20349: Should I Stay Home or Go to the Office? Employees’ Daily Strivings and Work Location Decisions (session 25504)

Building on the theory of purposeful work behavior (Barrick et al., 2013) and extending recent findings on the dynamic nature of daily motivational strivings (Foulk et al., 2019), this study investigates how motivational strivings (communion, status, achievement, and autonomy) shape employees’ daily work location decisions (i.e., working from home vs. at the office), which, in turn, facilitate striving-congruent work behaviors that fulfill fundamental psychological needs. We propose that morning communion and status strivings drive a preference for working at the office, while achievement and autonomy strivings foster a preference for working from home. Additionally, we explore the moderating role of colleagues’ expected presence in the office in shaping work location decisions. Lastly, we hypothesize that home and office locations uniquely facilitate behaviors, such as informal social interaction and impression management at the office, and enhanced job performance and autonomy exercise at home, ultimately satisfying relatedness, competence, and autonomy needs. Using a 10-day diary survey of 124 full-time employees (1134 observations), results show that communion striving increases the preference for working at the office, fostering informal social interactions that enhance relatedness need satisfaction. Conversely, autonomy striving promotes working from home, leading to increased autonomy exercise that enhances autonomy need satisfaction. These results offer theoretical insights into the role of motivational strivings in daily work decisions and practical implications for optimizing flexible work policies.

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