ideas and perspectives effectively with others, impeding the formation of new creative insights. Furthermore, with the cultural differences in communication style, WFH arrangements could potentially diminish creativity more in high-context cultures than in low-context cultures due to the higher value placed on face-to-face interaction and non-verbal cues for communication and collaboration. The research aims to provide practical contributions to organisations seeking a comprehensive understanding of the impact of WFH arrangements on employee creativity across different cultures and demographics. The study's findings will also aid organisations in developing appropriate solutions to overcome the challenges that may arise in a WFH environment and facilitate effective collaboration and knowledge exchange among employees.
Keywords
Creativity, Culture
Degree Awarded
Doctor of Business Admin
Discipline
Organizational Behavior and Theory | Organization Development
Supervisor(s)
CHUA, Yong Joo
Publisher
Singapore Management University
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
HENG, Andrew.
The impact of working from home on employee creativity: A cross cultural comparison of Germany and China. (2023).
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/501
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.