Authenticity at Work, Stress, and Performance in Remote and Conventional Office Settings

Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have shifted to remote work to transform traditional office conditions and take advantage of the new arrangements. Studies confirm working remotely sustains and boosts performance and satisfaction compared to conventional office states. However, work stress remains a constant concern negatively impacting well-being, engagement, and productivity across both settings. Less explored is how workplace authenticity, shaped by authentic living, accepting external influence, and self-alienation, impacts work stress and performance. We address this research gap by studying how these authenticity dimensions predict work stress across both working-from-home and office work environments and its effect on performance. We used extensive survey data to test the hypothesis implied by these relationships. The findings indicate that work stress is negatively associated with work in both settings. Additionally, accepting external influence and self-alienation may seem to increase work stress, while authentic living reduces it across both contexts. The results of this study provide a cross-context validation rather than strong differentiation between working from home and in office. Organizations should promote authentic living and target self-alienation to attenuate work stress. This is the first study to provide empirical evidence that these dynamics hold in both remote and office work contexts.